Saturday, May 22, 2010

The ‘New Atheists’, the ‘New Calvinists’ and the New A-Team movie


I have been reading the ‘New Atheists’ recently. I am working on a serious post about things I found interesting in their writings. This is not that post. This post is entirely silly.[1] Here is the thing. I can’t get over how hansom Sam Harris is. Am I the only one that has noticed that he could choose Bradley Cooper as a Facebook[2] doppelganger?

This made me think (in light of the new film coming out in which Cooper is cast[3] as “Face”) that if the ‘New Atheists’ were the A-Team[4]: Harris would be “Face”, Richard Dawkins would be “Hannibal” and Christopher Hitchens would be a comically surly combination of “Murdoch” and Mr. T.

I don’t mean this to be ad-hominem…just a fun brain storm. So, of course, you could do the same thing with the guys closer to ‘my team.’[5] If the ‘New Calvinists’ were the A-Team[6], Matt Chandler[7] would be “Face,” Jon Piper would be “Hannibal” and Mark Driscoll would be a comically surly combination of “Murdoch” and Mr. T.

This post was written while listening to Good News for People who Love Bad News by Modest Mouse
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[1] Some of you may have noticed that in order to get weekly content up, I have been trying to alternate serious, borderline thoughtful pieces with shorter, lighter posts.
[2] There is a pun here given the next two sentences…I just can’t find it.
[3] I had a long discussion about casting for this film with my co-workers. We decided that they should have spent the Liam Neesome money on getting Ed Norton to play Murdoch.
[4] Get it, “A” for Atheist.
[5] I am not a Calvinist. I call myself a one and three-halves point Calvinist (accept total depravity, reject limited atonement and find tensioned data on the other three in the Scriptures – so I leave my theology on those intentionally unresolved). You could say that I am a Calvinist like I am a Democrat…I’m a bad one, but the label often fits better than the alternative. That said, I generally have a lot of respect for these guys.
[6] “A” for, um, well, Anti-Arminian?
[7] As I have mentioned before here, Chandler has very serious brain cancer…which has affected me deeply. I wrote this post before I saw the with a 12” scar across his bald dome. I stand by it. Somehow, he remains a remarkably good looking man…only now, his hansomeness is accompanied by a dramatic and unmistakable beauty.

1 comment:

Justin Bower said...

Is it just me or does Sam Harris also look a good deal like Jeff Probst of "Survivor" fame? I'm sure there's a "snuffing of the torch" joke/metaphor to be made there.