Another Guy In A Red Jumpsuit

Another Guy In A Red Jumpsuit - Elder, from the Fraters, is a fellow Mike Nelson fan. In a Thursday post, Elder notes with an especial spring in his prose that Nelson - one-time head-writer and then star of the classic "Mystery Science Theatre 3000" would seem not to be a "rabid, Bush-hating, foaming-at-the-mouth Lefty", who in Nelson's own words, says "And if it isn't clear by now, I think Bush should win" in an interview in the Lincoln Heights Literary Society.

I liked this quote especially:

Mike Nelson: I'm one of those unfocused people who has eight books going at once. I'm finishing a very large work of non-fiction by the almost supernaturally brilliant Paul Johnson called "Modern Times," a history of the world since WWI. I've also started working through the one volume Martin Gilbert biography of Churchill.

Yet again. It was "Modern Times" that began my conversion from arrogant little liberal snipe to the libertarian-conservative I am today. That book is like the "Where's Waldo" of more former liberals than Johnson himself (also a former liberal) would probably believe.

And this piece here is wonderful:

LS: What place does religion have in our lives? Can you be moral without belief in God?

MN: Well, as a Judeo-Christian nation, there's obviously a great tradition of religion, but I do think there now seems to be a phobia about speaking of it in the public sphere. It's too bad, because it closes off a gigantic, well-developed and thorough intellectual discipline. (And I happen to believe there's that whole "saving your soul" issue, that I wouldn't want people to lose sight of.) As the apologist Greg Koukl is fond of pointing out, Christianity is well-equipped to compete in the marketplace of ideas.

And obviously, you can be a wonderful, completely moral, thoroughly beautiful human being without a belief in God (I think it's much more difficult, and you'd be pulling it off in spite of your beliefs, not because of them.) But on the intellectual plane, many Atheist thinkers have tried to construct a framework for morality and all of them have been unconvincing. To my thinking, "morality" is meaningless unless you talk about "absolute morality." And you can't do that without bringing God into it.

Finally:

LS: What's your favorite movie pre-1970 and why?

MN: It's probably "Casablanca." I'd love to say it was some little known foreign film instead of this rather pedestrian answer, but there it is. Come on, it's just a beautiful film.

Attaguy!

I liked MST3K a lot. I think I'll take Elder's advice and snare some copies of Nelson's writing.

Elder's right - read the whole interview.

Posted by Mitch at March 15, 2004 03:30 AM