Collision Movie Screening: Doug Wilson Explains His Hopes for the Film | DG 2009
Note: These are rough notes, and not exact quotes. Here is the full conversation between John Piper and Doug Wilson.
John Piper: What is your hope for the film?
Doug Wilson: In Acts, it says that Apollos “greatly helped those who through grace had believed, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.” (Acts 18:24-28).
Apollos helped those who who already believed by refuting the Jews in a public forum. The apologetics argument is for Christians in college who have no response to atheists. Strengthening believers and defending the flock. It is a pastoral function.
What I hope is that many kids are not settled atheists. They are just trying it on. They have never seen real answers. Hopefully this film will shake and rattle unsettled atheists. And equip unprepared Christian students with responses to their professors, even if they never voice them.
A brief summary of Collision
I love Wilson’s two-pronged hope: to rattled atheists and settle Christians. The film works to that end.
The movie is a mix of clips from formal debates, TV interviews, and over-dinner informal conversations between Doug Wilson and atheist Christopher Hitchens. The exchanges between Hitchens and Wilson highlight a collision of worldviews, and continually return to the theme of Hitchens’ inability to explain his morality.
Some key lines from Collision:
Wilson: “Yes, Hitchens knows the difference between good and evil, right and wrong. But there is a difference between knowing the difference, and being able to give an accounting for it.”
Hitchens: “A black hole is more awe inspiring than a crowd of pigs filled with demons running down a hill, done by cheap magic.”
Wilson: I believe Christianity is defensible and sound and I can reason through it. But that’s not why I am a Christian. I am a Christian by the gift of God.
Hitchens: “This is a wicked cult, and it high time we left it behind.”
Wilson: “Some world views are like asking ‘what is the sound of one hand clapping?’”
Guest writer Daniel C. Wilson is covering the Desiring God National Conference.
Related posts:
3 Comments to Collision Movie Screening: Doug Wilson Explains His Hopes for the Film | DG 2009
The black hole comment, I kind of like that. But I have to disagree. Demon-possessed pigs are enormously more interesting.
When the movie comes out, listen to Doug challenge Christopher on that one. Very humorous. Explaining black holes was compared to explaining the Trinity.
September 30, 2009
[...] 2. Collision Film Screening: Doug Wilson explains the dual purpose of apologetics [...]
Leave a comment
Search
Recent Posts
Get Updates | Subscribe
Somewhat Essential
Categories
Archives
September 27, 2009