Netflix's Black Mirror: looking at screens versus looking at Christ
Niv Lobo
W.H. Auden, the 20th century poet, once said: "Every man carries with him through life a mirror, as unique and impossible to get rid of as his shadow." It’s a striking metaphor, describing the personal impact of how we see ourselves.
Auden proposes a "parlour game for a wet afternoon — imagining the mirrors of one’s friends." But in the 21st century, we don’t have to imagine.
What we can learn from Larry Sanger's journey to faith
Niv Lobo
On February 5, just last week, Larry Sanger — a former philosophy professor and a co-founder of Wikipedia — announced his conversion to Christianity. He accompanied it with a long account of how that happened.
What’s going on? A vibe shift? A revival? A surprising rebirth of belief? Whatever is happening at a cultural level, I give thanks for Sanger’s testimony. Reading it was a delightful, encouraging experience; there were moments in Sanger’s story which struck me with a wonderful freshness, as well as others which resonated with my own coming to faith. It’s long, but I recommend reading it for yourself.
The draw of darkness: why horror fascinates us
One should never watch anything that wounds one’s conscience; Romans 14:23 tells us there are terrible consequences of acting against our conscience.
I don’t often, therefore, speak about my fascination with the horror genre in cinema. And yet, the popularity of horror films is worth pondering. Rather than engage at any length with the film which prompted these reflections — Robert Eggers’s 2024 remake, Nosferatu — what might its success teach us?