Sunday, May 15, 2005
12:53 AM

Kingdom of Heaven

Hmm... recently reading Sophie's World. It's such a superb book, and I'm only like two-thirds thru it. It's pretty intriguing, the whole idea... Pretty abstract, but every one ought to read it... I feel that it does not put ideas into ur head, or make u more knowledgeable juz by feeding u facts, since I dun quite agree with every thing considered in the book. But it's pretty thought-provoking, cuz it's innate in human beings to find the reasons behind any thing and every thing and the meaning of life.

Today watched Kingdom of Heaven. I like the theme of the movie. Another thought-provoking movie, though it's pretty violent. It's sad to learn that Man's history is of such violent nature, esp when it's in the name of their religions, of "God". Look at juz how fanatical Man can get, now, and in the past, and how plebeians are so easily swayed by leaders, to do somewhat stupid things in which the objectives are not clear or righteously justified.

And then, there is the definition of "selling your soul" which I can't fully agree with Balian's in the movie. Well, it's subjective as to whether it is right "to do a little evil for the great of good". (If I did not remember wrongly the quote.) Anyway, to me, Balian isn't as pure-hearted or a righteous as he was being portrayed in the movie. To me, he is still a murderer, but that's not to say that he's evil or bad. Anyway, all these, I suppose, are not all historically true. Besides, how do we know the truth when history is written by other people.

And then, in Sophie's World, "Kingdom of God" and the crusades were mentioned as well, as part of Sophie's philosophy class. So, it seems like this break b4 school starts is somewhat like an enrichment for me. I suppose simply reading books or watching movies do not make me very much a wiser person, but maybe thinking does...