Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Top Ten Sci-Fi Films of the Decade (2010-2019)


The 2010s were a great decade for sci-fi movies. CGI technology continues to get better and better, and above all, Sci-fi films directly benefit from the improved visual technology. Traditionally, science fiction films have always boasted cutting-edge visual effects: movies like Metropolis and Forbidden Planet were top-tier, groundbreaking movies. Even the models and props in all of the original Star Wars movies were mind-boggling and state-of-the-art in their day.

The past decade was certainly no exception, and the 2010s saw a plethora of exciting sci-fi movies with some of the best visual effects ever seen on the big screen. Audiences saw life-like robots, strange new worlds, and hyper-realistic space crafts. In addition to stunning visual effects, sci-fi movies in the last decade also brought audiences a variety of intelligent, thought-provoking science fiction stories that grappled with cranial concepts like artificial intelligence, the dangers of technological advancement, and what it means to be human.

Thursday, December 19, 2019

The Orthodox Scientist Today (Fr. George Metallinos)


By Protopresbyter Fr. George Metallinos

1. According to its epistemological definition, a scientist is the one who is (and is rightly acknowledged as) the one who has mastered a science, pursuant to specialized studies. More specifically, scientists are those who “stand above” – that is, who possess – a full and certain knowledge, but also possess the prerequisite of experience in the area of that knowledge. One might also add to the scientist’s prerequisites his performance in research. His studies and the diploma that he attains is merely that person’s introduction into the sphere of the science that he has been studying. His specialization in conjunction with his research within a sphere of science is that which entitles someone to be characterized as Scientist. The non-expert is not a scientist, but rather a thinker, who relies on an arbitrary opinion, that is, on a mere conjecture. That is why we must not be surprised when improvable positions are propagated by “scientists”, especially in the realm of History. This happens because an unsupported “knowledge” is being produced and reproduced for the deception of many – which may be embraced by the semi-literate, but not by the specialized scientist.