{"id":1611,"date":"2010-02-13T13:27:13","date_gmt":"2010-02-13T21:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fogcityjournal.com\/wordpress\/2010\/02\/13\/the-last-station-and-creation\/"},"modified":"2018-12-21T19:42:32","modified_gmt":"2018-12-22T03:42:32","slug":"the-last-station-and-creation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fogcityjournal.com\/wordpress\/1611\/the-last-station-and-creation\/","title":{"rendered":"“The Last Station” and “Creation”"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ralph E. Stone<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

February 13, 2010<\/p>\n

There is still time to see two excellent movies: “The Last Station<\/a>” and “Creation.”<\/p>\n

“The Last Station” is about the last year of Tolstoy’s life. He fell ill at Russia\u2019s Astopovo station and was taken to the station master’s house where he died in 1910. The film is terrifically well-acted, especially performances by Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren.<\/p>\n

The film will introduce many Americans to the Tolstoyan Movement inspired by Tolstoy’s writings. And many probably do not know that Tolstoy’s writings on non-violence influenced Mohandas Gandhi. Gandhi and Tolstoy exchanged a series of letters in English discussing their views on non-violence. We saw the letters on display at the Gandhi museum in Mumbai. Gandhi, as you know, was the pioneer of \u201cSatyagraha\u201d\u2014the resistance of tyranny through mass civil disobedience, firmly founded upon \u201cahimsa,\u201d or total non-violence. Gandhi set up a Tolstoy Farm near Johannesburg, South Africa to experiment with communal living much like Tolstoy’s country estate outside Moscow depicted in the movie.<\/p>\n

“The Last Station” is a nice way to mark the centenary of Tolstoy’s death.<\/p>\n

\"tolstoy.jpeg\"
\nLeo Tolstoy<\/p>\n

“Creation,” starring real-life husband and wife, Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly, is about Charles Darwin’s faith-versus-science struggle on whether he should publish his theory of evolution. His wife and some of his close friend\u2019s objected to his theory of evolution for religious reasons. He actually became physically ill. The movie is based on “Annie’s Box,” a biography penned by Darwin\u2019s great-great-grandson Randal Keynes using personal letters and diaries of the Darwin family.<\/p>\n

To me, Charles Darwin is one of science’s superstars. Shockingly, a recent Gallup poll revealed that only 39 percent of Americans believe in evolution, even though his theory is supported by information that has been tested again and again for over 150 years. The discovery of DNA further confirmed Darwin’s theory and explains how traits are passed on. Genetics also confirms the most controversial part of Darwin’s theory: that humans and apes have a common ancestry. The ignorance of the average U.S. adult of basic scientific facts has been well documented by surveys, finding that fewer than 1 in 5 Americans met a minimal standard of scientific literacy.<\/p>\n

Hopefully, “Creation” will enlighten more Americans about evolution and its important place in science.<\/p>\n

\"darwin.jpeg\"
\nCharles Darwin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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