http://www.apple.com/jp/education/profiles/doshisha/
宗教学といえば、一般の人には無関係という印象があるかもしれない。しかし、アメリカの政情、国際関係、市況、オイル価格の高騰(geo-politicsの影響)、核兵器と、宗教(特にアブラハムに起因する)の理解なしでは語れないことを、日本人は忘れがちである。外国人と普通に付合う時も、聖書の知識や、自分の宗教観を確り持つことは、極めて重要である。という意味でも、小原教授の講義は大変意義のあるものであった。
ポッドキャストのリンクは：http://www.kohara.ac/ilectures/
小原教授の書かれた、iPhoneに関する社説は興味深い：http://www.kohara.ac/essays/2008/08/20080804.html
進歩的な小原教授に感化され、同様な努力をしてくれる教育者が現れる事を願っている。
I am a big fan of AAPL’s effort to provide us with top quality educational materials via Podcasts and iTune U. I was looking for Japanese lectures in the iTunes Japanese page. I found Prof. Kohara who teaches religious studies at Doshisha U in Kyoto, one of the top schools in Japan, posting his entire lectures of the ongoing semester. As a matter of fact, he was featured in the Apple Japan home page. I was immensely impressed by his work and effort.
His lectures were very informative and motivated me to further research on my own. I also started reading his blog, and found his adorable story (an editorial carried on Kyoto Newspaper) about his iPhone buying experience.
Since the editorial so beautifully written, I had to translate it to share with my friends....
Forbidden Fruit – the iPhone Rhapsody
（Prof. Katsuhiro Kohara)
A “Forbidden Fruit” generally means a temptation that is hard to refuse. In any point of the history, there have been things that tempted our minds, knowing that we should refuse intellectually. As a matter of fact, the story that gave birth to this term appears in the beginning of the Old Testament, “The tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise (Book of Genesis 3-6)”. Such temptations have existed as “long” as human history existed.
Talking about “long”, it reminds me that 1500 people formed a long line in order to purchase the iPhone by Apple that went on sale last month. I was interested in the iPhone enough to stand on a line if I did not work on that day.
As I have podcasted my lectures to public via portable music players such as iPod, I am attracted to such a new high tech device, and I am also interested in its possibilities in new way of communication for education and research.
I visited handful of retail stores on the day the iPhone went on sale, however, I was only told “no definite date for next shipment”, or “no pre-order accepted”. I was highly disappointed, although I somewhat anticipated it. My desire to buy the iPhone had been diminishing as I saw overly hyped media coverage all over the world.
In fact, the iPhone was not a necessity since I had never had a cell phone. It was never my preference to allow a cell phone to take my freedom away. I had argued that the demerit arising from such IT devices like cell phones, therefore, an iPhone was a “forbidden fruit” for me. Coincidentally, Apple, Inc’s logo is a bitten apple.
I spent a couple of day calmly observing the excitement caused by the iPhone. When I went out shopping, I walked by a small cell phone shop and teasingly asked, “do you have an iPhone”. Unexpectedly, the sales person said, “sure, we have”. I was totally stunned. And I surrendered to the forbidden fruit after only a few second of inner struggle despite my stubborn conviction of not carrying a cell phone. It was like experiencing a repeat of “Paradise Lost”.
Human desires perpetually seek convenient technologies, and attractive tools and gadgets.
To conclude, I would like to talk about an apple. Martine Luther said, “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” Not only by biting an apple, but also by planting apple trees continuously, humans pay the price for the benefit of having such privileges.
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