“I think vital Religion has always suffer’d, when Orthodoxy is more regarded than Virtue. And the Scripture assures me, that at the last Day, we shall not be examin’d what we thought, but what we did; and our Recommendation will not be that we said Lord, Lord, but that we did Good to our Fellow Creatures” (Benjamin Franklin, Letter to Josiah and Abiah Franklin, April 13th, 1738). Read more

I’ve begun watching LOST Season 1 on DVD. There are actually episodes I have never seen, since I started watching LOST somewhat late, and so while I’ve caught up on all episodes from season 2 onward, there are a few in season 1 I will finally watch for the first time. The first episode after the pilot is “Tabula Rasa”, Latin for “blank slate”. From the very beginning the series intended to explore the notion of people getting a “fresh... Read more

I just recently watched THX 1138 for the first time, the movie George Lucas wrote and directed before he made Star Wars. Like all good science fiction, it is thought provoking, especially once one gets to the ending. If you’ve never seen it and plan to, consider this a spoiler warning. Go watch it. This post will still be here when you get back. The movie depicts a future in which life is strictly controlled. Everyone takes drugs in prescribed... Read more

For those interested in Mandaean studies, the Drower Collection in the Bodleian Library in Oxford is the only collection of Mandaic manuscripts of its kind in a Western library. Although poking around the library’s web page doesn’t provide much information about the collection, one can see glimpses of the manuscripts in photos taken as part of a survey of the condition of conservation of Asian manuscripts in the library’s possession. The photo on the right is of Alma Rišaia Rba... Read more

The latest Dharma Intitiative video was shown at ComicCon, and there are several bootleg recordings of it on YouTube. I’m currently on a computer without speakers, and so I’m grateful that BuddyTV has a rundown on the contents of the video. Apparently it makes even clearer that we have a “time war” going on (as someone from the future already revealed to me a while back). Obviously the power to know the future, and/or to change the past, is one... Read more

“Contemporary Christian Music…represents for many contemporary evangelicals the sum of their theological training and discipleship” (Stephen J. Nichols, Jesus Made in America: A Cultural History from the Puritans to the Passion of the Christ (Downers Grove: IVP, 2008) p.16). Read more

In my last post I did not intend to suggest that one can make a facile equation between religious fundamentalists and the Sith. In fact, I think that the “religious Right” of our time has much in common with the Sith at their most sinister, and the Jedi at their most hypocritical. In comparison with the Sith, recall how Palpatine used Anakin’s fear of death – the death of his beloved Padme – and of losing what he had. The... Read more

I just watched Return of the Jedi again. It always gets me thinking. It seems to me that Christianity has a dark side, just like the Force. Like the Force, it is powerful, but its power takes on different characters depending on those who seek to use and experience it for good or evil ends. And of course, this means that somehow we have to discover a way of discerning good Christianity from bad, just as with the Force or... Read more

Ken Brown has been invited to join the Dharma Initiative. If you talk to Ken, tell him I’ve heard that a man named Sayyid Jarrah is looking for him. But seriously, do check out the Dharma Wants You site. If nothing else, it is one more thing to do to pass the time until LOST returns. Ken Schenck continues hissurvey through James D. G. Dunn’s Partings of the Ways, this time focusing on the chapter about “Jesus and the One... Read more

There have been and continue to be lots of great, insightful, amusing, and even bizarre keyword searches that bring people here. But this one is worth noting and reflecting on. Someone typed into a search engine: why didn’t god tell us exactly who the antichrist is? That is a marvellous question, one that has the potential to burst the whole End Times hype approach to the Bible and Christianity like the abnormally inflated balloon full of hot air that it... Read more