“Wonder at the things that are before you, making this the first step to further knowledge” — Jesus, in the Gospel according to Matthias. Quoted by Clement of Alexandria (Miscellanies 2.9.45) The background image is a photograph taken by Chris Murphy. Read more
A collection of trivia about The Simpsons mentioned that God and Jesus are the only characters depicted with five fingers. Any thoughts on the symbolic significance of this? Any thoughts on how this relates to the four-toed statue on LOST? Read more
The episode begins with Charlie searching through Sawyer’s stash of stuff. Desmond asks Charlie and Hurley to come with him. Locke and Sayid break the news about Eko having died. Locke says, “The island killed him.” Suddenly Desmond sets off running through the jungle, jumping into the ocean and swimming to rescue Claire. Charlie shouts after him, asking him how he knew she was drowning. Hurley tells Charlie that Desmond can see the future. Charlie brings Desmond a bottle of... Read more
I found this Dilbert cartoon amusing. It relates to questions of the relationship of God and mammon, but also serves as a comical parable of the supposed issues that people come up with in relation to biological evolution. It is often hard to recognize when a current state of affairs is not explained well by simply tracing a seemingly “irreducibly complex” system backwards ad infinitum. Often we have to explain the origin of the current system, and not just one component of... Read more
I had students reading some of the Hebrew prophets recently. I pointed out to them that they never threaten people with punishment in an afterlife. Instead it is always judgment within history. Plagues, famines, pestilence, earthquakes, war, and so on. Do you know what else the Israelite prophets never threaten their nations with? Blizzards. Freak snowstorms. That is worth reflecting on. The prophets are not predicting things that will happen, which otherwise would not have happened – God miraculously bringing an ice storm to... Read more
In a flashback, we see Juliette trying to help her sister, Rachel. They live in Miami, but initially we think they are on the island, since she passes Ethan Frome in a hallway. Juliette has been stealing some kind of experimental drug. Her ex-husband, Edmund Burke, runs the research hospital where Juliette also works. He realizes what she is doing, and says that they can collaborate and make the research legitimate. We are introduced to Richard Alpert who says he... Read more
A news report recently quoted Pat Robertson saying that people in other countries see more miracles than Americans do because they have less education and less skepticism. Does this mean that if, in the Exodus story, Pharoah and the Egyptians had had more education and skepticism, they could have prevented Moses’ miracles and ultimately the Exodus? I wonder whether Robertson thinks about the implications of the things he says before he says them. Of related interest, here’s something from cartoonist Sidan: Read more
Jack tells Ben how severe his tumor is, but indicates that he doesn’t plan to operate, since he doesn’t see any reason to trust them to let him go afterwards. Juliette brings Kate to see Jack. Kate asks Jack to do the operation, saying that otherwise they will kill Sawyer. Jack is unconvinced that the Others can be trusted. But then, after Sawyer and Kate make love, and they use the intercom to wake Jack and tell him to try... Read more
Historically, there have been a variety of explanations for the way things are. Most of a culture’s stories along these lines could be prefaced with “Some say,” with an implicit “Others say” in view. We see a reflection of this in the Bible, with its variant creation stories, its variant stories of how David and Saul met, and on and on throughout the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. It was with the rise of the modern sciences and the era... Read more
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