{"id":2910,"date":"2010-04-21T10:14:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-21T10:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/04\/lost-gods\/"},"modified":"2010-04-21T10:14:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-21T10:14:00","slug":"lost-gods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/04\/lost-gods.html","title":{"rendered":"LOST Gods"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;text-align: center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cesspit.net\/misc\/loststatue.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"115\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cesspit.net\/misc\/loststatue.jpg\" width=\"200\"><\/a><\/div>\n<p>For a long time I\u2019ve been thinking and writing about ideas of God and how they intersect with <a href=\"http:\/\/lostpedia.wikia.com\/wiki\/Religion_and_ideologies\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">LOST<\/a>. I am not sure why it never struck me before that Jacob, living in a statue of a deity, does what deities were often thought to do, namely inhabit their image. <\/p>\n<p>Not to be outdone, of course, the \u201csmoke monster\u201d\u00a0resembles a \u201cpillar of cloud\u201d or a \u201ccolumn of <a href=\"http:\/\/lostpedia.wikia.com\/wiki\/Pillar_of_smoke\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">smoke<\/a>.\u201d That is one of the forms that the God of Israel is <a href=\"http:\/\/bible.cc\/exodus\/13-21.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">said to have taken<\/a> when leading the people of Israel out of Egypt. <\/p>\n<p>It is intriguing, in view of this, that \u201cSmokey\u201d wants to lead the people off the island to \u201cfreedom,\u201d liberating them from a place which, if not Egypt, is full of Egyptian symbolism.<\/p>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;text-align: center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theonion.com\/content\/files\/images\/Smoke-Monster-R.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theonion.com\/content\/files\/images\/Smoke-Monster-R.jpg\" width=\"200\"><\/a><\/div>\n<p>From the perspective of ancient Israel\u2019s Scriptures, the gods depicted as images were false gods.<\/p>\n<p>But of course, the answers to LOST\u2019s mysteries will not be found as simply as this, merely by identifying Biblical echoes. After all, there is a Jacob in the Bible \u2013 in fact, more than one, to be precise. But the first Jacob mentioned has his name changed to Israel, and is thought of as the forefather of the children of Israel \u2013 i.e. those who would be led by the pillar of smoke from slavery in Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>I hope to have a further reflection on God and the Devil on LOST appear soon.<\/p>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-235268798185037978?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For a long time I\u2019ve been thinking and writing about ideas of God and how they intersect with LOST. I am not sure why it never struck me before that Jacob, living in a statue of a deity, does what deities were often thought to do, namely inhabit their image. Not to be outdone, of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>LOST Gods<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For a long time I&#039;ve been thinking and writing about ideas of God and how they intersect with LOST. I am not sure why it never struck me before that\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/04\/lost-gods.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LOST Gods\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For a long time I&#039;ve been thinking and writing about ideas of God and how they intersect with LOST. I am not sure why it never struck me before that\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/04\/lost-gods.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-04-21T10:14:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.cesspit.net\/misc\/loststatue.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ReligionProf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James F. 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