{"id":3225,"date":"2008-12-15T22:03:00","date_gmt":"2008-12-15T22:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/12\/looking-for-goodness\/"},"modified":"2008-12-15T22:03:00","modified_gmt":"2008-12-15T22:03:00","slug":"looking-for-goodness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/12\/looking-for-goodness.html","title":{"rendered":"Looking for Goodness"},"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><p><a href=\"https:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3208\/2324816650_e7021e9e84.jpg?v=0\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3208\/2324816650_e7021e9e84.jpg?v=0\" border=\"0\"><\/a>On tonight\u2019s Heroes finale, Sylar puts a bunch of the show\u2019s \u201cheroes\u201d together in circumstances planned to bring out the worst in them, to see whether they are capable of killing, of being \u201cmonsters\u201d like he is. But in fact, as he confronts Angela trying to get at the truth, he almost begs her to persuade him that she is different from him.<\/p>\n<p>Deep down he\u2019s not seeking proof that everyone is like him. He\u2019s seeking evidence that they aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>Many who have the same attitude probably have the same desire, deep down. And yet Sylar fails to do the one thing that he is hoping others will: He never thinks (at least in this episode) to <em>be<\/em> the goodness he seeks, to let it begin with him. \u201cBe the change you want to see in the world\u201d, it is sometimes said. We might add (for Sylar\u2019s benefit) \u201cLeave behind the monstrosity that you despise in others, and in yourself. Live the heroism you have come to no longer expect from others, but which nonetheless, deep down, you still hope they\u2019ll manifest\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>On tonight\u2019s season finale of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, we witnessed a person who felt liberated, having once been merely \u201ca cog in a machine\u201d, and another \u201cperson in the making\u201d being taught that the value of a human being is more than simply their functional value to someone else. When asked why it matters if humans live or die, Ellison claims that human lives are sacred because we are God\u2019s creation, we\u2019re all God\u2019s children.<\/p>\n<p>The scriptwriters seem unaware of the strangeness of Ellison\u2019s view that God created everything on earth, and yet his ambivalence about whether this being before him is \u201ca child of God\u201d. Perhaps where they are going with this is that the status of \u201cchild of God\u201d and \u201cmade in the image of God\u201d are ways of talking about our capacity for moral discernment. While we may regularly fail to use it, or ignore it, it may still be the <em>capacity<\/em> for moral discernment and reflection that sets us apart from other organisms on this planet \u2013 and perhaps from our machine creations.<\/p>\n<p>But of course, the top quote from tonight\u2019s Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is: <\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\u201cWe all know how reliable bloggers are\u201d \u2013 John Connor (uttered sarcastically). <\/div>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-5927349473141477074?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On tonight\u2019s Heroes finale, Sylar puts a bunch of the show\u2019s \u201cheroes\u201d together in circumstances planned to bring out the worst in them, to see whether they are capable of killing, of being \u201cmonsters\u201d like he is. But in fact, as he confronts Angela trying to get at the truth, he almost begs her to [&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-3225","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>Looking for Goodness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On tonight&#039;s Heroes finale, Sylar puts a bunch of the show&#039;s &quot;heroes&quot; together in circumstances planned to bring out the worst in them, to see whether\" \/>\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\/2008\/12\/looking-for-goodness.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Looking for Goodness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On tonight&#039;s Heroes finale, Sylar puts a bunch of the show&#039;s &quot;heroes&quot; together in circumstances planned to bring out the worst in them, to see whether\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/12\/looking-for-goodness.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=\"2008-12-15T22:03:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3208\/2324816650_e7021e9e84.jpg?v=0\" \/>\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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