Humanities & Culture
Spirituality and FaithBy Aaron
4 months ago
Greetings.
Jewish date: 28 Marḥeshwan 5770 (Parashath Toledhoth).
Today’s holiday: Thirty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism).
Worthy cause of the day: “Support the Breast Cancer EARLY Act! - The Petition Site”.
Today’s topic: The last nine chapters of The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, Book 3) by Philip Pullman and the trilogy as a whole.
WARNING: SPOILING WITHOUT SHAME OR REGRET.
Having completed reading His Dark Materials |
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Humanities & CultureSpirituality and FaithBy Aaron
4 months ago
Greetings.
Jewish date: 24 Marḥeshwan 5770 (Parashath Ḥayye-Sarah).
Today’s holiday: Saint Day of Martin of Tours (Roman Catholicism).
Worthy cause of the day: “ColorOfChange.org: Murdoch: Make a choice”.
Topic 1: “CBC Promotes False Barrier Analogy”. The PR jihad against Israel goes on, and this article talks about why it makes no sense to compare Israel’s anti-terrorism barrier to the Berlin Wall. Also in jihad-related sloppy thinking, the Dry Bones cartoon “Face It” deals with the reluctance of many to acknowledge that the Fort Hood shootings were an Islamic terrorist attack, despite the evidence that it is.
Topic 2: Given some criticism I received on my review of the pilot episode of the new V last week, I think I need to clarify my position on the series. The plot and characters are not necessarily bad. For all we know, the writers may have even avoided two major blunders of the original V |
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Humanities & CultureSpirituality and FaithBy Aaron
4 months ago
Greetings.
Jewish date: 23 Marḥeshwan 5770 (Parashath Ḥayye-Sarah).
Today’s holidays: Saint Day of Leo the Great (Roman Catholicism).
Worthy causes of the day: “IBR Message Center | UANI: Send a United Message: Sign the petition and urge these companies to stop doing business with the Iranian regime by sending them a message today” and “Take Action | UANI: Message to the Los Angeles MTA on Light Rail Contract”.
Topic 1: Chapters 14-19 of The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, Book 3) by Philip Pullman. The theology and story get more and more bizarre. It is revealed that Lord Asriel does not plan on invading Heaven; he is amassing a great army and supplies and waiting for Heaven to attack him at his fortress. This plan has the fatal flaw that if the Authority never attacks, Lord Asriel can never win. Presumably the Authority is not a moron—he has been smart enough to be able to retain power for thousands of years—so Lord Asriel had better have a plan B in just in case his plan A would result in him dying of old age before the Authority attacks. |
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Humanities & CultureSpirituality and FaithBy Aaron
4 months ago
Greetings.
Jewish date: 21 Marḥeshwan 5770 (Parashath Ḥayye-Sarah).
Today’s holidays: Thirty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Synaxis of the Archangels (Greek Orthodox Christianity).
Worthy causes of the day: “Establish Presidential War Powers Commission - The Petition Site” and “MoveOn.org Political Action: No Reward for Blocking Health Care”.
Today’s topic: Chapters 3-13 of The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, Book 3) by Philip Pullman. The theology of this imaginary multiverse keeps getting further and further away from Christianity. Standard Christian theology depicts God as consisting of three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. This is not something obscure or esoteric; this is something well-known. So far there has not been no hint of a Trinity, Jesus, the Crucifixion, or the Gospels. The only distinctively Christian idea which gets any real play is original sin, and that Pullman completely botches |
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