Cricket Metaphor

Do you think that the benevolent cricket would be any more worshipable if it were immortal?

SG-1 and worship

Worship for me is hard to define. I am not very religious person so I never been a member of any organized religious group. When reading the article about the little people in twilight zone I instantly identified with the little people and not either group of astronauts. I identified with little people because I do not think I could really demand worship from anyone and I think if I was to worship something the reason might be more out of fear than actual love. When Craig starts to demand worship from the aliens it remained me of another show called Stargate SG-1. In the final season of Stargate there is a race of being called the Ori this particular race is more advanced than any of the humanoids on planet that SG-1 has explore before. However SG-1 chooses not to worship the Ori because the team knows the origin of the Ori and knows that they were once humanoids. Even though the Ori could easily kill any race that SG-1 has encounter they refuses to worship them because they were once beings similar to them. The Ori have ascended to a new level of concession that is only attainable to a few. Another group similar to the Ori is the ancients who come from the same origin of the Ori but do not really care about humans in the slightest. One thing that I have always wondered is what would if SG-1 do if they were to in counter a being that has been there since the test of time? SG -1 never bows down to the beings that pretend to be Gods because there is always a scientific explanation to how those beings got there. However would SG-1 bow down to being that had no origin that was always there and that knows everything or would they continue to look for scientific explanation or simply chose to ignore it?

To Worship or Not to Worship?

That is the question...

Who or What is worthy of worship? Can worship be "falsely" assigned?

According to our discussion in class, in some cases worship can be misplaced, meaning that humans could wrongly worship a power. For example in the Twilight episode we watched as a psychopath tried to rule through terror and abuse.

This brings up another question. Can worship, done out of fear, really be defined as worship?

I believe that this form of worship is insincere and cannot fall under the category of the faithful. For someone to truly worship I believe that he or she or it actually needs to feel some sort of devotion. Throughout history there have been times when rulers have reigned with an iron fist. Man kind has fallen under these leaders for self preservation, but secretly there are rebellions. This example illustrates my point. While on the surface the population seemingly obeys, there is really dissension in their private lives.

Which brings me to my conclusion and definition:
Worship: The devotion one "shows" in the privacy of their mind.

I chose to define worship in this way, because people can show actions that are contradictory to what they are actually thinking. However the thoughts that play in the mind are usually the true feelings of that individual and therefore are the purest forms of an individuals beliefs.

Lost is starting to all make sense!

I was hoping for it sooner rather than later, but now all the flashbacks, flash-forwards, and present-flashes(?) are really beginning to make sense! Lost is beginning to reveal that it has been dealing not just with whether time travel is feasible or not, but jumping right into the question of if it's right or even desirable. still, they aren't approaching the question from a moral standpoint at all. rather, it seems to be a question of destiny and asking if there's a life we are supposed to lead and a future we are supposed to have. Which of course is now raising the question in this final season...what happens when we try to change our destiny? Challenging our destiny is of course usually portrayed as a good thing in media such as Star Wars where destiny is a future that should be fought against and changed. Lost, however, is approaching this negatively...this alternate timeline that they created to try and prevent everything horrible (i.e. ever even crashing on the island) from ever happening to them seems to be against the natural order of the universe. It's not yet clear how changing their present is going to impact the characters, but by and large they seem to be making the same choices they made the first time around. At this point I am really hoping for a clear statement from the creators of Lost. It doesn't have to make sense to everyone, but I just want the show to conclude by offering some clear vision that will leave viewers with an added dimension of perspective and at the very least something to ponder. I'll be ticked if it just cuts to a black screen (or a white one) :)

Robots and Aliens: Star Trek vs. Star Wars

Something interesting came to mind after watching the clip about Cmdr. Data on Star Trek the other day. I noticed that there was a good deal of controversy around his 'right to choose', and whether he possessed the ability to do so. It seems as if the creators of Star Trek deliberately chose to debate this subject, possibly hoping to project into the future the decision it came to when the show was written. Perhaps they saw something we didn't, I don't know.

However, what I do know is what happens in Star-Trek is something that people like Capt. Picard were trying to avoid. We see many R2D2's and mech-droids of all kinds serving in all kinds of positions, and ostensibly under human or 'sentient' being control. It does not seem to pose a problem at all for the people in Star Wars, so why does it have to be a big deal in Star Trek ?

Although Star Wars is interfused with religious intertitles (e.g. "Light/Dark" The Force/Dark Side), I feel it does not attempt to address such political or relevant issues that Star Trek attempts. I feel that's one of the reasons that makes Star Trek for me more appealing than Star Wars.

Some thoughts on the afterlife...

We talked today about whether immortality is something to be desired or if death would in fact be something that true immortals would envy. I honestly feel that a story such as Card's comes about from a generation of over-stimulated people constantly seeking the next new thing, which i would argue will make you bored (and addicted to 10 different things) before you hit 30, much less 150. I tend to view immortality more the way Tolkien presents it in his books (sorry for the non-sci-fi reference). In the Lord of the Rings, if they arent killed prematurely the race of Elves can live forever in joy and harmony with nature and are portrayed as the wisest of creatures in Middle Earth. So yes, in my present state and in this world i would certainly not want to live forever, and I fully sympathize with elderly people who often say it is their time to go. I do however hope for an eternity of peace and harmony where time, if it exists at all, is a joy...rather than a drag of constantly searching for the next new thing to entertain me.

How Would the Discovery of Alien Life Affect an Eastern Religion?

This article at Science + Religion Today seemed like it would be of interest to you. It looks at how an Eastern religion might respond to the discovery of extraterrestrial life.