"Further In" with the arts

Thanks to a Bloglines search for C. S. Lewis, I found Jared Wilson's blog, Mysterium Tremendum. That's the good news. The bad news is that he has stopped posting for now, because he is concentrating on writing a book.

I have received (so far) 15 comments on the post "on Evangelical Blogging," which is a record for me. (I also got an additional insightful e-mail from our younger daughter.) The thesis was that the purpose of blogging by a Christian shouldn't always be to argue for a particular stand on various issues, or even to evangelize, but it should always be to strive for excellence. It was mostly a quote of Lewis, which is why it rang true with some of those who commented.

Wilson has said the same thing, more often, better, and more specifically. He has much more experience in writing for the public. As he does, I recommend his "On Writing" as a jumping-off place for examining what he had to say. This post is a listing of what he considers to be some of his best posts on that subject. Posts listed deal with being on the same frequency as readers, mediocrity in what "Christian" readers expect, the conversion experience as described in fiction, and objectionable content. There are other good topics, too.

See also "God’s Refrigerator: Can Christians Save the Visual Arts (Part II)"

On another note, see this week's Christian Carnival, featuring over 60 posts on many subjects.

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I added a "he" after the "that" in the 3rd sentence on April 11th.

Mutated azalea

This azalea grows outside a bedroom window. My wife took the picture from inside the house, while I tried to hold a branch out of the way, so that the main reason for the picture would be visible. That reason is that there is a branch that has flowers that are obviously a lighter color than the rest of the bush. This is probably due to some sort of mutation. "Sports" like this have been used to develop many new varieties of plants.

Mrs. Cain? Inbreeding in the Old Testament

My friend, April, asked about how a good God would allow early humans to marry close relatives, which is, later in Scripture, prohibited. Ish responded to her, saying, basically, that the problem with incest is that close relatives would be more likely to have the same bad recessive genes, but that Adam and Eve were presumably created with a perfect genotype, so this wouldn't have been as big a problem for their immediate descendants. I agree, but wish to expand upon this idea.

It's probably best to distinguish between incest and inbreeding, but there is not a clear distinction. Incest, sexual relations between close relatives, has been frowned on by most societies. The Old Testament bans some specific sexual relationships, quite a few, in fact, in Leviticus 18. (At least in the NIV, it doesn't say it's banning marriage, but sex. I suppose that banning sex between, say, brother and sister would also prohibit marriage between them, but I'm not certain of that.) Inbreeding is a more general term. Inbreeding, to a geneticist, occurs when offspring are born to parents who are more closely related to each other than the general population is. There is a statistic, known as the inbreeding coefficient, which can be calculated.

Presumably, Adam and Eve were created with a perfect genotype. The Fall probably would have allowed mutations, gradually putting bad genes into the gene pool. This is consistent with the ages given in Genesis--they gradually got shorter and shorter, as would be expected as more deleterious genes came into the gene pool.

If they had perfect genes (no recessive bad ones) then inbreeding wouldn't matter, genetically, at least.

There are reasons other than genetics that make incest (or close inbreeding) bad, but the first humans would have had no choice, if they were the only possible mates for each other. Cain, and Seth, and maybe Abel, would have had to marry their sisters.

Were the first humans the only possible mates for each other? Probably.

However, there is the legend of Lilith (which is extra-biblical) who was another wife to Adam. George MacDonald wrote fantasy in the 19th century. C. S. Lewis was influenced by his writing. In MacDonald's Lilith, Adam, Eve, and Lilith are all characters. If there was another wife, then it would be possible to marry half-siblings, rather than siblings.

Genesis says:
Gen 6:1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born unto them, Gen 6:2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all that they chose. Gen 6:4 The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them: the same were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown. (ASV, which is public domain)

Some interpret this as meaning that angels and humans married, although most seem to doubt this, for a number of reasons. This verse, of course, is not until Genesis 6, by which time Cain, Seth, and other generations of humans would have already had to marry somebody. There are other interpretations, such as that Seth's descendants married Cain's, and no one seems to know for sure what it means.

Madeleine L'Engle, Christian fantasy writer, wrote Many Waters (I don't usually link to Amazon, but they allow searching inside the book.) which supposes that humans of Noah's time could mate with demons, apparently basing this idea on the text above.

In Tolkien's Middle-Earth, there were three marriages (maybe four--see the article on Half-elven in the Encyclopedia of Arda) between elves and humans, and Eärendil, Elrond, Arwen and Aragorn were among the descendants of such unions. Tolkien didn't think of elves as like angels, but they were clearly different than humans. Maiar were more like angels. Melian (See entry under her name in the Encyclopedia of Arda) was of the Maiar, and married Thingol, an elf. They had a daughter, Lúthien. In C. S. Lewis' Narnia books, King Caspian married a star's daughter, and they had a son, Rilian.

Some believers think that God took pre-humans already in existence (Neanderthals?) and gave them souls. If that is what Genesis means, then presumably there could have been matings between humans and pre-humans.

Some ancient societies apparently did allow, and encourage, incest, at least in their royal families.

Abraham and Sarah were half-sibs, and Isaac and Jacob both married relatives. See the chart below (It should be possible to see larger versions of these charts by using either of them as a link, which will transfer you to Flickr. In Flickr, which doesn't require any password for such uses, you can click on the Down Arrow, to the right of the page, to download a graphic. That lets you see, or download, larger versions of the graphic.


There was marriage between relatives in David's family, also:


As to incest being evil, it is now. That doesn't mean that it was always evil. God had a different set of expectations for the Jews than He does for Christians. He at least allowed polygamy in some of His closest followers (although it often led to serious family trouble) in the Old Testament, but there doesn't seem to be even a mention of it in the New.

What about the question of inbreeding

A God who is capable of creation from nothing shouldn't have had any problems with giving Adam and Eve perfect genes, so that if Seth married a sister, it wouldn't have had bad genetic consequences. Even if Eve was created literally from Adam's flesh, He could have given them different sets of genes, so that apparent inbreeding wouldn't have mattered. I would guess that Eve at least had a second X chromosome, whereas Adam had only one, so that their genes were partly different.

This is all speculation, of course. The Bible doesn't name Cain's wife, Seth's wife, or Abel's wife (if he had one) let alone where they came from.

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This material was modified or added on April 6th, 2005:

The charts above are free for use, provided that any republication also allows free use by others. You can probably get a larger size through Flickr -- the two charts are links to the original charts, on my Flickr photostream. If I have made any errors in the charts, I'd appreciate knowing it. Leave a comment. Thanks.

October 17, 2007: I modified the charts, mostly adding more people, and making the chart of David's family more useful for general Bible study. I haven't checked to see if April's and Ish's web pages, that I referred to in the beginning of this post, are still available.

February 1, 2014: I modified the chart of David's family slightly, and changed the font size of the post. 

October 20, 2014: I modified the chart of Terah's family.

Thanks for reading and looking!

Sunspots 3

There are two things about blogs which make groupthink likely. The first is that blogs are partisan; there is no requirement that they should reflect a diverse range of opinion about particular topics. The second is that people tend to read those blogs which most closely reflect their own beliefs and values. - Jeremy Stangroom

. . . I'm not going to pretend that there isn't a lot of dross on blogs. But then there's a lot of dross everywhere. But there's also a reservoir of very well-informed and intelligent people who deploy their expertise for free and to the public's benefit. - Chris Bertram

"Blogging: a head to head debate," The Philosopher's Magazine, Issue 29, RSS feed posted March 18, 2005

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(I referred to the information below in a previous post, on Hebrews 11:3.)

World Question: What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it?

Many persons were asked to respond to this, and their responses make interesting reading, indeed. One response, in particular, caught my eye. I was surprised to discover that it was changed since the original posting. I didn't see an acknowledgement of the change.

Jan 4, 2005

RICHARD DAWKINS Evolutionary Biologist, Oxford University; Author, The Ancestor's Tale

I believe, but I cannot prove, that all life, all intelligence, all creativity and all 'design' anywhere in the universe, is the direct or indirect product of Darwinian natural selection. It follows that design comes late in the universe, after a period of Darwinian evolution. Design cannot precede evolution and therefore cannot underlie the universe.

[Note: all of the above, beginning with "RICHARD . . ." was copied directly from the web source, into a file that I have saved for reference, as it appeared on Jan 4, 2005. By Feb 26, 2005 ", but I cannot prove," had been deleted. This doesn't change the meaning, considering the question, but may indicate that someone decided that including this phrase gave too much ammunition to supernatural belief.]

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I recommend "Love, Hate, and Michael Schiavo," by Mike at Eternal Perspectives. I also recommend, on the Schiavo case, a number of posts, and comments on these posts, at www.marlaswoffer.com. This is her March 29, 2005 post. There were several earlier ones. Both of these recommended readings are serious attempts to wrestle with some of the issues, without taking a firm position.

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One author, at least, although sympathetic to the Pope's physical condition, has been unsympathetic to his policies:

Contrary to all intentions conveyed in the Second Vatican Council, the medieval Roman system, a power apparatus with totalitarian features, was restored through clever and ruthless personnel and academic policies. Bishops were brought into line, pastors overloaded, theologians muzzled, the laity deprived of their rights, women discriminated against, national synods and churchgoers' requests ignored, along with sex scandals, prohibitions on discussion, liturgical spoon-feeding, a ban on sermons by lay theologians, incitement to denunciation, prevention of Holy Communion -- "the world" can hardly be blamed for all of this!! - Hans Küng, "The Pope's Contradictions." (Der Spiegel, March 26, 2005)

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Synesthesia (or synaesthesia) is a condition, affecting between 0.5% and 0.05% of people, wherein objects are reported as stimulating seemingly inappropriate senses. (It occurs more frequently among artists.) In the most common type, colorless letters or numbers are reported as having specific colors whenever they are seen. A recent report, on investigating synesthetes with neuroimaging, lends "support to the hypothesis that cross-activation of adjacent brain regions is the mechanism underlying synesthesia."

Living wills, advanced directives

By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones. (Hebrews 11:22, KJV, which is public domain)

If nothing else, the Schiavo case has increased the number of people making living wills. Unfortunately, that won't entirely solve the problems that such documents are meant to forestall.

Are existing statements about care in extreme circumstances always followed? Here the answer seems clear: "No." Living wills and advance directives are not always followed. Angela Fagerlin and Carl E. Schneider, in "Enough: The Failure of the Living Will, (.PDF document)" in the March-April 2004 issue of the Hastings Center Report, a periodical which is devoted to issues of medical ethics, (pp. 30-42) argue that advance directives are not effective, for five reasons: 1) they may be made out well in advance, and have been forgotten, or impossible to find (for example in the office of a lawyer who is not aware that the person has been hospitalized) 2) the contents may be vague, or not seen as applying to a particular situation 3) doctors and families are reluctant to conclude that the patient has actually reached the point where a previous decision to refuse treatment should be invoked 4) the family may not follow the advanced directive 5) studies indicate that a majority of patients, given the actual situation, would not follow their own advanced directive.

From a post by the Evangelical Outpost:

Note: Being pro-life also means bearing the responsibility for the decisions about what care and measures should be taken at the end of one's own life. Because God allows us to make choices in our lives, we should take the initiative to communicate to our families our own wishes and desires. The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity offers an Advance Directive Kit ($12) that contains an Advanced Directive Form and an 80 page booklet on End of Life Decisions (the enclosed form can be copied for every member of the family). Before I began working at the Center I never gave much thought to the issue. But the Schiavo case has made me realize the necessity of taking such precautions. It's a simple, inexpensive step you can take to ensure peace of mind for both you and your own loved ones.

In "3 all-too-common flaws of living wills," an advisor from MSN MoneyCentral suggests the following:

"Draft a durable power of attorney." She says this is superior to a living will.

"Explore your feelings about end-of-life care." Think about what kind of care you think you would want, under various circumstances.

"Talk about what you want--and keep talking." She means to keep discussing what you would want, so that others hear it, and because your perspective will probably change as your circumstances do.

P. S. For what it's worth, I personally do not want to be maintained, if diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state. This includes provision of food and water, if other than by normal ingestion through the mouth.

I do not want to be maintained on other means of invasive and non-natural means of life support for an extended period, if there is no reasonable hope of recovery of cortical function.

Kiln People by David Brin

David Brin's Kiln People was published by Tom Doherty Associates in 2002. It's a long book, nearly 600 pages. I got it for Christmas, for which I am grateful. The central premise is that there is a method which allows a person's consciousness, personality, or soul to be implanted into a temporary body (more than one at a time, in fact). The original person remains alive and independent, and the experiences of the temporary can be integrated into the memory and experience of the original. This doesn't have to happen--the original may choose not to absorb the memories, or the temporary body may suffer an accident, and not return before degrading. One unique aspect of the story is that the central character is in more than one story line at the same time, as the original and copies of himself. Even though the book is fiction, it is difficult to read it without examining some important and fundamental issues. What is a human being? Should techniques to accomplish such things be developed, or prohibited? Would it be ethical to produce a temporary body solely for the purpose of trying risky things, experiments, or for thrills? For use in combat?

The plot involves the possibility of a sort of immortality, if a copy can produce a new copy.

The book is full of various wordplays on xerox and ditto, such as "ditective" for a temporay agent produced by a sleuth.

The Kiln part of the title is because the temporary bodies are, sort of, baked from clay in a kiln. They decay after 24 hours or so, into slurry, which can be used in making new temporary bodies. The tycoon who owns the dittoing process is named Kaolin.

Here are some quotes:

What happens to the soul of a ditto who loses his salvation--who never gets to inload back into the "real" self who made him? . . . For that matter, what happens when your original dies? Some religions think there's a final transfer, loading your entire lifestream into God, in much the same way your golems pour their memories back into you at the end of each day. But despite fervent yearnings--and well-funded private research--no one's ever found proof of such transfer to some higher-level archetype being. (pp. 108-109.)

There is a ditto religion. A "preacher" of that religion, himself a ditto, hence temporary, speculates about the possibility of some part of a ditto being united with God. "Does heaven have a place for us, as well? If it doesn't, well, maybe it ought to." (p. 102)

Watching "cut-rate" copies doing hard manual labor, the protagonist wonders:

Squinting at the scene one way, I glimpsed a science fiction nightmare worse than Fritz Lang's Metropolis--slaves and prols laboring for distant masters before toppling to an early death, preordained and unmourned. Squint another way, and it seemed marvelous! a world of free citizens, extending tiny portions of themselves--easily expendable bits--to take turns doing all the necessary drudgery, so everyone can spend their organic lifetimes playing or studying. Which was true? (p. 326)

Brin has a web site, with two chapters of the book available. He also has a blog.

Low In The Grave He Lay

LOW IN THE GRAVE HE LAY (Public Domain)

Words & Music: Robert Lowry, 1874

Low in the grave He lay, Jesus my Savior, Waiting the coming day, Jesus my Lord!

Refrain

Up from the grave He arose, With a mighty triumph o’er His foes, He arose a Victor from the dark domain, And He lives forever, with His saints to reign. He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!

Vainly they watch His bed, Jesus my Savior; Vainly they seal the dead, Jesus my Lord!

Refrain

Death cannot keep its Prey, Jesus my Savior; He tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord!

Refrain

Temptations in Narnia: Dawn Treader

Edmund and Lucy, and their insufferable cousin, Eustace Scrubb, are called to Narnia, where they join King Caspian on a voyage (in progress) to the East, to try to find seven Narnian lords who had been loyal to him.

Eustace is tempted to be a general nuisance, proud of his own attitude. He succumbs, in the first part of the book.

Governor Gumpas has yielded to the temptation to be a petty tyrant, and to doubt that there is such a person as the real King of Narnia.

Eustace is tempted, and succumbs, to think of himself as special. One symptom is that he attempts to get water above the amount of his ration.

The rest of the crew are tempted to think "That's what he deserved," when Eustace becomes a dragon.

Eustace eventually, after being a dragon for several days, repents, and Aslan changes him back to human form. Edmund speaks comfortingly to him:

"That's all right," said Edmund. "Between ourselves, you haven't been as bad as I was on my first trip to Narnia. You were only an ass, but I was a traitor." C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, New York: Collier Books, 1980. p. 91.

Coriakin, the magician who had been a star, did something that he shouldn't have, or failed to do something that he should have. He was punished by being put in charge of the Dufflepuds. He was tempted to impatience with them, and to not trying to educate them to maturity.

Lucy was tempted to say a spell that would have made her unnaturally beautiful. This may have been Envy. Lucy was also tempted, a short time later, to say a spell that would let her hear what others were saying about her. She yielded to this temptation, then wished that she hadn't:

"I will say the spell," said Lucy. "I don't care. I will." She said I don't care because she had a strong feeling that she mustn't.

But when she looked back at the opening words of the spell, there in the middle of the writing, where she felt quite sure there had been no picture before, she found the great face of a lion, of the Lion, Aslan himself, staring into hers. It was painted such a bright gold that it seemed to be coming towards her out of the page; and indeed she never was sure quite afterwards that it hadn't really moved a little. At any rate she knew the expression on his face quite well. He was growling and you could see most of his teeth. She became horribly afraid and turned over the page at once.

A little later she came to a spell which would let you know what your friends thought about you. Now Lucy had wanted very badly to try the other spell, the one that made you beautiful beyond the lot of mortals. So she felt that to make up for not having said it, she really would say this one. And all in a hurry, for fear her mind would change, she said the words (nothing will induce me to tell you what they were.) C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, New York: Collier Books, 1980. pp. 130-131.

Three of the Narnian Lords were tempted to quarrel, and do so, on Ramandu's Island.

Caspian is tempted to leave the Dawn Treader, breaking his word, and neglecting his duty, in order to go on a quest that he knows is not for him. He takes steps to carry out this plan, but is dissuaded by the others, and, finally, by Aslan. He seems to be showing Pride.

You may be interested in the web site of the forthcoming Narnia movie. It has cover art for all seven Narnia books, by four different artists, the first chapter of each of the books, and a timeline of the books (which is partly speculation, of course, as Lewis didn't explicitly indicate dates).

This post is out of sequence. I thought I had posted it earlier, but obviously hadn't. Thank God for backed up files! Here is the first post in the series.

Angel at Empty Tomb

I scanned this picture from an old Bible story book, Half Hours With the Bible: New Testament, Being a Consecutive Arrangement of the Narrative and Other Portions of the Holy Scriptures, New York: Clifton Publishing Company, which I got from my parents. The publication date isn't given, but there is an inscription on a flyleaf, dated "Dec 25th 1898." Hence the picture should be public domain, and I offer it as such, if anyone is interested. If you desire the same picture, in higher resolution, leave a comment at the end of this post, including the words "Angel at Empty Tomb." The artist isn't indicated.

Blessed Easter!





This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Last Supper Woodcut

This doesn't exactly coincide with events of Holy Week for this day. Sorry.

I scanned this picture from an old Bible story book, Half Hours With the Bible: New Testament, Being a Consecutive Arrangement of the Narrative and Other Portions of the Holy Scriptures, New York: Clifton Publishing Company, which I got from my parents. The publication date isn't given, but there is an inscription on a flyleaf, dated "Dec 25th 1898." Hence the picture should be public domain, and I offer it as such, if anyone is interested. The artist isn't indicated.

This is a Creative Commons blog. Help yourself to the picture, if you want it. Thanks for looking.

Colors: Black

Black is the most common color word in English. According to Wordcount, it is the 356th most common word, between "care" and "book," which is the 357th most common word.

There are only 18 verses in the Bible that have this word, considerably less than for some of the color words in previous posts. These include references to the sky when stormy, or when God is angry, to human and horse hair, and to human skin when exposed to the sun.

Easton's Bible Dictionary: "Colour"

The subject of colours holds an important place in the Scriptures. . . .

Black, applied to the hair ( Lev 13:31; Sgs 5:11), the complexion ( Sgs 1:5), and to horses ( Zec 6:2,6). The word rendered "brown" in Gen 30:32 ( R.V., "black") means properly "scorched", i.e., the colour produced by the influence of the sun's rays. "Black" in Job 30:30 means dirty, blackened by sorrow and disease. The word is applied to a mourner's robes ( Jer 8:21; 14:2), to a clouded sky ( 1Ki 18:45), to night ( Mic 3:6; Jer 4:28), and to a brook rendered turbid by melted snow ( Job 6:16). It is used as symbolical of evil in Zec 6:2, 6 and Rev 6:5. It was the emblem of mourning, affliction, calamity ( Jer 14:2; Lam 4:8; 5:10).

A couple of items on color that I haven't gotten in in previous posts:
The Astronomy Picture of the Day for Feb 27, 2005, is a spectrum of the sun, spread out more than we are used to seing.

More on color and fantastic literature:
Jack Vance is one of the great writers of fantastic fiction. He has won two Hugo awards, and has written for over four decades. He is distinguished by his baroque use of words, and by his imagination. Some of his magical realms have colors that human eyes don't normally see. (Of course Vance can't describe them!) One of his novels, Alastor: Marune, is set on a planet with four suns, orange, blue, red and green. Vance wrote that the citizens' moods and behavior changed, depending on which combination of suns were in the sky. A Vance fan, Eric Halsey, has created a free downloadable software program that shows the 16 color combinations of these four suns. (Warning: file is several megabytes in size. The link is to a page that describes the program. It has a link to download it.) (The previous parenthesis, and the sentence preceding it, were modified on Jan 10, 2007, because of a comment by tap (see below). I thank him.)

My post on Indigo mentioned Whitelaw as a word about as common as Indigo (which isn't very common). Turns out Whitelaw is the name of a town in the UK.

Back to black
Black isn't exactly a color, even though there are black crayons, and black paint. Black is the absence of other colors. If all light is absorbed, the result is black. A black hole is a dense space object that has gravity so strong that the resulting bending of space prevents light from escaping. We can't see a black hole with a telescope, because no light comes from it.

No humans, or any other objects we can see, are pure black. They may be dark, but if they were black, we couldn't see them, because they wouldn't reflect any light. Fantastic writer Gene Wolfe invented a fabric, fuligin, used in his Torturer series, that could not be seen. (Note added Jan 9, 2007: Wolfe says that he didn't invent any words in his Torturer series, more commonly known as the Book of the New Sun.)

Black is often used to symbolize death, despair, or sin. I am posting this on the anniversary of a black day for the disciples. Black has quite a few unhappy connotations. (Think Black Death, for example.) In Tolkien's Ring books, the bad characters often were black, or wore black. (Black breath was a sickness produced by the ringwraiths, and Mordor was referred to as the black land. Sauron was the dark lord.) It is unfortunate that some of these negative connotations have been associated with dark-skinned people.

Sin is sometimes described as black, needing the crimson blood of Christ to cleanse, and make us white.

This, so far as I know, ends my series on colors, which began February 14th of 2005, with a post on red. Thanks to anyone who has read this one, or any or all of the others!

Modifications, noted above, were made to this post on January 9th and 10th, 2007. No other changes have been made to the original post, hence I have kept the original date.

Temptations in Narnia: The Last Battle

This ends my series on temptations, or moral choices, in the Narnia books, which began with this post. I believe my desire is to go "further up and further in," or "Further in and higher up!" (Both expressions are used in the book.) I am so glad to have had an excuse to read these books yet again.

Peter Chattaway has written that the Narnia books are, in some senses, not only Christian, but Pagan. He is correct in this--Bacchus, fauns, tree spirits and other such beings appear--and quotes C. S. Lewis, himself, to the effect that paganism was pre-Christian--pagans could be converted. Now to some temptations:

Puzzle the Donkey is tempted to not question what he is doing, on the grounds that he isn't very smart. Therefore, he is marginally complicit in putting forth a false Aslan. Shift the Ape is mainly responsible, and yields to the temptation to disguise Puzzle as Aslan, probably because of greed, one of the seven deadly sins. (He wants more nuts, oranges, and bananas, and a more luxurious life.) Later, Puzzle comes to see that he, too is partly responsible: "I see now," said Puzzle, "that I really have been a very bad donkey. I ought never to have listened to Shift. I never thought things like this would begin to happen. - C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, New York: Macmillan, 1956, p. 79.

G. K. Chesterton wrote a poem, "The Donkey," which I mention because of Puzzle, and which is related to Holy Week. Here's a much more recent posting on a King and a Donkey, by Ish.

When the Ape sets up a false Aslan, the animals are confused. One of the confusions is that the Ape, and the Calormenes that are complicit with him, claim that the awful Calormene deity, Tash, and Aslan, the good Lion, are the same. The animals are tempted to believe this. Ginger, the Cat, yields to the temptation to disbelieve in either deity, and at least some of the Calormenes also do not believe in their own god.

The dwarfs are tempted, like Ginger, to believe that there is no god, nor any Aslan. They succumb to this temptation, and, like Uncle Andrew, in The Magician's Nephew, succeed in making themselves stupider.

Jill, like many of us, and, I think, Lewis himself, is tempted to wish that things would just go on as they were. The Unicorn, Jewel, replies: "Nay, sister," answered Jewel, "all worlds draw to an end; except Aslan's own country." (p. 84)

Susan Pevensie has yielded to temptation, and is "no longer a friend of Narnia." (p. 126)

All the inhabitants of Narnia had to come up to a great door into Aslan's country, and look into his face. Some of them went on into Aslan's country. Some of them disappeared into his great shadow, did not go through the door, and were never seen again. This wasn't exactly a moral choice, but, it seems, the result of the moral choices made before this time.

Emeth, the Calormene, finds out that his choice to serve the god Tash with honor and fairness was actually a moral choice to serve Aslan. He tells his story:
". . . But the Glorious One bent down his golden head and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, Son, thou art welcome. But I said, Alas, Lord, I am no son of Thine but the servant of Tash. He answered, Child, all the service thou has done to Tash, I account as service done to me. Then . . . I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, Lord, is it then true, as the Ape said, that thou and Tash are one? The Lion growled so that the earth shook . . . and said, it is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites, I take to me the services which thou hast done for him, for he and I are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. . . . But I said also . . ., [yet] I have been seeking Tash all my days. Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless thy desire had been for me wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek." - C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, New York: Macmillan, 1956, p.156-157.

Finally, to those who have chosen to follow Aslan, there is great reward. They begin to spend eternity in Aslan's country:

. . . but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before. pp. 173-4.

Blood Sacrifices

Both the Old and New Testaments, or Covenants, required a blood sacrifice. The author of Hebrews speaks about this:

Hebrews 9:11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

15 Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. 16 For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. 17 For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. 18 Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. 19 For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 20 saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” 21 And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. 22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

23 Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. (ESV)

It is possible to obtain quite a bit of blood from an animal, or a human, without loss of life. The sacrifices mentioned above were more than mere blood sacrifices. They required that the sacrificial animal, or Christ, be killed.

Why a blood sacrifice? I'm not sure, but will speculate.

Blood is the life, according to the Old Testament. (Genesis 9:4, Leviticus 17:11, 14, Deuteronomy 12:23.) What does that mean? Much, maybe all, of the meaning is religious or symbolic. However, there are biological ways in which blood is life, too:

Blood carries Oxygen and food molecules to the body, thus giving life in an even more fundamental way than breathing. Blood also carries metabolic waste products to the kidneys, which remove them. This is also a requirement for life. Without this function, we would die in our poisonous metabolic byproducts.

Blood carries hormones, signals from one part of the body to another. It also contains antibodies, molecules which fight off infections. It has white blood cells, which also defend us. It carries molecules which can clot, plugging holes in our skin or blood vessels.

Perhaps for these reasons, blood has been used as a sacrifice for sin. In the New Testament, Christ's blood also paid the price necessary to defeat death, itself.

Here's a fictional treatment of this:

And there, on the golden gravel of the bed of the stream, lay King Caspian, dead, with the water flowing over him like liquid glass. His long white beard swayed in it like water-weed. And all three stood and wept. Even the Lion wept: great Lion-tears, each tear more precious than the Earth would be if it was a single solid diamond. . . .
"Son of Adam," said Aslan, "go into that thicket and pluck the thorn that you will find there, and bring it to me."
Eustace obeyed. The thorn was a foot long and sharp as a rapier.
"Drive it into my paw, son of Adam," said Aslan. . . .
"Must I?" said Eustace.
"Yes," said Aslan.
Then Eustace set his teeth and drove the the thorn into the Lion's paw. And there came out a great drop of blood, redder than all the redness that you have ever seen or imagined. And it splashed into the stream over the dead body of the King. . . . And the dead King began to be changed. His white beard turned to grey, and from grey to yellow, and got shorter and vanished altogether; and his sunken cheeks grew round and fresh, and the wrinkles were smoothed, and his eyes opened, and his eyes and lips both laughed, and suddenly he leaped up and stood before them--a very young man, or a boy. . . . And he rushed to Aslan and flung his arms as far as they would go round the huge neck; and he gave Aslan the strong kisses of a King, and Aslan gave him the wild kisses of a Lion. -C. S. Lewis, The Silver Chair, New York: Macmillan, 1953, pp. 203-4.

On Feb 11, 2007, I changed the scripture version used from the KJV to the ESV, and deleted Numbers 35:33, deciding that, although its in the Bible, it is not pertinent to the topic of this post. I also added emphasis to the word "blood" as it occurs in the quotation of Hebrews 9.

Temptations in Narnia: The Magician's Nephew

This book is about a time before the Pevensie children were born. Digory Kirke, who grows up to become the professor, in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, has an Uncle who is a bad magician, a mother who is dying, and a new friend, Polly. Uncle Andrew has been dabbling at magic to transport people between worlds. He is too cowardly to test it himself, and tricks Digory and Polly into testing it for him.

Polly is tempted when Uncle Andrew calls her "a very attractive young lady." She is probably from 10 to 14 years old. This appeals to her pride, one of the seven deadly sins, or her vanity.

Uncle Andrew is tempted to use the children for his own purposes, regardless of any consequences to them. Is he really tempted, in that he has a choice in the matter? I'm not sure. He may be so far gone that he automatically makes bad choices.

Uncle Andrew is tempted by pride, one of the seven deadly sins, to consider himself above all rules:

"Oh, I see. You mean that little boys ought to keep their promises. Very true: most right and proper, I'm sure, and I'm very glad you have been taught to do it. But of course you must understand that rules of that sort, however excellent they may be for little boys--and servants--and women--and even people in general, can't possibly be expected to apply to profound students and great thinkers and sages. . . ."

"All it means," [Digory] said to himself, "is that he thinks he can do anything he likes to get anything he wants." - C. S. Lewis, The Magician's Nephew, New York: Macmillan, 1955, p. 16-17.

He is also tempted, by pride, to sacrifice guinea pigs, Digory, Polly, or anything else, to achieve his goals. When Digory and Polly meet the witch, she has the same kinds of thoughts.

Digory and Polly, in the Wood Between the Worlds, are tempted to explore a world other than their own, just because they can. They do so. They almost forgot to mark their way back. They are tempted to quarrel over almost forgetting this, and do so.

Digory is tempted, apparently out of an insatiable curiosity, to strike the bell in Charn that releases the spell that has kept the witch-queen, Jadis, in a state of suspended animation for a long time, perhaps millenia. This results, eventually, in Jadis coming to our world, London in the early part of the 20th century. It also results in Digory and Polly sending the witch to another world, Narnia, to get her out of London. This is good for our world, but a terrible evil for Narnia. Uncle Andrew, a cab-driver and his horse are inadvertently brought to this world, too.

The witch had been tempted to destroy every living thing on her planet, so that she could survive. She yielded to this temptation:

". . . Then I spoke the Deplorable Word. A moment later I was the only living thing beneath the sun."

"But the people?" gasped Digory.

"What people, boy?" asked the Queen.

"All the ordinary people," said Polly, "who'd never done you any harm. And the women, and the children, and the animals."

"Don't you understand?" said the Queen . . . "I was the Queen. They were all my people. What else were they there for but to do my will."

"It was rather hard luck on them, all the same," said he.

"I had forgotten that you are only a common boy. How should you know about reasons of State? You must learn, child, that what would be wrong for you or for any of the common people is not wrong in a great Queen such as I. . . ." - C. S. Lewis, The Magician's Nephew, New York: Macmillan, 1955, pp. 54-55.

Uncle Andrew is tempted not to believe that Aslan is a rational, moral being, able to speak. He yields to this temptation:

Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed. Uncle Andrew did. He soon did hear nothing but roaring in Aslan's song. Soon he couldn't have heard anything else even if he had wanted to. And when at last the Lion spoke and said, "Narnia awake," he didn't hear any words: he heard only a snarl. - C. S. Lewis, The Magician's Nephew, New York: Macmillan, 1955, pp. 112-113.

Digory is tempted to get an apple from the garden of the phoenix in a way that he shouldn't. He is also tempted by the promise of immortality which might come from eating such an apple. The witch does yield to this temptation. Digory doesn't. Because he doesn't, Narnia is protected from the witch for many years, his mother is healed of a fatal illness, and the Wardrobe, which is one of the gateways that connects the two worlds, is eventually built from a tree which grew from the core of the apple that cured Digory's mother.

O Sacred Head, Now Wounded

In honor of Holy Week, and J. S. Bach's birthday, 1685 (Also our younger son-in-law's, quite a few years later).

O sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down,
Now scornfully surrounded with thorns, Thine only crown;
How pale Thou art with anguish, with sore abuse and scorn!
How does that visage languish, which once was bright as morn!

What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered, was all for sinners’ gain;
Mine, mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior! ’Tis I deserve Thy place;
Look on me with Thy favor, vouchsafe to me Thy grace.

Men mock and taunt and jeer Thee, Thou noble countenance,
Though mighty worlds shall fear Thee and flee before Thy glance.
How art thou pale with anguish, with sore abuse and scorn!
How doth Thy visage languish that once was bright as morn!

Now from Thy cheeks has vanished their color once so fair;
From Thy red lips is banished the splendor that was there.
Grim death, with cruel rigor, hath robbed Thee of Thy life;
Thus Thou hast lost Thy vigor, Thy strength in this sad strife.

My burden in Thy Passion, Lord, Thou hast borne for me,
For it was my transgression which brought this woe on Thee.
I cast me down before Thee, wrath were my rightful lot;
Have mercy, I implore Thee; Redeemer, spurn me not!

What language shall I borrow to thank Thee, dearest friend,
For this Thy dying sorrow, Thy pity without end?
O make me Thine forever, and should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never outlive my love to Thee.

My Shepherd, now receive me; my Guardian, own me Thine.
Great blessings Thou didst give me, O source of gifts divine.
Thy lips have often fed me with words of truth and love;
Thy Spirit oft hath led me to heavenly joys above.

Here I will stand beside Thee, from Thee I will not part;
O Savior, do not chide me! When breaks Thy loving heart,
When soul and body languish in death’s cold, cruel grasp,
Then, in Thy deepest anguish, Thee in mine arms I’ll clasp.

The joy can never be spoken, above all joys beside,
When in Thy body broken I thus with safety hide.
O Lord of Life, desiring Thy glory now to see,
Beside Thy cross expiring, I’d breathe my soul to Thee.

My Savior, be Thou near me when death is at my door;
Then let Thy presence cheer me, forsake me nevermore!
When soul and body languish, oh, leave me not alone,
But take away mine anguish by virtue of Thine own!

Be Thou my consolation, my shield when I must die;
Remind me of Thy passion when my last hour draws nigh.
Mine eyes shall then behold Thee, upon Thy cross shall dwell,
My heart by faith enfolds Thee. Who dieth thus dies well.

Words: Attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux, 1153 (Salve caput cruentatum); translated from Latin to German by Paul Gerhardt, 1656 (O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden), and from Latin to English James W. Alexander, 1830. (My source: The Cyberhymnal)

Music: “Passion Chorale,” Hans L. Hassler, 1601; harmony by Johann S. Bach, 1729

Triumphal Entry

I scanned this picture from an old Bible story book, Half Hours With the Bible: New Testament, Being a Consecutive Arrangement of the Narrative and Other Portions of the Holy Scriptures, New York: Clifton Publishing Company, which I got from my parents. The publication date isn't given, but there is an inscription on a flyleaf, dated "Dec 25th 1898." Hence the picture should be public domain, and I offer it as such, if anyone is interested. The artist isn't indicated.




This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Sunspots 2

John Dekker tells me that "Hapax legomena" (One of the curious blog names I mentioned in Sunspots 1) refers to words in a text which only occur once in that text.

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John C. Dvorak, computer commentator extraordinaire, says that actual number of active bloggers isn't as large as many people think. He has some other interesting thoughts, in his "Conformism in the High-Tech Era."

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Our older daughter informs me, correctly, that I erred in the post on temptations in The Horse and His Boy. It's Hwin, not Whin. Sorry.

Embryonic stem cells without embryos?

An essay, "Eggs alone," in the March 10, 2005 issue of Nature states that normal human females begin their reproductive period with about a million eggs. Ann A. Kiessling, the author, who is at the Harvard Institutes of Medicine, says that the vast majority of these eggs, about 20,000 per year, "die in the ovary." (Volume 434:145--Nature is not freely available on the Internet, but the essay can be obtained here for a fee, and should be available in all university libraries. Nature is among the most important scientific periodicals in English. The original Watson and Crick paper was published there, for instance.)

Some ovarian growths may come from eggs which develop without fertilization. (Such growths occur naturally.) Teratomas, the author says, have some differentiated tissues, indicating that, if they indeed come from unfertilized eggs, such eggs, or the tissue developing from them, might work as if they were human embryonic stem cells. (This article, from eMedicine, indicates that parthenogenesis, or the development of an unfertilized egg, is the most likely cause of such growths, which agrees with Kiessling.) There would be no destruction of human embryos involved in using these as stem cells. As she writes, we would, however, be exchanging "the moral dilemma of using human embryos for obtaining stem cells with the moral dilemma of collecting eggs from the ovaries of women for therapeutic instead of reproductive purposes."

She further writes that, as far as she can see, there would be no moral problems with using such eggs for therapy on the woman who is carrying them, and suggests Type 1 diabetes or spinal-cord injuries as two such applications for therapy from self-derived cells. As she points out, few persons object to storing your own blood for later use in a surgical procedure, and she sees use of egg cells derived from your own body as morally equivalent. It remains to be seen whether this sort of treatment is possible, and would be effective. I would be amazed if there were no moral objections to this, or any other procedure involving human eggs.

Cal Thomas on Global Warming

A recent column by Cal Thomas (who is an evangelical, I believe) says:

Do evangelicals have time on their hands because they've finished the mission to "go and make disciples of all nations"? Is this not a great enough commission that "global warming" and a host of other "issues" must be added to make evangelicals contemporary and relevant?

Thomas is referring to recent publicity over a position paper, "For the Health of the Nation," from the National Association of Evangelicals, and criticizes two officials of that organization, and Ron Sider, by name. He goes on to write:

Look at past efforts of religious activists — left and right — and note their limited success when the focus has been on transforming culture, rather than converting hearts.

Thomas is correct in believing that the primary business of Christians is to "go and make disciples," and he is also correct that Christians have sometimes ignored this in favor of peripheral causes. Trying to stop global warming, he says, "distracts and dilutes the primary calling of evangelicals." However, there are differences of opinion on whether various causes are issues, or "issues." There are differences of opinion as to whether global warming is a serious threat.

Thomas has taken positions on embryonic stem cell research and the Schiavo case (and other issues). Many evangelicals have taken the same positions that he has on these. Did Thomas criticize them for their activism? Where is his consistency? Are opposition to embryonic stem cell research or trying to thwart the wishes of Michael Schiavo ways of "making disciples?"

Surely Thomas would not have us go back to the days of slavery? Much of the opposition to that awful institution was from evangelical Christians, in spite of supposedly Bible-based justifications of slavery. Christians involved themselves in a social cause while following God's will.

There is a scriptural basis for trying to protect the environment, perhaps as good as those for abolishing slavery or for taking a stand on the Schiavo case. Genesis 1 says that God put humans in charge of other creatures, and the earth itself. The Babylonian captivity of the Israelites was for seventy years, because they had disobeyed God's command to let their land lie fallow every seventh year for 490 years (II Chronicles 36:21). Psalm 24:1 says that the earth is still God's, not ours. God had Noah build a boat large enough for many animals. Matthew 10:29 says that God knows about the death of sparrows. There are other Bible passages which also indicate that we are to be stewards of the earth, taking as good care of it as possible.

Thomas is entitled to his opinion on global warming. Christians can, and will, disagree about the significance of various perceived threats to the environment. But to imply that Christians shouldn't be concerned about the environment is a mistake.

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Note added March 19. The Evangelical Ecologist has posted a similar statement here.

Colors: White

White light isn't exactly colored light. It is a mixture of all the other colors of the rainbow, at least in theory. White surfaces and objects reflect most colors of light, thus seeming to reflect white light. So white isn't exactly a color, but I'm including it in this series. White is the second most common color word in English.

For anyone who read my other posts on colors (here's the first) I am not going to include white text, as I did for red, orange, yellow, etc.

Easton's Bible Dictionary, available through the Blueletter Bible, says the following, in its article on "Colour": White occurs as the translation of various Hebrew words. It is applied to milk ( Gen 49:12), manna ( Exd 16:31), snow ( Isa 1:18), horses ( Zec 1:8), raiment ( Ecc 9:8). Another Hebrew word so rendered is applied to marble ( Est 1:6), and a cognate word to the lily ( Sgs 2:16). A different term, meaning "dazzling," is applied to the countenance ( Sgs 5:10).

White occurs 75 times in 66 different Bible verses. It is used to describe animal skin color, the effects of leprosy, fabric, snow, cleansing, fields ready to harvest, a white stone given to believers, and a few other items. Revelation has more use of the word than any other in the New Testament.

In our culture, white is often used as a symbol of purity. Brides are supposed to wear white for this reason. One reason that we associate it with purity--it's not the only one--is that snow, after it has cleaned out the acid and particles in the air, is clean and white. There are Christian songs that speak of cleansing, and becoming "Whiter than Snow."

Besides snow, some other important substances are white, including cotton fibers (usually), salt, sugar, milk (usually) and the white of eggs. Part of the visible human eye is white, as are our teeth, ideally. There are white flowers, and white rocks, and white domestic animals. Wild animals in snowy parts of the earth are often white, at least during snow season. Clouds are white, unless they are too thick for much light to get through, or unless tinted red by sunlight near the time of sunset or sunrise.

White blood cells are a vital part of our body's defenses. White matter is part of our brain.

In sports, it is common to mark boundaries in white, and to use white balls, or the equivalent (although not in all sports). In team sports in the U. S., the home team often wears white. (If anyone can tell me why, I'd appreciate knowing.)

Part of the appeal of the bald eagle as a symbol, in the United States, is because of its white head.

Unfortunately, it is possible that prejudice toward dark-skinned persons may be partly because of the symbolic uses, above. Except for albinos, however, no human is really white, which makes preference for white skin seem especially irrational.

White is symbolic in fantastic literature. In Tolkien's Middle-Earth, you can pretty well tell how a race, or an individual, is going to act, based on how dark they are. Generally, the lighter, the better. Gandalf started out as Gandalf the Grey, and Saruman was Saruman the White, but Saruman fell under the influence of the Dark Lord, and became Saruman of Many Colors, while Gandalf fell to his apparent death in Moria, and came back as Gandalf the White. The White Tree was one of the symbols of the kings of Gondor.

The White Witch in C. S. Lewis' Narnia books was not good, but evil. Through the Looking-Glass has white and black chess-pieces. In Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea books, most of the characters were meant to be dark-skinned. A recent TV movie adaptation mostly changed that, which understandably upset Le Guin.

White is a common last name. There was a Supreme Court Justice named Byron (Whizzer) White. Some variations are also common, such as Weiss, which is white in German. There are several fairly common last names that include White, such as Whiteside and Weissman.

Since I began these posts on colors, on Feb 14th, I have read some about how we see color. Mr. I was an artist who had become color-blind after an auto accident, and was a patient of Oliver Sacks. He also could not dream or think in color after the accident. Sacks writes that he discussed the case with Francis Crick, among others, and that:

His retinal cones were still reacting to light of different wavelengths, and his primary visual cortex (an area which has been named V1) was registering this information, but it was clear that this wavelength discrimination was not in itself sufficient for the experience of color. The actual perception of color had to be constructed, and constructed by an additional process in another part of the visual cortex.

The experience of white, then, depends, first, upon the effect of white light on sensory cells in the retina. It also depends on additional activity of the brain.

My job, and yours, is to reflect the light, all the light, from the purest Source. May we do so.