The Messiah

Sounds like another Kungian Rule. We’d better add that to the list.

The strange thing is, life is indeed complicated. (Kungian Rule #1.) But that other rule acknowledges that even when things are straightforward (and most things would have to be or we just couldn’t operate in this world), there is a temptation by dishonest or just ignorant intellectuals to try to make them seem complicated.

It couldn’t just be that Conan Doyle — having studied under the best modern medical men and with a strong mind for minute details himself, and a penchant for writing stories — might just want to write about that. After all, even as a child, he was writing stories. And this New York Times writer noted that his medical practice had pretty much flattened-out in terms of earning potential.

So off Conan Doyle went and thought, “Hmmm…maybe by writing a treatise in the form of a connected series of stories about a more scientific-minded private detective and his doctor cohort I can explore a survival myth for this modern era and can make a lot of money.”

Could be. Could be.

Assuming that every person you see in the same scene with Jesus 2.0 isn’t a secret cohort playing out a pre-planned script, that last scene of the jet crash is almost conclusive in terms of this guy at the very least being a demon with demon powers.

The child tells Avi that Jesus 2.0 basically raised them from the dead. They were both grey with flies in the mouth. Obviously dead. But then he witnessed Jesus 2.0 putting his hand to their chests and they came alive.

Again, clever (that is, dishonest) Netflix writers can back-fill this in many ways. Maybe they weren’t dead and that touch to the chest was vigorous CPR, although that is not what the boy describes. Maybe the boy who just happened upon the crashed jet was in on the plan and was rendezvousing as scheduled. But how could you be so precise about where a jet plane crashed? And who in their right mind would crash a jet in a desert as part of an elaborate scheme to convince people you were the Messiah just so you could (presumably) start an east-west war that would favor Iran?

Sophomore slumps for a series are common and it’s not hard to imagine that this series has written itself into a cul-de-sac. We see at the end there that one of Avi’s associates has been touched by an angel and is seen kissing the hand of Jesus 2.0. That’s a rational reaction when you wake up from a jet that has crashed in the desert and are alive. And presumably this guy know that he should be dead (or was dead) and that Jesus 2.0 intervened. One supposed that Avi will not have a "bitch-slapped by an angel" moment but perhaps will snarl a bit less.

Contrary evidence is that Jesus 2.0 did not apparently save that child….as far as we know. He (she?) may be saved in the truest, long-terms sense. And we can’t assume (or perhaps shouldn’t assume) that Jesus 2.0 would be, or should be, nothing more than an upgraded healthcare plan. But it’s only fair to say that anyone who reportedly can perform miracles will be hard-pressed by crowds of people seeking relief. What a moral dilemma seemingly for any Messiah.

Of course, Messiahs can’t have moral dilemmas because they are (at least in the Christian view) part of the very Founders of moral code. But it seems, at least from the experience of Jesus 1.0, that a Messiah will certainly dabble in miracles. We know not why so little and not so much.

It will be interesting to see how they play the epileptic chick, the daughter of Reverend Felix. Her presence on the stage vacated by Jesus 2.0 didn’t make much sense to me. Is she to be the next Mary Magdalene of sorts? Is she going to be an example of the long-line of prophets who are considered to be “touched” by God because of their strange mental afflictions?

Of all the people in this, surely Avi is the most unlikable, and it is meant to be that way. But I sure gained a healthy dislike for Mrs. Reverend Felix. No wonder the daughter wanted the hell out of there.

LOL. I’ve lived such a sheltered life. I’ve missed most of those keen sayings.



I don’t dispute that characterization at all. I have a narrow area of knowledge regarding St. Francis who seems to be a good Jew, through and through. He likes his rules (but not too many, and probably the current explosion of the Franciscan Order he would simply roll his eyes at). And he lived these rules in part to bind a community under God.

He lived an idealized life…or tried to. Like an observant Jew, he lived as if he really believed God existed. He had more than a healthy fear of hell, for sure. But he also wanted to live in accordance with the virtue outlined in the Bible. Yes, he concentrated on the New Testament. But to a Christian, the two are irreversibly linked.

To a Jew, the New Testament might seem as illegitimate and patched on as the gibberish in the Koran which is a clear parasite on the original Abrahamic faith. If Christianity is not also, it hinges on the authenticity of Jesus as the Messiah.

As Dennis Prager often says, let’s have clarity before agreement. I think I’ve been clear about this, at least according to my quite limited understanding of it all.

I just learned watching a lecture by Dr. James Tanton on The Great Courses channel that if you added up all the fractions on the line of whole numbers (as on a two-dimensional ruler), the entire “width,” if you will, of all those fractions between the whole numbers, when added up, account for zero space on that ruler. I don’t understand the logic even after seeing it. But apparently this is true.

And the astonishing conclusion from this is that mathematicians (and the rest of us) are dealing with only an extremely small set of the numbers that exist on that entire spectrum of the whole-number rule. That is, we don’t even have a clue what those other numbers are.

This is all admittedly over my head, but I have paraphrased Tanton very well, I think. And this state of affairs comes to mind when trying to comprehend God. It is thus no wonder that 999 times out of 1000, “God” is merely an extension of ego. (And if we are a manifestation of God, perhaps this isn’t a bad or incorrect thing.)

One could say, very broadly (too broadly, for sure), the Judaism is an acknowledgement that God is far too great for us to comprehend. There are certainly other reasons for this, but surely this is also evident in the Jewish inclination to write G-d and not God. Even if not, one could say that one thing we can do for sure is follow rules and rituals. These are quite tangible things. Like a doctor whose creed is, "First, do no harm" a Jew (or Christian's) credo could be "At least abide by the rituals and rules."

Christians, I think typically, are all Gnostics of one form or another. They can “know” god. They can have a “relationship” with him. No wonder the Gnostics (for more reasons than just this, for sure) were considered heretics. They simply made this aspect very clear.

And, to me, that’s another Kungian “life is complicated” aspect. If God is real, there must be some paper trail you can follow or shadow you can glimpse. Christians have this debate about works and beliefs. And you can go all esoteric up the ying-yang trying to intellectualize the point. One can say, for instance, that your beliefs aren’t anything but surface-level affectations if they don’t lead to concomitant acts. And acts alone can be hollow, even destructive, without a belief grounded in Good. (See: The Left)

No wonder there are so many denominations, religions, etc. It’s hard to put into any number of words something so big. If we can’t even know the vast majority of numbers, how much about God can we know? (And what an amazing math he must have.)

The Jewish way is good. The Christian way is good. The problem becomes one of G.K. Chestertonian proportions that surely applies to both: Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.

I understand that a blonde with dark eyebrows is probably a fake.  (This comes up in Pioneer Go Home at one point.  I also take it into account when watching TV.)  I'm sure this will come as a great shock to you.

There likely will be come kind of push back, and in our lifetimes. Boy, wasn’t that guy hosting the Golden Globe Awards something. Sometimes that’s all it takes. One person says the emperor has not clothes.

One can go on and on about the reasons for the rot of popular culture. But I think we can say that it is rot. We have to navigate it but we dare not adopt it.

And yet, people now identify so strongly with mass culture motifs and elements that it is unthinkable for most that life is even livable going against the grain. Thing of the uptick in teen suicides. This is a rational decision based on the premise that if you don’t fit in now, you never will. It's simply unthinkable to ask the question of whether one should fit in.

There are very few people telling yutes to just ditch it all, to take a look at mad mass culture, to examine it like a dissected frog and see how it is just a thing. It’s unnecessary. It’s artificial. It's downright ugly. You can choose something else.

The Amish have it right. Hasidic Jews have it right. Homeschoolers have it right. We need to chuck most of this stuff, even laugh at it and ridicule it. Our leaders (entertainment, sports, or political) have become almost to a man (or woman) extremely silly. Most of these are not serious people although they may be powerful and popular.

We had Obama for a president. The Catholics have a fake pope as Pope. The new world religion (“climate change”) is pseudo-science. Most art and entertainment has become shallow (if not downright dishonest), devoid of both beauty and meaning. Their only aim now is to distract…especially from noticing how vacuous their content is.

Billion-dollar blockbusters are so utterly without merit that a sane person begins to question his or her own sanity. Surely one must be wrong. The rest of the mass culture must, in some way, be right.

The individual lies tattered and torn, having been assaulted for years by mediocrity, dishonesty, and shallowness. People have come to expect no more, and probably simply know of nothing better.

We know better. Keep the faith.