I can only remember there being three trailers before tonights movie:

Lara Croft and the Cradle of Life (Tomb Raider 2)

IMDb	Teaser trailer	Official website

X-Men 2

IMDb	Teaser trailer	Second trailer	Official website

Holes

IMDb	Teaser trailer	Official website

Went to the movies this evening to see the eagerly awaited movie “The Core”

IMDb	Teaser trailer	Official website

It’s obvious in a movie of that genre that people would die as heroes, and I wont spoil it for those of you who want to see the movie yourselves by revealing who said heroes are going to be. However it was a little tough to watch in places - it earned a PG-13 rating in my opinion. The science in it is wayyyy off but that doesnt stop it being a fun evening out!

Having been reading the news and rumnours sites for a while it’s interesting to see the final cut of the movie; recent headline news of the shuttle disaster caused a major headache at the film studio and the last minute reshoot and reedit to avoid a cultural faux pas.

My reading of specifically Pagan sources reveals a great diversity in tradition and practice with a distinct Jungian viewpoint on the divine. While specific deities are often named, they are all to often reduced back to simple archetypes when finished with. These archtetypes come through strongly when the more ecumenical pagans write, trying to communcate their thoughts to a myriad of different traditions by simply refering to the architype (and leaving the exact naming as an exercise for the reader). It seemed very common in the generic writings to find “the goddess” and “consort” reduced to the faceless and impersonal female and male aspects of divinity.

It seems a logical extension of the Jungian archetype concept really. You reduce the myriad of masculine and feminine deities to 2 archetypal ones, then strip those down still further into simply being aspects of a faceless “divinity”. Its fascinating to see polytheism reduced to monism in such a simple step; the belief in multiple gods/goddesses turned around into a belief in one all-pervading whole without distinction.

Christianity is neither polytheist nor monist. There are clear delineations between creation and creator and between the Father, Son (Jesus) and Holy Spirit as members of the Trinity. The delineations between members of the Trinity never go so far as to ascribe different essence to each member however: all members of the trinity are distinct in relationship to one another, while being identical in essence. All are one God, yet eternally distinct from one another when we look at their roles and relationships.

I can see where confusion would arise however. At least one tradition took a multi-level approach to the divine, holding both monist and polytheist viewpoints in tension within their teaching. They viewed the highest authority, the deepest level of divinity as being genderless. Next down from that were the male and female aspects of divinity. Finally the traditional Greek elements (fire, water, air and earth) were split into masculine and feminine areas of influence.

From a specifically Pagan viewpoint the Trinity bears some resemblance. God the Father, though we use anthropomorphicly masculine terminonogy to refer to Him, is genderless in any human sense. The Father’s revelation to us leads us to view Him in the masculine yet He is spirit without human form or human sexuality. Jesus took on human form, dwelt on this planet as a specifically male individual. Lastly if you examine the role and especially the gender pronouns used in the Hebrew scriptures the Holy Spirit is often ascribed a feminine aspect - nurturing, comforting, teaching. There is a mystery to how to exactly define the Trinity but I dont believe that there is enough mystery to draw an exact equivilence to the Pagan understanding. However the similarity might be a worthwhile stepping stone on the road toward a fuller understanding of truth, if an open mind is maintained.

Now, here’s an interesting one: the study of Christ (Christology) breaks into two areas in general

Low Christology

• evaluation of Jesus in terms that do not necessarily include divinity
  • Messiah
  • Rabbi
  • Prophet
  • High Priest
  • Master

High Christology

• evaluation of Jesus in terms that include an aspect of divinity
  • Lord
  • Son of God
  • God
  • Saviour
  • I AM

So, it is fair to use the term aspect when refering to the Christian God. However that reference is to roles, or titles, not distinct persons within the Trinity. In other words, Jesus is not an aspect of God, yet the more general term Saviour could be thought of as an aspect of the Divine.

The programming language aspectJ is one application of apect oriented programming (AOP) to the Java language. The documentation points out that aspectJ is at its best when dealing with “cross-cutting concerns” - pieces of functionality that are liberally sprinkled throughout an application. For example, logging, where a message should be written to a log file when particular points are reached in an application. The logging aspect would pull the logging code into a single place, and it would be applied to different parts of the codebase.

So too would be the cross-cutting concern of being Saviour - all members of the Trinity play a role. There are different aspects - different viewpoints - on salvation that are all equally valid. It has an aspect of the past - I was saved by the work completed by Jesus on the cross. It has an aspect of the continuing present - I am continuing to work out my salvation with deep reverence and respect for the God who saved me, my Father in heaven who disciplines me through the indwelling Holy Spirit and thereby continues a work of sanctification in my life. Finally there’s an aspect of a future hope - that I will be glorified, the work completed, when Christ returns again. Salvation would be a cross-cutting concern, and a completely valid aspect of the divine, but the distinction between members of the Trinity goes far deeper.

A recent blog comment got me thinking and that lead me to go hunt down the actual definition of aspect - Merriam-Webster’s dictionary says:

Main Entry: aspect
Pronunciation: as-pekt
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Latin aspectus, from aspicere to look at, from ad- + specere to look
Date: 14th century

1. • the position of planets or stars with respect to one another held by astrologers to influence human affairs; also : the apparent position (as conjunction) of a body in the solar system with respect to the sun

   • a position facing a particular direction : EXPOSURE (the house has a southern aspect)
   • the manner of presentation of a plane to a fluid through which it is moving or to a current
2. • appearance to the eye or mind

   • a particular appearance of countenance : MIEN
3. a particular status or phase in which something appears or may be regarded (studied every aspect of the question)
4. (archaic) : an act of looking : GAZE
5. • the nature of the action of a verb as to its beginning, duration, completion, or repetition and without reference to its position in time

   • a set of inflected verb forms that indicate aspect

More to come as I get the concept of an “aspect” locked down in my mind.

I started out watching a few trailers on Apple’s website. However I soon found myself over on SCIFI.COM where the Children of Dune mini-series has an entire page of feature interviews with cast and crew. Fantastic! In other news, the site says that a new version of Battlestar Galactica is planned: Production begins in Vancouver in March. Battlestar Galactica will air exclusively on SCI FI in late 2003.

While you’re on SCIFI.COM, you might want to take a look at their Stargate SG-1 information too.

Only one God?

Some time ago now, Pete Bevin asked me the question - other than John 14:6 (where Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”) is there anything in the bible that says that there is only one God, and that Jesus is the only way to God?

I understand his point. Most Christians quote that single passage like there’s no other support for their case. I am as guilty as the next man on that charge, however, the bible is far from silent on the topic as I hope to show in this article.

Improved the river picture some more - added textures for snow and river banks, along with modifying the camera position a little.

Take me to an art gallery and I will be captivated by landscapes. Similarly with digital art: it’s the abstract stuff and the landscapes that catch my attention. That’s why I like Terragen so much. I mean, just take a look at the picture (above) that I generated this evening without much effort at all. Those artists who spend time doing some post-processing on images can create even more stunning results!