I wrote a novel for the SE Michigan high school competition back in those days. My God in that novel was a rotating blob of light. His most notable characteristic was wiping out failure, including failed races (of aliens). Three humans convinced him he was wrong, and at that point God realized there was an even higher dimension than himself to explore. He quit exploding the stars and killing the races (just in time to avoid slaughtering all of us – remember I was quite liberal back then, and Man was Bad). Then God disappeared (apparently went off exploring).

It was a groan-worthy effort that I can’t read today, but it won back then. Must say something about its contest competition…

that when I ponder the nature of God, I can become (quite) anthropomorphic.

It is just that that particular view of God is sourced from Revealed Truth, meaning things like the Bible and what not. It was interesting to me that while you did not profess belief and faith in something like Christianity, you still tend to see God the same way Christians do. (Not Christian theologians, just most average people, those who don’t go to church or think about theology much)

A neat coincidence, your discussion of “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” It’s one of my all-time favorites, so when the trailers of the remake started showing up on TV I was delighted.

But I smelled a rat. The “Your world?” comment coupled with all the scenes of destruction of manmade things told me this was going to be a special-effects indictment against humanity.

So I went online last night to see what the buzz about was and, sure enough, it’s yet another attack by the self-haters on almost everything we’ve struggled to build over the past 6,000 years.

The special effects will draw the credulous. Still, I hope it flops.

PS: Props on your imaginary comebacks to the Keanu!

And I shouldn’t be unfair to Britney (and Paris). The problem is the people who devote vast portions of their time to her every action, not her. If they didn’t pay attention, her undeserved fame wouldn’t matter.

An aside: There’s going to be a lot of eye candy – special effects – in ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still’. But any movie containing these lines is probably going to irritate you no end:
Man: “Why have you come to our world.”
Keanu The Wise One: “YOUR world???”

Sheesh. Luckily, they let me in as screenwriter at the last moment. How this scene continues:

Man steps up and roundly slaps Keanu across the face. “Yes… OUR world. What part of “God gave Man dominion over the Earth” don’t you understand.”
Keanu: “Ow. I have come here to save the Earth from the evils of your buildings and your farms, and your-”

Man slaps Keanu again. “When a beaver builds a dam, is he despoiling the Earth? A bee with his hive? An ant with his anthill? Is the entire rest of the Universe stuck on stupid? You certainly are.”

Keanu: “Dude, I am like going to totally blow everything up now.”

Man: “Well, that’s why the audience pays the bucks. Go for it. It’s a shame, though, that they’re going to get this ridiculous, false, insipid, vacuous climate-change programming about the evils of Mankind hidden behind all the pretty explosions and chase scenes. How many pro-American quotes are in this movie? How many pro-freedom, pro-individual-responsibility messages are in this movie?”

Keanu: “Not one. The foreign box office market is more important than yours, you know. Besides, half of your country’s people believe the lies anyway, so it’s a no-brainer, dude.”

Man: “No-brainer, coming from you, makes everything suddenly quite understandable to me.”

Blogs to read while watching the crocodiles eat.* 1) A letter to the editors. 2) Apparently the Holzbergs were not tortured. Does that mean that their brutal murders weren’t antisemitic? 3) Deferring to Islam at the UN. Deferring to Islam at YouTube. …

I’d shudder, too, to think of God as a person if he were a person like us. But being a person doesn’t necessarily mean being self-absorbed, easily bored and into gossip.

Being made in God’s image, as observant Jews will tell you, means sharing the power of creation (or at least creativity) — the interest in and ability to make joy and delight out of the power of one’s mind. Think back to all the great jokes you’ve ever heard, fantastic food you’ve ever eaten or glorious music you’ve ever heard. In that respect, we are like God: No chimp, dolphin, dog or cat could have ever offered you such.

It’s also interesting that when Moses asks God what his name is, Moses is waiting for a proper name like Osiris or Jim. Instead, God’s answer is the most personal one ever offered: I AM. A non-person cannot be an I.

So, there are persons and there is the Person. I hope the Person does pay attention to Britney, one of his beloved creations, but I doubt that he is entertained by her or cannot wait to see the next tabloid item about her.