That's What Steve Said!

Steve's Sweet 16 Scenes from LOST

2010-03-20T17:11:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of March Madness, I present my Sweet 16 Scenes from LOST. We're halfway through the final season, so now seems to be a good time to reflect on those moments from the past that stand out just a little above the rest. I'm sure there are many I've overlooked, but these are my personal choices. Enjoy! (Click on titles to watch via YouTube. For those who aren't up-to-date on the show, there's some significant spoilers in these scenes, as well as in my write-ups, so consider yourself warned.)

16. Man of Science vs. Man of Faith
Season 1 - "Exodus (Part 2)"

One of the primary themes of LOST is the battle between faith and science. This scene clearly laid out the issue and its two primary figures. It was the first of many altercations of this nature between Jack and Locke in the first three seasons, but by the mid-point of season 5, Jack would begin changing his tune on the subject, and on the man John Locke. Locke, on the other hand, well..., if you haven't seen it, I'm not gonna tell you!

15. Tom & Sawyer
Season 3 - "Through the Looking Glass"

One of the best action sequences, beginning with Hurley crashing the Others' beach party with his resuscitated Dharma van, followed by Sayid proving he can kill a man with his hands tied behind his back. As fun as that all is, it's Sawyer who wins the prize. "You and me ain't done, Zeke," he promised Tom in season 2. And it's Sawyer who gets the last word. "That's for takin' the boy off the raft." Considering that Tom had shot him and left him to die in the water, this showed that he had learned to care for his fellow survivors and would do anything to protect them.

14. Dr. Chang Quizzes Hurley
Season 5 - "Follow the Leader"

Hurley has always been the most reliable source of humor on LOST, and this scene may be his (and the series') finest comedic moment. Just the facial expressions alone as he tries to maneuver his way out of Dr. Chang's traps are priceless.

13. Meet Desmond
Season 2 - "Man of Science, Man of Faith"

The opening scene of season 2 had me initially wondering whose flashback I was watching. Little did I know we were seeing the events of the hatch detonation that closed season 1 from the perspective of a man who had lived inside for three years, entering Hurley's numbers into a computer every 108 minutes or the world would end. How did I not see that one coming? Extra credit for the marriage of such mundane living to the hopefulness of "Make Your Own Kind of Music" by Mama Cass.

12. The Wake
Season 4 - "There's No Place Like Home (Part 1)"

Back in season 3, we found out that Claire was Jack's half-sister. I was wondering when and how he'd find out, but I never would have imagined this uncomfortable scenario. You can just feel Jack's reaction when Claire's mother says her name. It's as if in that moment his whole world crashes down around him, and he realizes what a mistake he made in leaving the island. This would begin Jack's downward spiral. And then when she approaches Kate to compliment her on "her" beautiful son, the gravity of the lie is fully felt.

11. Meet Juliet
Season 3 - "A Tale of Two Cities"

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." The season 3 opening scene acted as a tribute to that of the previous season, once again introducing us to a new character in a seemingly off-island environment, listening to hopeful music, only to discover that this character was trapped on the island. What sets this scene even a step above for me is the impressiveness of the reveal at the end, and Ben's all-too-preparedness and casual reaction to what they see.

10. "Got Any Milk?"
Season 2 - "The Whole Truth"

We first met Benjamin Linus back in season 2, but we knew him then as Henry Gale. Posing as a man who came to the island with his recently deceased wife on a balloon, "Henry" lays out a scenario for what he'd do if Jack and Locke's suspicions about him were true. This is the point when Ben's evil manipulative genius became apparent, and he became one of the most awesomest villains on TV, or anywhere for that matter.

9. Boarding the Plane
Season 1 - "Exodus (Part 2)"

Slo-mo endings have become a staple of LOST through the years. This closer to season 1 illustrates just how far the survivors of Oceanic 815 had come at this point in the series. Flashing back to where all their lives became intertwined forever, we see them as strangers just passing by each other. Hurley's thumbs-up to Walt is my favorite moment, though it's also fascinating to see Jack and Locke casually acknowledge each other. The slo-mo continues as the scene shifts back to the island following the detonation of dynamite on the hatch door. As the camera descends down the hatch and the screen goes to black, it's clear that it's been quite a journey so far, but we've only just begun.

8. Juliet vs. Jughead
Season 5 - "The Incident"

How about another season closer? Our time traveling survivors, with a little help from their friends, go to incredible lengths to try to change history and nullify their plane crash. Things don't work out quite as they planned and it seems that whatever happened, happened. As painful as it is to watch Sawyer lose his grip on Juliet's hand, they get another chance to detonate Jughead when she miraculously survives her fall and finds herself face to face with the bomb. She grabs a rock, calls it an S.O.B., and... cut to white. Now that's a cliffhanger! (It should be noted that this is technically two scenes, separated by the final scene in the 2007 timeline, but it's my list and I can do what I want to!)

7. Hurley Tells the Truth
Season 5 - "The Lie"

This scene takes some brilliant 180s, and is my all-time favorite Hurley moment. Beginning with his mother getting down to serious business, asking him to tell the truth about what happened with Flight 815, he proceeds to summarize the crazy events of the first four seasons in a manner that highlights all the absurdity of the show's plot when taken at face value. Think of it as the writers sitting back and laughing about how they've managed to get so many people (like myself) to become so engrossed in such a bizarre story. But the tone shifts dramatically as Hurley turns his thoughts to those who they left behind. The painful memories are all too real. This alone is very touching, but it's his mother's unexpected reaction that makes the greatest impact for me. "I believe you. I don't understand it, but I believe you." And there's no doubt that she does. Her response is an illustration of the underlying theme of faith in things not seen or understood that has been explored on the show since season 1. Her loving relationship with her son is enough to convince her of the truth of his words.

6. The Call
Season 4 - "The Constant"

"The Constant" is one seriously crazy episode that ran the risk of being too "out there" for viewers, even die-hard fans. This episode, in which Desmond's mind alone time travels back and forth between his present body (2004) and his past (1996), while he's mentally stuck in the past in both scenarios, causing some dangerous physical side effects that will lead to his death unless he finds his "constant" to ground him in reality, remains one of the great triumphs in the show's run. They pull it off thanks to the incredibly simple love story of Desmond and Penny, concluding in a phone call that even the manliest of men aren't afraid to admit shedding a few tears to. And is it just me or does that phone seem to ring for about 5 minutes?

5. Ben Confesses
Season 6 - "Dr. Linus"

"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me." That famous 18th century hymn, written by John Newton, was featured in one of the promos leading up to the final season. LOST has always been a story about redemption, and it seemed like all of our characters would find it to some degree on the island before all was said and done. All, except maybe Ben. No, he was just too rotten. A power-crazed liar, responsible for the killing of countless people on and off the island, there was no saving Ben... or so it seemed. Finding himself on the other side of a manipulative scheme that led to him killing Jacob, and carrying the weight of guilt for the selfish decision he made that led to the death of his adopted daughter, Ben began to slowly come to grips with himself. A few episodes earlier, we saw him confess to murdering Locke, calling him "a much better man than I will ever be." So it was clear he was wrestling with guilt for his actions. But in "Dr. Linus," when he had a chance to escape from Ilana, it seemed as though he would resign himself to his miserable state and follow Smokey, knowing full well where that choice had led him before. When Ilana asks him why, his tearful reply "Because he's the only one who'll have me," shows that deep down he just wants to be loved and accepted like anyone else. He certainly wasn't prepared for Ilana's reply. "I'll have you." You could just see the weight lifted off his shoulders as amazing grace was given to him.

4. The Hatch Light
Season 1 - "Deus Ex Machina"

Poor John Locke. He had such a miserable life before the island. When he finally met his deadbeat father, Anthony Cooper, after so many years, it seemed as if he would be able to have the loving father-son relationship he always wanted. When Mr. Cooper informed him of his need for a kidney transplant, he didn't hesitate. This was his father after all, and surely he'd do the same for him, right? So when John awoke after the surgery to see that his dad had taken off, and it became apparent that he had conned him for the kidney and didn't want anything to do with him anymore, well, you can only imagine the pain, anger, and confusion he felt. He found himself in a similar place on the island as the scene transitions flawlessly. Just when it seemed that his life's purpose was becoming clear and he was making all the right steps, tragedy struck. Now he carried the weight of guilt for the death of a fellow survivor, and it didn't make any sense. This man of faith was losing it. So he let out all his anguish as he banged on the impenetrable hatch door. "I've done everything you wanted me to! So why did you do this? Why?!!!" And then a light comes on. One of the great visual moments in all of LOST, capping one of its most powerful scenes.

3. Charlie the Hero
Season 3 - "Through the Looking Glass"

When we first heard Desmond tell Charlie that he was going to die, we all hoped there was some way around it. But as Eloise Hawking explained, "the universe has a way of course-correcting." For all of Desmond's attempts to prevent it, Charlie's time was up. Bummer, right? Well, if there was ever a way to kill off one of the most popular characters on the show, this was the way to do it. Never has a death been more beautifully filmed. The slo-mo, the music, the way he looks around as if to say, "I guess this is it." But he's not done yet. Charlie spends his last moments sending out a warning to Desmond that would give his friends on the island a much needed heads-up. While it was "not Penny's boat," his heroics began a chain of events that would eventually lead her to rescue Desmond and a handful of our survivors.

2. Locke Walks
Season 1 - "Walkabout"

When I first began watching LOST, I remember thinking, "OK, what's up with this Locke guy?" In the wake of the plane crash, everyone else was freaked out and worried about finding rescue. But Locke was giving orange peel smiles and just looked like he was on the vacation of a lifetime. It's like the plane crash was the best thing that ever happened to him. Well, that turned out to be true. As we found out in "Walkabout," Locke had a pretty miserable life back in the real world. Everyone was telling him he couldn't do the things he wanted to do. Why were they so mean to him? It wasn't until that final flashback scene, when he rolls back in his wheelchair, that we see why. "Don't tell me what I can't do!!!" And when the scene transitions back to the beach in the moments immediately following the crash, we see him wiggle his toes and get to his feet, and feel the joy of a man who has just experienced something miraculous. This was the first mind-blowingly powerful scene on the show, and remains to this day one of the very best.

1. The Big Twist
Season 3 - "Through the Looking Glass"

Well, I've had a tough time compiling this list and determining how I'd rank each scene. But there was never a question as to what my #1 would be. This is what we never saw coming. A twist that was three years in the making, as we were conditioned by the show's long established format of alternating island/flashback scenes. And we all assumed that the show would end with many of our survivors finding rescue and returning home. So watching these scenes, I was wondering at what point in Jack's past was he hooked on pills, suicidal, and of course, bearded. Besides, he mentioned his father being in the hospital, and we knew he died just before Jack came to the island. So when Jack parked his car outside the airport gates, and his "friend" pulled up, got out of the car, and walked into the light, the last person I expected to see was Kate. My initial thought: "No Way! They knew each other before the island?" But as their conversation went on, it became clear what was going on. We were seeing the future. That twist alone would make this a classic, but the performance of Matthew Fox as this junkie version of Jack, stands as his finest in the series. You hear the desperation in his voice and see it in every little movement. "We were never supposed to leave," he tells Kate. It's clear that he'd come to the realization that there was something about the island that gave his life purpose, and he'd never find happiness in the real world again. And the capper comes in his final words as Kate's leaving, the most memorable line in the entire series: "We have to go back, Kate. We have to go back!!!" And thus began Jack's transformation from man of science to man of faith, as well as the series transition from looking homeward for rescue to looking back to the island for purpose. The word "epic" gets tossed around a lot these days, maybe too much. But this scene, which marks the mid-point of the series, was and still is, EPIC.

LOST Explained!!!... (I think)

2010-02-06T16:01:00.000-08:00

As many of my closest friends know, I'm a pretty big LOST fan. I've watched all 5 seasons through 3 times and spent much mental energy making sense of it all. So allow me to indulge myself and give my best educated guess on what it's all about and how the series will end. For those who don't watch the show, or aren't fully up-to-date with it, you may want to go back from whence you came. For those who want to be completely floored by what happens from here on, I'd also suggest the same (rhyming not intended). I say this not because I'm just throwing this wild theory out there in hopes that I'm right, but because I am almost entirely convinced that I've figured it out. That doesn't mean that I know how it will all take place, and I don't have answers to every last mystery, but I do feel confident that I've resolved the basic questions. And if I'm right, it's gonna be awesome!

So how did I come to such a conclusion? Well, it begins with a certain understanding of the show's history and how each season is framed. Each premiere sets the stage for the rest of the season, giving strong hints of where the show is headed up to the point of each finale. Here's how I summarize them:

Season 1 - "Where are we?" We're introduced to the mysterious island and the survivors of the plane crash. This mystery and character development continues throughout the season.

Season 2 - The Hatch & the Button. The premiere introduces us to the hatch and what it's all about. The remainder of the season is focused on the events that take place there, culminating in its destruction when the button isn't pushed.

Season 3 - The Others. The opening scene introduces us to the others and their community. The remainder of the season is focused on their conflicts with the survivors, ending with the survivors in control (Ben in handcuffs, Locke as the new leader of the others).

Season 4 - Rescue & the Oceanic Six. This premiere spells out the ending from the start and fills in the details the rest of the season, ending with the six finally making it home.

Season 5 - Dharma & the Incident. The very first scene gives us a look at Dharmaville and hints at the chaos that results from drilling into a pocket of electromagnetic energy. It doesn't become clear until the middle of the season that this is the focus, but it's telling that they made a point to begin the season there before backtracking. And of course, this season ends with our heroes doing everything they can to prevent the incident, in an attempt to radically alter the events of the past.

So what can we conclude from the premiere of season 6? Well, it's safe to assume that the great war between Jacob and the Smoke Monster will be the predominant on-island theme of the final season. I would also assume that the changed off-island reality will be the other major theme. So after watching the premiere, I asked myself a few key questions:

1. Why are things different, even before the flight? For example, why is Hurley lucky instead of cursed? Why is Sawyer friendly? And possibly the most telling to me: why does Jack take comfort in Locke's words about his father's soul not being lost? Remember, Jack was always a man of science who, up to the mid-point of season 5, would've scoffed at the spiritual idea of a soul. Not here. Even more, he tells Locke that "nothing is irreversible" when the topic shifts to his paralyzed condition. Isn't that a lesson Jack learned on the island?

2. Why is the island underwater? As we know, it was never previously underwater in 2004. We also know that following the time flash that brought the survivors from Dharmaville to 2007, the island wasn't underwater then either. So was the island underwater in the modified timeline only to re-emerge before 2007? I don't think so. Besides, Richard and the others had been living on the island the whole time as if nothing had happened, as far as time travel is concerned.

3. How are they going to kill the Smoke Monster? We know one thing for sure from the premiere: bullets don't work! You can make rings of ash to keep him outside, but that won't hurt him. So how do you do it? Some think that maybe he's the good guy and Jacob's the evil one, but that seems ridiculous to me considering what we've seen the two figures do up to this point (see the blatant lying to and manipulation of Locke and Ben). Not to mention all the Satanic symbolism that's apparent to me in his character (that's a topic unto itself, but remember his speech to Ben on why he should be the one to kill Jacob). Besides, it would be poor storytelling to kill off the bad guy after we'd just met him. So for me, there's no doubt that by season's end, Smokey must die!

The Answers!

Putting these three questions together, it all became clear to me. What's the best way to kill the Smoke Monster? Drown him! How will they do it? They will sink the island. All of this hasn't happened yet on the 2007 timeline, but it has on the newly revised timeline of 2004. The reset is an on-going process that began when our survivors were first brought to the island. Jacob brought them specifically to help them find victory over their own personal "demons" and also so they could in turn help him in defeating his. The final reset will occur when the Smoke Monster is killed and the island sinks. I don't know how they'll do it, but they will. This will be the finale. And I'd be surprised if Jacob isn't resurrected in the end.

As for how this victory will coincide with the revised lives of all the survivors, I suppose they will all find redemption off the island in ways that parallel the alternate reality of the island. It seems that some on the plane, such as Charlie and Kate, hadn't found it yet, while many others had. I'm sure we will see how this all takes place as the season progresses, and hopefully their lives will all become intertwined to some degree.

Some more food for thought:

The stakes of what occur on the island are huge. I believe that this is what Eloise Hawking was getting at when she said "God help us all" when talking about the implications of the war being lost on the island (specifically about how all of the Oceanic Six needed to return). I'm convinced that if anyone off the island has all the answers, it's her. She knows that if evil wins, it will drastically reshape the reality of life on earth as we know it. She also knows that the universe has a way of course-correcting, and I believe that this course-correcting has been done on the island at other times throughout history. That's why you have the archaeology of ancient civilizations existing alongside the Black Rock and Dharmaville.

The Smoke Monster has never truly had a human form. He duplicates the images of people (Remember how he studied Kate and Juliet when they were handcuffed together in season 3?) so he can use them later as needed. The best time to use them is when they're out of the picture so they don't contradict his representation of them. He wants to go home, and my guess is that his home is either Heaven (like Satan, who wanted to be God), or Earth (where he'd wreak havoc and destroy humanity). We know that he hates humanity, which parallels Satan. Revelation 12:10 says: "Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: 'Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.'" Smokey accused man of being evil and hates Jacob for bringing them to the island. Jacob believes in the good of people. I suspect that his talk of "progress" refers to the redemption found through the events of the island that have the effect of positively course-correcting those of the real world. In fact, his name could be a reference to Jacob's ladder, with the steps of that ladder being interpreted as progress.

There's so much more I could discuss, but I'd better leave it there for now. It's been a joy to watch up to this point and I can't wait to see how it all unfolds, even if I'm way off about all this. But I'm not!

Oh, and one more thing for those who care: Kate chooses Jack.

Steve's Five Logical Arguments for a Creator

2009-10-25T18:29:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought with my first official blog post here, I'd go for broke and deal with "The Big Question." Having recently read C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity, I was impressed with the opening section of the book which dealt with his rational argument for a Creator. He described in great detail how an inborn sense of basic morality that is common to all mankind points to a morality giver, or "God," if you will. It's a very nicely laid out argument, and one I'd recommend for all to check out on your own. I'm not going to go any further with that, as it makes a strong case, but the five concepts I'm going to attempt to describe are ones that I've contemplated in my own mind throughout the years, and are the most compelling to me. These arguments are not tied to the creationism vs. evolutionism debate, but specifically dealing with the beginning of all things in this universe and how life was able to continue from that point forward. The point of this is to lay out a positive case for a created universe. More often than not, it seems that believers in God are asked to debunk those questions of atheists that supposedly disprove God's existence. We're asked to negate the negative. Well, the five arguments I'm presenting are positive proofs of a Creator. I use the word "proof" loosely since it's impossible to scientifically prove the existence of God, but these arguments are based purely on my own logic, and I find it would take incredible faith to believe in a godless world when taking all of these together. And just to note, I don't expect this to change anyone's mind on this subject but I hope it will at least be a thought-provoking read.

1. Life from Life Alone

Flies do not come from meat. That was the result of a famous science experiment in the 17th century, which I remember replicating in my high school biology class. This experiment, and many others that followed, concluding with Louis Pasteur's similar test for microscopic organisms in the 19th century, proved that life does not arrive spontaneously, but is always born from life. This is what is called the "law of biogenesis." Regardless of how big or small a life form is, it has parents (well, at least one). Most modern scientists believe very strongly in evolution, yet most of those believe that life was born by a random explosion of lifeless matter at the beginning of time. For a godless existence to be possible, the spontaneous generation that scientists have disproved in centuries past must have occurred at the moment of "The Big Bang." Could that very first cell have been born of lifeless matter? Somehow that seems like a giant leap of faith, especially for those who live and die by the belief in the scientific method. Besides, the same people mock the idea of the resurrection of Jesus Christ based on the view that it is impossible for one who was dead to come back to life. I would rather suggest that the first life in our universe was born from a life outside of it. That creator of life is, by definition, God. Now I know how the atheist will respond to this. "Well, if all life comes from life, then who/what created God?" For that, I'll move on to argument #2.

2. Time and Infinity

Now this is the hardest concept to grasp, but I'll try my best to explain. The universe is built on a timeline. In order to get to where we are today, there had to be a past, and a chain of events starting from one definable point. That point would be the moment when the very first "thing" existed. The only way around this is to believe that the universe has always existed, and everything within it is born from what has always been here from eternity past. That, by definition, makes the universe "God." The problem with this idea is that you would then have to accept the idea that we've gotten to the present state through an indeterminable number of events in history past that have no set parameters of when they happened. The past would go as far as you can imagine it. And then when you've imagined that, you could just as well imagine a past 10,000 years before that. As you keep going further back, the present gets further from reality. OK, my brain hurts just thinking about this. So it seems the only logical explanation is to believe that there had to be a concrete starting point of history, the birth of the universe. But how could the universe be born if nothing was here before it? That's where God comes in. God is infinite. He has no beginning and no end. He exists at all times in all places at once. He knows the future just the same as He knows the past because He exists in the eternal state. This is why the question of "who created God?" is irrelevant. God, by definition is the Eternal One, responsible for the existence of all things. Time itself is an invention of His, and we exist in a sort of "alternate dimension" from the reality of eternity. How does that work? I have no idea. If I did, I'd be God. That might seem like a cop-out on a difficult question, but there are concepts which the human brain is incapable of grasping, just as there are human concepts that a rabbit's brain could never imagine. But this is for sure, infinity is not an imaginary concept. Just try to imagine the edge of the universe. Does it exist? If you imagine that, then imagine what must lie 10 feet to the other side of that edge. There must be something there (even if it's empty space), therefore there is no edge at all. Space is limitless. Whether or not there are planets or stars stretching out infinitely I don't know, but I do imagine that you could theoretically travel endlessly through space and never reach the end. So to wrap this one up, I believe in God because I believe in infinity, but I also believe in time. Time is not infinite, but is born of the infinite.

3. Intelligence

Supposing this world came about accidentally, and life somehow came to exist at a microscopic level. At what point in the chain of evolution required to get from there to where we are now did the first thought come about? Intelligence is something you either have or you don't. Life can exist without it, as it does in plants or bacteria, but all animals have it to some degree. So how did we make the jump from non-intelligent life to intelligent life? Intelligence itself is an intangible thing. Obviously it requires a brain. But the brain itself is not intelligence. It is the house in which all thoughts reside, but those thoughts can't be seen or touched. The concept of natural selection implies that living things make choices on who/what to procreate with, which requires some level of comprehension. Remove that comprehension and the decision would then have to be made for them. So in that scenario, a guiding intelligence source would be required to make the selection for them. The whole basis for evolution seems to depend on either the decision-making of a species, or some kind of guiding force that controls what actions it takes to exist and carry on the chain of life. Either you have intelligence in the species which cannot have evolved from non-intelligence (what would half-formed intelligence be?), or the outside force of intelligence. Either scenario seems impossible without an intelligence-giver. Isn't it ironic that some of the most intelligent people in this world are atheists? It reminds me of the movie "9," where the robots that humans created turned against them and annihilated them. Atheists take credit for their own intelligence and seek to destroy God, the one who gave them the brilliant minds they have.

4. Provision

Imagine a world in which the universe came about and a single life form was born. What would that life need to survive beyond that moment? What if conditions changed and as soon as the life was born, it was snuffed out? Fortunately for us, we have everything we need to live here on Earth. Our climate is moderate and we are at a safe distance from the sun, gravity holds us to the ground so we don't float away, we have air to breathe, water, plants and animals that provide us the nutrients we need to keep our bodies sustained, the means to move our bodies, and among other things, the ability to create new life to carry on after we die (more on that later). I'm sure I could list thousands of other examples of the provision for life that we have. Now hypothetically, imagine we humans had everything we needed to survive except for food. We could eat plants or animals, but they did nothing to provide nourishment for us. Though every other condition is right, the failure in that one area would mean the death of us all. These provisions we have are not accidental. To believe so is to believe in something so incalculably improbable that it goes so far beyond reason to a point of faith that I simply do not have. I find it much more logical to believe that such things are as they are for a purpose. Of course, having a purpose requires a purpose-giver. I like to call him "God."

5. Sexual Reproduction

The simplest forms of life are single-celled organisms which replicate themselves by splitting in half. If life began at such a level and evolved from there, at what point did male and female come into being and why? It seems as though self-replication is the easiest method. Therefore, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? However, at some point in the chain of living things, organisms must have had a reason why it was advantageous to reproduce sexually, which of course required the evolution of male and female versions of their previously asexual selves. One of the ideas that seems prevalent in evolution is that organisms evolve the traits they need to survive. In practice, this implies that there is either a conscious decision to start evolving the necessary trait, or a guiding force insuring that what is needed will result from a series of mutations. If it is a conscious decision, then theoretically humans could all conclude that it would be helpful for us to be able to see in the dark, and in time some of us might succeed in producing children with mutated eyes that improve their night-vision. If it is a conscious decision, you then have a problem at the pre-intelligence level as discussed earlier. They would not be able to evolve because they couldn't choose to. They would be reliant on a guiding force, which must be intelligent. Applying this to reproduction, a species must have then began developing male and female traits simultaneously, which would have been worthless to them during the transitional stages of evolution. Those traits would only have purpose when they finally reached the functional stage, an undefined number of generations later, and possibly far removed from each other in each gender. In the meantime, their metamorphosis would likely have removed their ability to self-replicate. If this weren't so, the ability to reproduce either way would have been advantageous and unlikely to have disappeared. Logically, this just doesn't add up. Male and female must have arrived on Earth simultaneously, fully-formed. The odds that this happened accidentally are way beyond improbable. It must have been by design.

Now looking at humans, regardless of sexual function, men and women are by nature different in numerous other ways. Yet with the exception of a small minority of people, we're physically attracted to the opposite sex. Nobody has to be taught this. My personal belief is that sex education is for the most part unnecessary (at least the "how to" part). Sexual attraction is inborn, and operates outside of pure function. At least from a male point-of-view, the drive for sex has no basis in the need to procreate. But somehow even those who've never experienced sex before know internally that it's pleasurable. And more than that, they understand that just by interacting with those attractive members of the opposite sex. Where does this knowledge come from, and how is this pleasure naturally understood? This kind of knowledge may be what we understand as "instinct" in animals. But instinct is simply implanted instructions within our bodies on how to live as we were designed to live. It's a guiding force, directing us for a purpose. Sexual attraction is God's way of motivating us (well, at least men) to procreate. And through sex, we create individuals who are different from ourselves, unlike those self-duplicating organisms. God designed us each to be unique individuals with unique purposes for our lives. He doesn't want us to be clones of each other, but to be the individuals He created us to be. Sex is a picture of God's design, and that design points us back to God.

Conclusion

Bertrand Russell once made an analogy comparing the belief in God to the belief in a floating teapot in space that is too small to be seen by any telescope. The idea was that to believe in either is equally ridiculous since there is no reason to, other than the fact that we are told by others that it is so. But to reduce belief in God to that level is a poor analogy, since none of the arguments I've presented above could be applied to that teapot. There is no reason to believe in it, and its existence would fail to explain anything about this universe we live in. Belief in God is a logical conclusion when you open up your eyes to see this place for what it is. Romans 1:20 (NIV) says, "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." Of course, to believe there is a God is only the beginning. We then must decide what that means for us. If God is real, how should that affect my life? And how do I know who He really is when there are so many concepts of God out there? My short answer would be to read the Bible, but to explain why would require more words than I could write here. Perhaps another time I will tackle my arguments for Christianity specifically, but this essay is long enough for now. Good night and thanks for reading.

-Steve F.

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2009-10-25T18:23:00.000-07:00

Well, here I am! I've finally taken the plunge into the dark, dangerous world of internet blogging. Feel free to provide any feedback you may have, so long as it's respectful. {Disclaimer: the thoughts and opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of blogspot.com or Google or anyone else for that matter, but they should be!} Have fun!

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