They buried the gate.

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Every time a good story is successful it happens, or so it seems. The story is good as a story and besides, and the people love it. So the secularizers pounce. They can't have that. Like culture police, they seize it, detain it, until they can corrupt it and release the trashed but compliant version upon the people. Folk culture, American culture, cannot be tolerated. Theirs must be imposed. God made humans a certain way, but things like nature and His vision can’t get in the way of their re-imagining of humanity, nor can the Christianized American culture. So good stories of good values get shelved until they can be hijacked, rebooted, or reframed… until they preach a secular story, a godless worldview. See: Disney.

Well, another good story may well be captured. A fourth iteration of Stargate was underway. Concerns that it was going to get the same corrupting treatment are well-founded. Previous attempts at reviving the story have had woke aspects. Also, Amazon has it now, and we saw what Amazon did to Wheel of Time and the Lord of the Rings. So shenanigans were anticipated, but such concerns were mitigated by word that members of the old crew were in charge of the new project and contributing besides. That included Martin Gero whose baby the new Stargate was. Maybe their fidelity to a pre-woke recipe would help keep this story awesome.

Then the hammer came down. Gero’s concept was deemed as “no longer” what Amazon wanted. How so? They didn’t elaborate officially. Word is they called it too oriented to what came before, not enough to new audiences, but the creators themselves have long expressed and addressed that concern. So, what's really going on? Was the show not woke enough? Was the new executive in charge wanting only his stuff to get credit for any success to come? Both?

Well, Amazon shelved the fourth Stargate show, indefinitely, and it doesn’t look like another opportunity will be along any time in the near future. Michael Shanks (who played Daniel Jackson) posted, “I’m gonna simply say this: if you are at all interested in a Stargate show with ANY of the original creators/performers involved, now is the time to say something. Otherwise it really will be the end of that chapter forever. Let them know you are THERE,” and Michael has been wonderfully vocal about all this.

My heart goes out to the creators. Their efforts got axed well into the development process. A writers’ room had been assembled and at it for months. Other efforts were underway as well. Also, apparently, the creators had a great deal with Amazon, financially, one that would have allowed the story to flourish amazingly instead of starving on the vine. To suddenly lose all that must be devastating. And, originally to me, it felt sinister, like the executives always had this in mind as an escape hatch. They’d learn how to make a Stargate series from Gero and his team, and then go with someone else if the results weren’t to their messed-up liking. And even worse, Gero is still under contract with them. Imagine your boss savagely destroying your beloved pet project, the one you signed on for, and now you still have to work for the guy, every day on not-your project. Yikes! Prayers for Martin.

What are the fans to do? We want more good Stargate, and we definitely don’t have the production studios for it. For one, there’s the legal IP stuff, currently being used as chains to strangle good franchises. It makes ya lose sympathy for production studios as AI threatens the industry. Maybe such AI tools mean the audience can make reasonably good movies itself, and with better storytelling, movies these cultural manipulators can’t ruin. If so, I won’t shed a tear for the studios.

We can protest. That is being done. And maybe a legal alternative to Stargate can be made. Also (and bear with me), we still have books. The written word was democratized a long time ago, and it is usually better than the movie. It’s not the same, but it is something. While IP is still in the way, nothing is stopping people from making their own good stories or even spinning and legally sharing good fan fiction. (And, yes, Stargate does have some good fan fic.)

I'll be remembering the creators in my prayers. (I can't imagine how that sudden shut down must have felt.) AND I'll enjoy good art, done for art's sake.

Penjammin grew up in a labyrinthine cavern. Later he ran with the wolves and lived every moment marinated in the sweet scent of his game, until pirates landed and… See About for full story, and get his eletter at penjams.com/subscribe.

I couldn’t ruin the documentary.

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After much trial and tribulation, I saw a movie! In theaters! No, it was quite a feat. It came out Thursday, and I wanted to see it right then or more reasonably, the very next day. But I put it off for the benefit of others. Then I planned to see it on Saturday, but I put that off in order to take a friend who would like it. Alas, things happen and Sunday was getting difficult too! So Monday? Maybe?

No. We made it work. As it turns out, I was able to take a couple of my kids to go see this brand new Intelligent Design documentary, IN THEATERS! We hardly ever make it to the movie theater.

Anyway, now we've seen The Story of Everything. When I first heard tell of it and saw that it promised great production value, oh man I was excited. I was also happy to see the names involved. It is always great to see John Lennox grace a project. I saw David Berlinski was in it who is very fun. And it was great to see Tim McGrew involved. For me, every chat with Tim has been an encounter with remarkable generosity, passion, and scholarship; and even though he is a Grandmaster, he has never beaten me in chess. (No, we've never played, but that's beside the point…)

So, all of that said, it promised great things. Add to that the fact that it touches upon the kalam, and that I have long felt that there should be a wonder-filled, professionally done documentary on the kalam cosmological argument: I was excited.

So the question is, did it live up to the excitement? No. It lived up to higher expectations. See, I had imagined the whole thing would be strict pop-appeal. But it was a real documentary. Thankfully, it had the technical richness too. (After all, it wouldn't do if the science of an ID documentary looked 9th-grade next to a Veritasium video.) My expectations were lower, so I wasn't ready for it at first. Like sipping a coke when you were expecting orange pop, a jarring but welcome surprise. Then again, I had driven for hours by the time I got to my seat, so I was tired and hungry which made the rude people nearby more annoying. (Yay the theater! 🙂 ) And so maybe even the more technical content flowed with the timing and charm of a Marvel movie. *shrugs* Better to have it either way.

“More explosions! Boo!”

No that wasn't me. The production was astounding. And overall, I had an amazing time. Really. Despite the circumstances it was great, especially when they got into the mechanics of the cell. The explanations and visuals blew me away. In fact, my kids liked these more technical parts the best, and they are the parts I most want to watch again.

So, I highly recommend checking out this show… if you like documentaries. Just don't go tired and hungry. 🙂

Penjammin grew up in a labyrinthine cavern. Later he ran with the wolves and lived every moment marinated in the sweet scent of his game, until pirates landed and… See About for full story, and get his eletter at penjams.com/subscribe.

Conservatives conserve nothing?

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Really? Zero? Looking only at losses, sure, that seems to make sense, but look around—broader than that.

“There is still good in the world, Mr. Frodo.”

Why is that good still there? Is it because its enemy is faint or doesn't want to destroy it? Have things suddenly stopped falling apart? No. When Mordor kept gaining ground, despite the efforts of its resistance, did the resistance thereby conserve nothing? No. They conserved all that was left.

To anyone not drowning masochistically in newspaper headlines, much much good remains today, including much of the long‑inherited good that conservatives love. Had the likes of Kamala or Clinton encountered no resistance, much of it would be gone.

Now, I’m not praising political conservatives. I’m only saying there’s this thing, the long‑inherited good. It’s neither the novel good nor the inherited bad. And much of its endurance is due to those who love it: conservatives. Yes, conservatives can do much better. I did a podcast episode on that with @iowancapreborn, so I agree. But so what? Thinking it means they’ve conserved nothing only means someone is dwelling on the losses.

Penjammin grew up in a labyrinthine cavern. Later he ran with the wolves and lived every moment marinated in the sweet scent of his game, until pirates landed and… See About for full story, and get his eletter at penjams.com/subscribe.

Religion Reboot?

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This is a bit of my episode with Drs. Win Corduan and Nace Howell on Mormonism and world religions. Hear the whole episode below. Enjoy.

Penjammin: After describing Mormonism as a religion (so in terms of, less its history but more its theory, I guess you might say) — [There's] its idea of the supernatural. Is it monotheistic or henotheistic or whatever? And then also there's Is it a salvation-oriented religion? And if so, what does salvation entail? (Saved to what? from what?) We talked about that. And then also what's the mechanism? to put crudely. What's the how-to to get right with heaven? … there was some a matter of works involved in some way. So, what does that sound most similar to, for you guys?

Nace: I would say it compares most closely to Islam, as far as world religions are concerned. The reason I would say that it closely compares to it is because of the number of things that we can compare it to. You can compare it to Christianity because it says the word Jesus Christ in its name. But I would say that there are more across-the-board similarities to Islam.

Penjammin: Like what?

Nace: So I wrote about seven of these similarities in my book, and I find that there's more like maybe 25 or 30 similarities. And . . .

Hear more:

Penjammin grew up in a labyrinthine cavern. Later he ran with the wolves and lived every moment marinated in the sweet scent of his game, until pirates landed and… See About for full story, and get his eletter at penjams.com/subscribe.

Apples and Oranges

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This is a bit of my episode with Dr. Nace Howell on the nature of Mormonism. Hear the whole episode below. Enjoy.

Penjammin: So if you don't mind, can we go through some of these points here? Because like you said, this little tweet here is remarkably typical. It's almost a feat, an accomplishment.

Nace: Absolutely. Yep.

. . .

Penjammin: Okay. He starts off as a lifelong member [of the LDS], so he's got some some cred there. But he also claims to be a Christian. [By the way, that's] lifelong member of the “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”. To me, that's also PR.

Nace: Absolutely. Yeah.

Penjammin: Just like, “No, no, no, no, we're not a different church. This is what you should call us.” It reminds me of the trans talk. “Use my pronouns; affirm my ideology with your own language.” And so “Don't call us Mormons. Call us this.” Eh. I want to talk how I want to talk, but we'll be respectful, you know?

Okay. Here's the first bullet point. (It's got, like, a lot of points.) But the first one is that “Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary.” And he cites Luke. Okay, so what's wrong with that, Nace?

Nace: Yeah. So I would say, like in general, all of these are based on a fundamentally different Jesus. So, what's going on here is you know, they'll say that Jesus existed before the creation, and he was with the father before the creation of the world, according to, say, that second one there, John 1:1-3. And they'll say that he's the only way. They'll say, like Acts 4:12, he's the only way to salvation. They'll say that he rose from the dead. Like I said, these are typical arguments. But the problem is that this sounds a lot like what Christians believe, but it is fundamentally different. And that fundamental difference is because the Mormon Jesus is a created being. So when they're talking about their Jesus, he is fundamentally different from the Jesus that we know as Christians…

Hear more:

Heads up: Due to a goof on my end, the audio came out in need of some help, but after much time and effort, the episode is saved! Some warble is noticeable, but it is now an enjoyable listen. *takes bow*

Penjammin grew up in a labyrinthine cavern. Later he ran with the wolves and lived every moment marinated in the sweet scent of his game, until pirates landed and… See About for full story, and get his eletter at penjams.com/subscribe.