little miss sunshine's uncle

--)There will never be another LOST. After the the failure of Flashward, I doubt there will be another attempt to construct another similiar paradigm: the world in peril, its salvation depends on a very few. LOST had everything except a clear vision from the beginning. The whole of Season 1 was a magnificient introduction to nearly all the protagonists. The device (unintensional) of introducing Ben in season 2 revealed the series' true theme. Then came Faraday. WHY WAS HE THERE? You need to decide that for yourself. Was he the shadow of things to come? Did he represent Christ? For me he did. All of season 6 was about saving Hurley and Ben, give Jack and Locke peace in their deaths: Faraday's instrument was Desmond. The male God replaces the female. What was missing a lot: Eli's death -- the last priestess of the female Mother. What we saw: Ben renounces Rousseau and begins his redemption. His cleverness and his cold-blooded ruthless in the service of Hurley (he who walks among us but is not one of us. What was missing? Faraday's return from beneath the shadow of the statue. Then he rescues Jack and Locke; the three walking into eternity. Here we place the final scene between Ben and Locke. The return of flight 316: Kate and Sawyer realizing that they have each their soulmates and parting. Desmond taking the shattered widmore enterprises and being re-united with Penny. Walt admitted that he killed Eli and swearing that he will never leave Aaron. Aaron's grandmother must accept this or die. "My father killed and was killed to preserve this child and myself. Many others died for our sakes, so that the world would continue. We were chosen by God. You have the choice that many others were never given. Choose life. Much of Fst could have deleted to make room for these extra scenes.

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I agree that the quality of priests varies widely. But, as you know, I look upon theology as an academic subject. it's about linguistics, anthropology, philosophy, physics. In fact I think such "atheists" as Stephen Hawking are far closer to God than most priests or imans. Those who study creation are studying; often they are so close to Him that they do not realize it. Newton, Clerk Maxwell (as important as Einstein to physics) and Einstein were profoundly religious. Newton was an opponent of many Anglican tenets. his theological tracts far outweigh his scientific works (measured in pounds). Maxwell was a fundamentalist Christian who wrote hymms. Einstein was consumed by the concept of design within the universe; he termed his later work "having tea with the old man" (God).
Religion is a burden. St Paul speaks again and again of his suffering and the difficulties encountered by the various early Christian communities. There is no greater tribute to a pedophile than Dante's canto 15 of Inferno. He places in hell his teacher and loyal friend Bruno Latini for sexual activities. But for the only time in all of the Inferno, Dante remarks that not only is he sorry (pity which always is a component in Dante's view of the damned), but he sees Latini, not simply as someone lost to God, but as a champion. My summary cannot do justice to Dante's admission that his greatest teacher is the paragon of the greatest sin (to us in our time). to read it is to understand something that CS Lewis said in The Screwtape Letters: side by side, we find the greatest virtues and the greatest vices; these individuals are Satan's favorite targets.
Read John Donne, George Herbert, Manley Hopkins, Francis Thompson, TS Eliot: each probes the pain of confronting the divine.
To lose the knowledge of God is a greater burden than the knowledge of God's manifold works. A final example: Wallace, Alfred co-discover of theory of evolution renounced his theory because he could not account for human virtue within the paradigm of evolution. His work as a biologist is great if not greater than Darwin's; however, he rejected his work because he could not bear the idea of man without the spark of divinity. Read SJ Gould's Mind and Supermind. Gould's Essay appears in The Flamingo's Smile to see the argument against evolution that Wallace advanced. He would overturn all of science if there was no room for God within it. Much of what he wrote was madness. He chose Christianity instead of acclaim. (His evidence for evolution was much stronger than Darwin's) His theory is far more difficult than special creation. It remains unproven. He chose God over his own fame; he chose ridicule over renown.