General Observations and the Tower of Babylon theme
1. Rush, for a man who is supposed to be intelligent, posed a false dichotomy. I can think of two other possibilites at this very mooment: 1. God wishes for the people to suffer at the end for some reason (to serve a higher purpose that nobody understands yet) and 2. that God likes to see people suffer.
Don't get me wrong. I sympathize with Rush's agnostic view on the matter, and it was agnostic up until this very scene (if you paid attention to what he was saying). I incline more to the alien view and I fully expect that thats' where the writers will go as there is very few in the science fiction genre which treats theism favourably.
Now, it sounds to me that Rush was just frustrated at Caine's blind faith and presumption. I agree, but is it really necessary to be so cruel about it? Seriously?
2. And it wasn't just Rush. Eli, Young, and Wray were similarly mean-spirited and hostile re: that (blind) faith (memorable moment again) There was no reason for it. It reminds me of some of the negative stereotypes of atheists.
3. What with Greer's paranoia and lack of impulse control, Young's demonstrated inability to handle the stress of the job (demonstrated in so many extreme ways!), Rush's obsessive desire to rebuild the Tower of Babylon, and Chloe's blackouts, I'm beginning to think that most of these characters are mentally unstable.
4. Eli quoted Arthur C. Clarke like he was holy writ. I almost expected Caine would quote back some obscure religious work. Clarke's comment only makes sense if we presume that the less advanced race is superstitious and just as presumptuous as Eli (except in the other way - favouring the supernatural. Eli favours the philosopically materialist conception of the universe.). So, Eli's comment contributed nothing except for a "you're a poopyhead" or "Arthur C. Clarke thinks you must be irrational, and I like to think you are, therefore, you are"
5. Yet, Caine's group is irrational. Such blind faith, but I expect more to be revealed as the show continues on. I wouldn't be surprised if we find out that Caine was justified in trusting the aliens to take care of them, but that they still are just aliens and not gods. Interestingly enough, I'm not sure that an advanced race that operates outside our universe (the laws of which supersede our own), is much different in substance from "gods" to begin with. I don't expect SGU to go in this direction, though. It's a little too obvious (at least, for me). No, what I expect is that they want to turn the Destiny crew into mini-gods (of a sort).
6. Which relates back to my Tower of Babylon comment. I watched the episode where Rush revealed to Young this message or footprint in the beginning of the universe. He described it in much more grandiose words than he did in later episodes - re: the nature of reality and how it would be a source of power.
I suspect that the Stargate franchise has been anticipating this metaphorical building of a new Tower of Babylon (Eli's reference to the song "Stairway to Heaven" was perfect!) direction for quite some time.. note: the Goauld (snake creatures which possess people pretending to be gods - in the Bible, demons [the devil is portrayed as a serpent] are said to pretend to be gods for much the same reasons as the goauld did in Stargate), the Ori and implicit slamming of monotheism, and perhaps the ascended beings as somehow, the enlightened few who have reached...well, we never quite got the message of "what" other than some secret higher level of existence.
In the story of the Tower of Babylon, people tried to create a tower to reach heaven. They didn't want to do this to worship God or anything. It was a humanist attempt to "gain a name for themselves"..to do something grand and godlike, to try and almost render themselves equal to god, perhaps to become as gods themselves.
Rush is not building any literal towers. It's metaphorical. Rush is metaphorically trying to get to the seat of creation, figure out how this thing could exist (that shouldn't according to his current understanding of the laws of physics), so that he can gain a name for himself, so that he and they can gain power and knowledge. Is this not what he said or implied?
Because once they do..they can do anything they want. As Eli would say, "magic"...except not magic..sort of. Just some absurdly high piece of technology or something.
Considering how unstable the crew of the Destiny is, I shudder to think how they would misuse such power if they were to ever discover and wield it.
Anyways, I've been reading this forum and watching this show. I'm surprised no one else picked up on the Tower of Babylon theme. It veritably screams out at me.
Perhaps, folks have picked up on it but are unaware that it is biblical in origin (but meant to slam the biblical account, rather than promote or illustrate it).
I still love Eli's "Stairway to Heaven" comment regarding this cosmic sign. That is almost what the Tower of Babel would look like according to some authorities...a ziggurat.
I can't be the only one who sees this. Maybe it's so obvious that nobody else felt a need to express it.
Don't get me wrong. I sympathize with Rush's agnostic view on the matter, and it was agnostic up until this very scene (if you paid attention to what he was saying). I incline more to the alien view and I fully expect that thats' where the writers will go as there is very few in the science fiction genre which treats theism favourably.
Now, it sounds to me that Rush was just frustrated at Caine's blind faith and presumption. I agree, but is it really necessary to be so cruel about it? Seriously?
2. And it wasn't just Rush. Eli, Young, and Wray were similarly mean-spirited and hostile re: that (blind) faith (memorable moment again) There was no reason for it. It reminds me of some of the negative stereotypes of atheists.
3. What with Greer's paranoia and lack of impulse control, Young's demonstrated inability to handle the stress of the job (demonstrated in so many extreme ways!), Rush's obsessive desire to rebuild the Tower of Babylon, and Chloe's blackouts, I'm beginning to think that most of these characters are mentally unstable.
4. Eli quoted Arthur C. Clarke like he was holy writ. I almost expected Caine would quote back some obscure religious work. Clarke's comment only makes sense if we presume that the less advanced race is superstitious and just as presumptuous as Eli (except in the other way - favouring the supernatural. Eli favours the philosopically materialist conception of the universe.). So, Eli's comment contributed nothing except for a "you're a poopyhead" or "Arthur C. Clarke thinks you must be irrational, and I like to think you are, therefore, you are"
5. Yet, Caine's group is irrational. Such blind faith, but I expect more to be revealed as the show continues on. I wouldn't be surprised if we find out that Caine was justified in trusting the aliens to take care of them, but that they still are just aliens and not gods. Interestingly enough, I'm not sure that an advanced race that operates outside our universe (the laws of which supersede our own), is much different in substance from "gods" to begin with. I don't expect SGU to go in this direction, though. It's a little too obvious (at least, for me). No, what I expect is that they want to turn the Destiny crew into mini-gods (of a sort).
6. Which relates back to my Tower of Babylon comment. I watched the episode where Rush revealed to Young this message or footprint in the beginning of the universe. He described it in much more grandiose words than he did in later episodes - re: the nature of reality and how it would be a source of power.
I suspect that the Stargate franchise has been anticipating this metaphorical building of a new Tower of Babylon (Eli's reference to the song "Stairway to Heaven" was perfect!) direction for quite some time.. note: the Goauld (snake creatures which possess people pretending to be gods - in the Bible, demons [the devil is portrayed as a serpent] are said to pretend to be gods for much the same reasons as the goauld did in Stargate), the Ori and implicit slamming of monotheism, and perhaps the ascended beings as somehow, the enlightened few who have reached...well, we never quite got the message of "what" other than some secret higher level of existence.
In the story of the Tower of Babylon, people tried to create a tower to reach heaven. They didn't want to do this to worship God or anything. It was a humanist attempt to "gain a name for themselves"..to do something grand and godlike, to try and almost render themselves equal to god, perhaps to become as gods themselves.
Rush is not building any literal towers. It's metaphorical. Rush is metaphorically trying to get to the seat of creation, figure out how this thing could exist (that shouldn't according to his current understanding of the laws of physics), so that he can gain a name for himself, so that he and they can gain power and knowledge. Is this not what he said or implied?
Because once they do..they can do anything they want. As Eli would say, "magic"...except not magic..sort of. Just some absurdly high piece of technology or something.
Considering how unstable the crew of the Destiny is, I shudder to think how they would misuse such power if they were to ever discover and wield it.
Anyways, I've been reading this forum and watching this show. I'm surprised no one else picked up on the Tower of Babylon theme. It veritably screams out at me.
Perhaps, folks have picked up on it but are unaware that it is biblical in origin (but meant to slam the biblical account, rather than promote or illustrate it).
I still love Eli's "Stairway to Heaven" comment regarding this cosmic sign. That is almost what the Tower of Babel would look like according to some authorities...a ziggurat.
I can't be the only one who sees this. Maybe it's so obvious that nobody else felt a need to express it.
Chloe's blackouts aren't a matter of any mental instability but a matter of an "infection" for lack of a better term. And as much as I like to ride rough shod over Rush on occasion, I think he's about as mentally stable as any of them right now. My not liking the way he thinks from time to time doesn't really change that. I'm really not getting the tower of babylon reference.
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