Just before TJ comes back to camp to tell everyone that she's not going back to the ship, we see a shot of her looking at the waterfall and a cut to this image:
At the center of the image are three distinct branches of the waterfall merging into one. Christians sometimes use such imagery as symbolism for the Trinity, the concept that there can be three persons in one God.
It may seem like a stretch to say that such symbolism was intentionally used here, and ordinarily I would not have even spotted it, if I had not heard the example of Francis Collins repeatedly.
Francis Collins is both a famous scientist, director of the Human Genome Project, and Christian. He is often cited as an example of someone who can have both a strong scientific outlook combined with a Christian faith. According to him, the crucial moment of inspiration for his Christian faith came when he walked by a frozen stream one day and saw a frozen waterfall with three branches combining into one. Suddenly he understand what the Trinity meant and his life changed.
This example is often cited by atheists such as Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens as simplistic. It's from their speeches that I originally heard it.
When I saw it in this episode, with its obvious theistic overtones, I thought, "uh oh, getting a little preachy here, aren't we Stargate?" But that's just because I know the Francis Collins example so well.
Still, I wonder if they were trying to say something about the TJ character, or perhaps they really were trying to sneak a little subliminal something? Either way, I thought it was an interesting thing to point out.
At the center of the image are three distinct branches of the waterfall merging into one. Christians sometimes use such imagery as symbolism for the Trinity, the concept that there can be three persons in one God.
It may seem like a stretch to say that such symbolism was intentionally used here, and ordinarily I would not have even spotted it, if I had not heard the example of Francis Collins repeatedly.
Francis Collins is both a famous scientist, director of the Human Genome Project, and Christian. He is often cited as an example of someone who can have both a strong scientific outlook combined with a Christian faith. According to him, the crucial moment of inspiration for his Christian faith came when he walked by a frozen stream one day and saw a frozen waterfall with three branches combining into one. Suddenly he understand what the Trinity meant and his life changed.
This example is often cited by atheists such as Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens as simplistic. It's from their speeches that I originally heard it.
When I saw it in this episode, with its obvious theistic overtones, I thought, "uh oh, getting a little preachy here, aren't we Stargate?" But that's just because I know the Francis Collins example so well.
Still, I wonder if they were trying to say something about the TJ character, or perhaps they really were trying to sneak a little subliminal something? Either way, I thought it was an interesting thing to point out.
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