Creator

Sing along with me now -
He's got the whole world, in his hands,
He's got the whole wide world, in his hands,
He's got the whole world, in his hands,
He's got the whole world in his hands.

Piglet's Creator:

Friday

And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. - Genesis 1:24-31



Since Alyska hasn't yet made the sixth window in her Creation series, I figured I'd finish up the week with Brendan Powell Smith's rendition of Michelangelo's Creation of Adam.

Thursday

And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. - Genesis 1:20-23



Alyska Bailey Peterson built this LEGO Creation window based on a series of stained glass windows from the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Bilton, Warwickshire.

Wednesday

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. - Genesis 1:14-19



Alyska Bailey Peterson built this LEGO Creation window based on a series of stained glass windows from the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Bilton, Warwickshire.

Tuesday

And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day. - Genesis 1:9-13



Alyska Bailey Peterson built this LEGO Creation window based on a series of stained glass windows from the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Bilton, Warwickshire.

Monday

And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. - Genesis 1:6-8



Alyska Bailey Peterson built this LEGO Creation window based on a series of stained glass windows from the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Bilton, Warwickshire.

Sunday

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. - Genesis 1:1-5



Alyska Bailey Peterson built this LEGO Creation window based on a series of stained glass windows from the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Bilton, Warwickshire.

Day Four

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
-Genesis 1:14-19



Alyska Bailey Peterson, who I previously blogged, has another beautiful stained glass window, Creation: Day Four. This is a LEGO interpretation of a stained glass window at the Sacred Heart Church in Bilton, England. She's planning on continuing on to tell the whole story of creation in stained glass, so I'll be excited to see the rest of this project.

Found via MosicBricks.

Did God create evil?

From Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica: "But evil has no formal cause, rather is it a privation of form; likewise, neither has it a final cause, but rather is it a privation of order to the proper end; since not only the end has the nature of good, but also the useful, which is ordered to the end. Evil, however, has a cause by way of an agent, not directly, but accidentally."
Alex Eylar illustrates this nicely in LEGO form.

In the beginning . . .

Well, actually just back in 2001, Brendan Powell Smith started his Brick Testament project off with The Garden of Eden and five other illustrated stories from Genesis. He's gone back and redone this, breaking it into two parts: Creation and the Garden of Eden. Part of me asks why do this? Yes, there are many new elements that he uses here that were unavailable nine years ago, and Brendan's building has certainly improved over time, but those original scenes in Eden are so iconic to the Brick Testament that it seems they shouldn't have been touched (e.g. the scene with the Kaadu and Jar-Jar among the created animals). You can compare the old and the new on this page. And the original will always be with us in book form, so let's go on and look at these new iterations with fresh eyes.

Creation - Some nice bits in the start with the differences between dark and light and God lifting up the sky. Having God float over the creation scenes is a nice decision, presumably achieved via Photoshop layering. Genesis 1:10, the creation of land, is a great example of this. I'm really curious as to what piece is used for the sun here, some lid? And the moon and stars are great (and nice to bracket the story, as he uses a very similar technique in Revelations). Genesis 1:21 with the fish and birds is well done and along with Genesis 1:24-25, the creation of animals, shows how many more LEGO animals are available than when the Brick Testament began. Hey, there's the Kaadu! Now I'm happy again. Great new sheep design in 1:25. About the only non-LEGO aspect worth noting is 1:27, where God makes people, and Brendan chooses not to just make Adam and Eve, but a whole bunch of people. He comments on Flickr that he treated the Genesis 1 and 2 creation accounts separately, without trying to harmonize them. I do think it might have been better here to include racial diversity, with various flesh tone figs included, but perhaps there weren't blank torsos/hips/legs available in these other colors. The final scene, with God kicking back in a hammock on the seventh day, is priceless.



The Garden of Eden - This is generally well done and in keeping with the original version. I really like God building Adam up out of brown dirt, and then bringing him to life as a yellow fig. I'm really not a fan of the design of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. I've tried using that stump element as the base for a tree before and come up short, and I'm afraid to say that Brendan's solution doesn't work for me here either. The Tree of Life, OTOH, has a very nice design. In 2:24, it's a little creepy to have God standing there while Adam and Eve get to know each other. In 3:7, I really like the way he's switched heads for Adam and Eve to the open-mouthed expressions, and then keeps these up for the next several scenes. Nice use of the brand new caveman torso for the newly clothed figs, and that last scene is great - especially the scraggly brown out-of-focus trees in the background.



By the way, Brendan also recreated Michelangelo's Creation of Adam, though it doesn't get used in either of these stories.

And on the sixth day ...

Brucey-wan shows us creation out of the clay of the ground. In case you don't know, those little pellets are the raw plastic that is molded into LEGO pieces like that minifig.

Intelligent design

LEGO has played a small role in a debate over evolution, intelligent design and the role of religion in the classroom. John Freshwater was a middle school science teacher in Ohio until he was fired for a number of violations involving inappropriate use of religion in the classroom, teaching of ID and abusive treatment of students. In one of the various hearings and lawsuits, he testified about whether he used a thought experiment involving LEGO. It goes like this - if you shake up a box of blocks, a completed model is not going to suddenly appear. Therefore, he argues, you can't expect complex order to come from disorder.
Speaking as someone who is both a scientist and religious, this is incredibly simple-minded. The real ID thinkers are much more sophisticated than this and should be met on those grounds, rather than some (alleged) abusive jerk who doesn't seem to know much either science or religion. Oh well, at least it was an interesting LEGO reference.


(image of LEGO bricks by TravelingRoths)

Breakfast Television

Janey Red Brick recently appeared on Breakfast Television, a morning news program in Canada. This was a great public display of our hobby, and I've previously blogged Janey on my other blogs for her vignettes and microscale MOCs, but I'm noting her here for her MOC of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.



The FSM's first appearance was in a 2005 letter from Bobby Henderson to the Kansas State Board of Education, using satire to object to the teaching of Intelligent Design theory in public schools. The FSM has since become a sort of internet icon among skeptic and atheist groups, having some fun with the whole idea of organized religion.



On Flickr, Janey has more photos from her appearance on Breakfast Television.

The heavens declare the glory of God

The Pillars of Creation is a photo of a portion of the Eagle Nebula where new stars are being formed. It is also a LEGO mosaic by Brandon Button. Why include it here? Let's look to Brandon's motivation in choosing his subject matter, as reported in an article in the Mormon Times:

Button also says he was struck by the connection to the gospel the "Pillars of Creation" photograph seem to represent.
The three "Pillars of the Gospel" are the Creation, the Fall and the Atonement. In the temple, intimate details of the Creation and the Fall are revealed. The need for the Atonement is made very clear. In the temple, a grander perspective of the Plan of Salvation is presented.
He says that through this photograph, "we can realize and feel God's love for us in a more personal way and on a broader scale." To Button, this photograph shows order and purpose to the universe, and is evidence that our own existence is not accidental.

Sadly, this is the only photo I can find of the mosaic. Photo credit goes to John Evans of the Mormon Times. Hopefully Brandon, the builder, will post photos of this to one of the photo sharing sites LEGO hobbyists tend to use - he mentions in the article that he got the mosaic software from Lugnet, a major LEGO hobby website, so he has some connection to the fan community.

From the Earth to the Moon

I was trying to think of a way to tie in today's 40th anniversary of the moon landing, and I thought of the Apollo 8 mission. On Christmas Eve, 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 made a television broadcast from beyond the moon. They showed the dramatic first view of the Earth rising above the lunar surface and read from Genesis 1:

William Anders "We are now approaching lunar sunrise and, for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

Jim Lovell "And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

Frank Borman "And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas – and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth."

I suspect this reading was, in part, a response to the reported statement by Yuri Gagarin that he didn't see God when he went up into space (according to Wikipedia there is no record of Gagarin actually saying that, but instead it came from a speech by Krushchev). Remember that theism vs atheism got tied up in cold war propaganda (e.g. "under god" was added to the US Pledge of Allegience in 1954, in part in opposition to "godless communists").

I'm sure I've seen a LEGO mosaic of that iconic image of the Earth rising over the lunar surface, but when I went looking for it I ran across Gary McIntyre's solar system ceiling.



This was built to order for the Jewkes Brothers Construction's million dollar house to be featured in the Utah Valley Parade of Homes. Okay, it's close enough to what I wanted, and is just an amazing MOC. If you look closely at the lunar surface you'll see an Apollo Lunar Lander, and then of course we see the whole solar system in the sky above.

Okay, there is no specific religious content in this LEGO creation, but I'd argue that contemplation of the heavens has always forced man to think beyond himself to ponder the eternal. "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork," writes the Psalmist, and Dante portrays a trip through the solar system as an image of Heaven. On the other hand, Carl Sagan's contemplation on the pale blue dot led him to different conclusions.

Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is a parody created during the debates over teaching intelligent design in schools. In essence, Bobby Henderson argued that it was just as reasonable to teach that a big plate of pasta created the universe. The initial parody has grown in popularity, leading to books, t-shirts and a twist on the fish emblem you'll see some Christians put on their cars. Chris Doyle came up with his own LEGO Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, full of details such as the "Touched by his noodly appendage" mural seen on the side of the building.

Origins?

Erich von Däniken wrote a series of books starting with 1968's Chariots of the Gods claiming that aliens had played a key role in the history of humanity. Among other things, he claimed that aliens were behind ancient religions, visions such as Ezekiel's, and the construction of ancient monuments. While his ideas have been generally dismissed by scholars, they have taken some hold in popular culture, providing the background for many science fiction pieces (think, for instance, of the end of the most recent Indiana Jones movie). Perhaps a little more respect is given to the idea of panspermia, that life on earth may have originated elsewhere. Sir Nadroj played with the idea of alien influence at the very start of things in Cogs of the Gods. I know it's a bit of a stretch to include this MOC on this blog, but I figured we can have some fun with the topic here. Perhaps something more serious tomorrow.



Origins