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One Love
Registered Member
Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888
| Posted 2/10/2009 4:48 PM (GMT -6) |   | Sounds terribly interesting. Have to check it out, now. 
Something I thought about from what Tom said...
Just what IS human being? What constitutes the ‘human’ experience. The Cylons seem to duplicate every aspect of it. I’m at the end of Season 2 and it’s still not clear just what differentiates the ‘Human’ from the ‘Cylon’ experience except for the fact that the Cylons are constructed of synthetic material. But Cylons are evolving too. At this point I don’t think there really are any differences between the two (except that the Cylons have software that seems to make them susceptible to being determined by Cylon central). It just looks to me as if the Cylons ARE human. They’re having a human experience in every sense of the word (conscious, self-reflecting, emotional, a sense of freedom, memories, individuality, right/wrong, etc.). It’s all there.
I instantly thought about the differentiation between real spiritual beings (angels and humans). If self-consciousness, self-reflection, emotionality, rationality, a sense of freedom, memory, individuality, and moral possibility/responsibility constitutes "humanity", then how wouldn't angelic spiritual beings (who obviously can freely fall or freely refuse to fall) constitute having "human" experiences? Basically all the characteristics above deal with a spiritual being's ability to relate to itself and its context personally. And angels (even fallen ones) seem to have that. Sin is the result of personal activity, not just natures, right? That would include Satan, who is trapped in sin.
So, what's REALLY human as opposed to angelic in the differentiation between the two classes of spiritual beings, BESIDES the specific type of natural unity that humans have with the corporeal, then. I see the same questions being asked about what's REALLY human as opposed to cylonic in their differentiation, BESIDES their differing origins and physiological composition.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
"I love, therefore I am in I Am. God is my life." Post Edited (One Love) : 2/10/2009 3:56:34 PM (GMT-6) | | Back to Top | | |
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Tom
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Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 10353
| Posted 2/12/2009 10:40 AM (GMT -6) | | Dwayne, either rent or borrow or purchase the first two seasons. I just know you'll be all over it.
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Tom
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Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 10353
| Posted 2/12/2009 10:49 AM (GMT -6) | | Near the end of season two the narrative switches over to the Cylon side of things a bit an explores issues that sleeper agents (Cylons who were embedded as infants among humans and who never knew they were Cylons until their software kicked in after they were full adults) face in integrating what they believe(d) to be their human identities (with all the matrix of relationships, love and values) and the fact that they're "just" machines. They can't accept that their "just" machines because the existential import of the relationships and the values they hold to demands a "more than just machine" explanation. They're evolving.
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Corey
Five with a Four-wing
Date Joined Feb 2003
Total Posts : 1893
| Posted 2/12/2009 11:37 AM (GMT -6) | | | Along that line, I've been thinking about the "just a toaster" attitude toward the Cylons. Kane, for one, obviously had NO ethical constraint in relation to the Cylons because of this. There's other examples, too.
Anyway, there's an interesting little scene later in the series (s4e09) where Baltar does a little evangelism with a Centurion, explaining that he, too, was a child of God (or something like that). "Hasn't anyone told you that?"
Baltar: I can see a real hierarchy around here. And I have to tell you you're on the lower end of the scale my friend. Yes you are. Which is odd when you think about the Cylon God...
[Baltar pauses for about five seconds].
They told you about God, didn't they?
[The Cylon's massive head tilts curiously side to side to the sound of its servo motors]
Ironically, the later-model Cylons seem to regard the older Centurions a "just a toaster", even though they too seem to have at least some capacity for reflection and self-determination.
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One Love
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Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888
| Posted 2/12/2009 12:41 PM (GMT -6) | | | | |
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Tom
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 10353
| Posted 2/12/2009 12:45 PM (GMT -6) | | Interesting.
It's neat how (where I am near the end of S2) nobody has actually TALKED about the issues (what is human being, what role does freedom have in determining that being, how DO we humans explain Boomer's behavior after all). They just put it out there and let you discover the issues. I like that.
Another twist too is how humans are portrayed as acting rather machine like while the Cylon sleeper agents who have woken up cling to the morality entailed in their 'human' experience.
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One Love
Registered Member
Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888
| Posted 4/1/2009 3:47 PM (GMT -6) | | What if we are like the sleeper Cylons who've been "asleep" as normal socialized human existence? What if we are "aliens" in this world, truly coming to grips with that fact? Children of the Holy Other in a land of people who don't believe in Holy Otherness. Hmm...
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
"I love, therefore I am in I Am. God is my life."
"God in Christ by His Spirit empowers, enables, energizes and enacts all Christian behavior and ministry as the dynamic expression of the life of Jesus Christ. Christianity is Christ. Christian living is the life and character of Jesus Christ lived out through the Christian." -James Fowler | | Back to Top | | |
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