10 AUG 2011 by ideonexus
God Ages Through the Bible
“Well, where is God,” said Mrs. Coulter, “if he’s alive? And why doesn’t he speak anymore? At the beginning of the world, God walked in the Garden and spoke with Adam and Eve. Then he began to withdraw, and he forbade Moses to look at his face. Later, in the time of Daniel, he was aged, he was the Ancient of Days. Where is he now? Is he still alive, at some inconceivable age, decrepit and demented, unable to think or act or speak and unable to die, a rotten hulk? And if that is his ...Need to factcheck this, but in this passage, Coulter describes an Old Testament god who grows older and older, so that, if he still lives, death would be merciful for him.
10 AUG 2011 by ideonexus
The General Oblation Board
“Oh, yes,” said Lyra. “I’m safe from everyone here. Where I used to live, in Oxford, there was all kinds of dangerous things. There was gyptiansthey take kids and sell ‘em to the Turks for slaves. And on Port Meadow at the full moon there’s a werewolf that comes out from the old nunnery at Godstow. I heard him howling once. And there’s the Gobblers….” “That’s what I mean,” the man said. “That’s what they call the Oblation Board, don’t they?” Lyra felt Pantala...And how it relates to the people giving their children to the church to become "oblates."