I apologize if you took offence at my words. But, I cannot apologize for choosing to believe in a Biblical standard (e.g. Exodus 20:3-17). I am
definitely not saying that those who suffer from poverty or oppression or other hardship are deserving of their plight at all. We have all been given
the freedom to choose. And every day we are all forced to make a choice. Sometimes we make wise choices, sometimes we make poor choices. But,
ultimately we must live with the consequences of our choices. And unfortunately at times many people across the world or across generations who have
no choice in a given matter are the ones who suffer undue hardship usually due to the misjudgment of one person alone. And in my experience
homelessness, poverty, joblessness, disease, unnatural disasters etc. are usually symptoms or the effects of a greater cause i.e. sin “Therefore to
him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin” (James 4:17). That doesn’t mean that all who are jobless or homeless are
deserving of their circumstances anymore than Job was deserving of his loss and suffering in the Bible. And most often the case it’s that “the
race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men
of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all” (Ecclesiastes 9:11). Look at the film
Spider-man 3 as a typical example, Parkman, MJ,
Osborn, Marko and Brock--they all make selfish choices that end up hurting one another, besides themselves, and it is only in the end that a few
redeem themselves by choosing to change (i.e. repent) and do good. Likewise in
The Day The Earth Stood Still Benson argues with Klaatu to give
mankind a chance to change “to turn things around,” but he refuses saying, “We’ve watched, we’ve waited and hoped that you would
change…The decision is made. The process has begun.” Later, he relents, however, admitting that it is at the “precipice” we change.
Also, back to the original subject, it is my belief that it is related to the practice of “hiding messages in plain sight.” And we’ve seen this
more recently in
The Da Vinci Codephenomenon i.e. the grail legend and the paintings of Leonardo Da Vinci, Poussin, etc. (see
www.youtube.com...) as well as in the popular film
National Treasure besides historically like Poe’s “The Purloined
Letter” and even Shakespeare’s plays. Some also say Jack the Ripper’s identity is revealed in Sickert’s paintings too. Even in the aftermath
of 9/11 there was controversy over the alleged use of cryptographic techniques by Al Qaeda via the internet.
