I finished reading an interview with Norman Mailer that’s in last week’s New York Magazine on the plane back to Nashville, and it’s fascinating and fairly bizarre. He thinks weird looking fish are cosmic mistakes. Still, part of me kind of wishes he would come out and say something seriously whack-o that would be really interesting and controversial, instead of the whole ‘technology is evil’ crap that, frankly, I got plenty of in high school. Anyway, here’s a little bit of Mailer’s thoughts:God: uses a Mac

Much of the world’s present-day cosmology is based on such works of revelation as the Old and New Testament, or the Koran, but for me, revelation is itself the question mark—not God’s word, but ours. I confess that I have no attachment to organized religion. I see God, rather, as a Creator, as the greatest artist. I see human beings as His most developed artworks. I also see animals as His artworks. When I think of evolution, what stands out most is the drama that went on in God as an artist. Successes were also marred by failures. I think of all the errors He made in evolution as well as of the successes. In marine life, for example, some fish have hideous eyes—they protrude from the head in tubes many inches long. Think of all those animals of the past with their peculiar ugliness, their misshapen bodies, worm life, frog life, vermin life, that myriad of insects—so many unsuccessful experiments. These were also modes the Artist was trying—this great artist, this divine artist—to express something incredible, and it was not, for certain, an easy process. Sometimes a young artist has to make large errors before he or she can go further.

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If you’re looking for another and perhaps more accessible look at who/what God is all about, try the awesome and incredibly comprehensive Walking with God curriculum available as a free download from the Ziegler Rabbinical School website. I’ve only spent significant time with the Modern Jewish Thought section, but it’s pretty amazing. Doesn't involve any fish, though. Bummer.