It’s Iimi! Are You 0°K?

It’s time for the school fair, and the students from Hipso Hill are visiting. When Najiyah asks what the point of the Socratic Club, they hear members of the Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture discussing an anime view of good and evil which is dualistic. Will Iimi be able to explain the truth using the example of absolute zero in temperature? Find out in Are You 0°K?

 

Pre-Comic Notes:

Absolute zero is -273.15°C or zero degrees Kelvin (0°K), which is the absolute absence of heat. It’s also close to the letters “OK.” And there’s your “stupid pun” title.

Post Comic Notes: The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture (first appearing in issue 138) is a reference to the manga series Genshiken.

It’s Iimi! Don’t Panic!

Krysta and Daryl are fighting again (what else is new?) and rope Iimi into their dispute over the state of the Church. So grab your towel and crank up “Journey of the Sorcerer” as Iimi explains why she’s telling us, Don’t Panic!

Preliminary Notes: The cover is an homage to the computer graphics in the 1980s BBC version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Once I had the title of the comic, I knew that the cover would have to go this way.

Post-Comic Notes:

Since one reader has already asked me: No, Iimi’s NOT gay. This is the residue of the rumor that emerged in Issue 108. It will probably remain with her throughout high school and pop up at the worst possible times.

Normally, I don’t give away the secrets. But since at least one reader was troubled by that, maybe others are as well. I’d rather not lose readers over a misconception. 

It’s Iimi! God and Pharaoh

When Lilavati has some questions about Christianity, Rick hijacks the discussion by accusing God of doing evil to Pharaoh by hardening his heart. Does he have a valid point? Or has he missed the point about the battle between... God and Pharaoh 

The close-up of the meanings for the Hebrew:

Post-Comic Notes: This is more of a technical detail. I mentioned in the comic (page 9) that Iimi leans towards Molinism. This is one of the orthodox schools of thought on free will and salvation. The other is Thomism. Molinism tries to balance God’s grace as being essential contrary to Pelagianism. At the same time, it recognizes unimpaired free will as why people resist grace. In contrast, Thomism uses concepts of efficacious grace. Molinism tends to be weaker in explaining the role of God’s grace. Thomism tends to be weaker in explaining free will. The Catholic Church has not taken a side on this debate. In fact, it forbade people to condemn either of them being in error.

 

Molinism was an answer to the Protestant denial of free will. Briefly, men like Luther and Calvin believed that giving weight to free will would mean that men saved themselves. But (as Iimi pointed out in It’s Iimi! A Dialogue on Misconceptions) by free will, we can lower ourselves into a hole that we can’t get out of on our own. If we accept the lifeline God throws us (grace), we did not save ourselves.

 

The reader should be aware that the term is also used in Protestantism as a counter to Calvinism. Calvinist based Protestantism condemns it as a heresy. Not being a Protestant, I won’t address their dispute. But it has differences from the Catholic concept. So, be aware of that.

 

Iimi, being Catholic with a Molinist outlook, takes a view of Pharaoh being to blame for his own predicament. Some Protestant denominations do hold that God actively blocked Pharaoh from repenting. I think that fits into their concept of “double predestination” (God predestines some for salvation and some for damnation). The Catholic Church rejects that view, and I think the double predestination position is harder to defend against scandalized non-Christians who think it makes God a “monster.” As we see, this is part of Rick’s atheism. 

 

Of course, no human can know the mind of God or be His counselor (see Isaiah 40:13). Nothing in this comic should be seen as disagreeing with Catholic teaching that we absolutely need God’s grace to be saved and that we are to blame for our own fall, while accepting Church teaching that culpability can vary depending on the conditions of the individual sinner.

It’s Iimi! One in One or Zero in One

Machen and Otios enlist math teacher Paul Gehr to challenge Iimi. When he appeals to probability about extraterrestrial life and casts doubt about religion, Iimi must show why she thinks that the real question of probability is… One in One or Zero in One

Post-Comic Notes: Like Iimi in the comic, I’m agnostic on the topic of extraterrestrial life. We won’t know if it exists unless we encounter it. We won’t know it doesn’t exist unless we search every possible place that such life could exist. I’m unaware of any Church teaching on the subject. I can only say that if it does exist, it is from God, not chance. The title of the comic reflects my formulation that, if God willed to create extraterrestrial life, then it exists (a 1/1 “chance”). If He did not will to create extraterrestrial life, then it does not exist (0/1 “chance”).

 

One thing I’ve noticed on this: Neither the Creationists nor the Atheists I’ve encountered like this theory. The Creationists I’ve met think like Saul. The atheists I’ve met dislike the fact that my view doesn’t exclude God from the universe.