the incredulity of st. thomas

a poster on the fuselage has discovered a great “easter egg”: one of the paintings on the wall of mrs. hawking’s church is The Incredulity of Saint Thomas by Caravaggio:

according to the bible, saint thomas, aka doubting thomas, was the apostle who asked the risen jesus for proof of his resurrection. as is illustrated in the painting above, jesus asks thomas to touch his mortal wounds and thomas exlaims, “my lord and god!” he is thus known as “thomas the believer.”

i think this painting provides a great connection to the lost debate about belief and doubt, science and faith. resurrection is too, no doubt, a timely subject as we saw christian “the daddy issue that just won’t die” shepherd instructing a fallen locke.

and don’t forget that locke’s off-island alias is none other than jeremy bentham, the philosopher who had his body preserved as an auto-icon at the university college london. benthem hoped that one day he may be revived. ucl currently rolls him out to board meetings and records him on the ledger as “voting, but not present.”

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Bentham#Auto-icon