I love the comic Calvin and Hobbes. I’ve been reading it for many years and for the last few years I’ve been getting it delivered via email to my Inbox each day (you can too – see here). Basically, they’re re-running all the strips on the web, albeit 11 years to a day behind the original series (so, today being 23 December 2003, you can read the 23 December 2002 strip on the website).

Over the last week there has been a series about Calvin really wanting more Christmas presents, but really worrying that Santa won’t bring him any because he hasn’t been good enough. While it’s quite amusing to see Calvin wrestle with his conscience, what struck me more is that to Calvin, Santa is like God. Or rather, Calvin?s perception of Santa is like the common perception of God. I?ve posted some of the relevant comics here so you can see what I mean (this will open in a new window): Click Here.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/21/1071941607327.html

Saw this great article in the SMH today by Paul Sheehan: it centres on Mel Gibson’s upcoming film about the last 12 hours in the life of Christ, but really it’s about a shift in Christiantiy away from liberalism and, presumably, towards tradional or fundamental forms of faith.

This is not the kind of article that Paul Sheehan normally writes – he’s not the Herald’s religious affairs journalist, but he does write a lot about Australian culture. I found it very interesting that something like this is being picked up and observed, and making it to the front page of the website, by what is normally a liberal newspaper. I wonder what the ongoing significance of such observations will be.