Author: Domenico Bettinelli

The Mind of Evil – The Secrets of Doctor Who

The 3rd Doctor gets to play at James Bond. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli talk about this Cold War spy-thriller-style story that also includes the Master, a dangerous alien entity, a prison riot, and a weapon of mass destruction.

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Remote Viewing: The Evidence (Psychic Spies! Stargate Project!) – Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World

In the 1970s, scientists began investigating a psychic phenomenon known as remote viewing for the US government. Last week, Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli looked at the history and now they look at the evidence for remote viewing and how it would be viewed from a faith perspective.

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Links for this episode:

Mysterious Headlines

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What Are Little Girls Made Of? (TOS) – The Secrets of Star Trek

When the Original Series dealt with the idea of transferring your consciousness to an android body, it came to different conclusions than modern Trek. Dom Bettinelli and Jimmy Akin discuss how times and attitudes have changed since then.

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The Beast Below – The Secrets of Doctor Who

For Amy’s first real adventure, the 11th Doctor takes her to Britain in space. Jimmy Akin, Dom Bettinelli, and Fr. Cory Sticha discuss the nature of a society that agrees collectively to ignore a horrific truth in order to feel better about a decision, letting the end justify the means.

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Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad (DIS) – The Secrets of Star Trek

When Harry Mudd uses a time loop to steal Discovery, only Stamets is able to figure out what’s going on. Jimmy Akin, Dom Bettinelli, and Fr. Cory Sticha discuss the return of Harry Mudd, the similarities to TNG’s “Clues”, and how this story provides a break from the season’s grim feel.

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Remote Viewing (Psychic Spies! Stargate Program!) – Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World

CIA scientists began investigating psychic powers in the 1970s, including a power known as remote viewing. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli discuss the surprising successes they reported with remote viewing, the secret Stargate program established to exploit it, and whether any of it is plausible.

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Links for this episode:

Mysterious Headlines

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The Macra Terror – The Secrets of Doctor Who

The 2nd Doctor has to free a human colony from mind-controlling intelligent crabs? Jimmy Akin, Dom Bettinelli, and Fr. Cory Sticha discuss this story now found only in an animated reconstruction, including how the animation makes it an even better story than the original.

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Civilization (ENT) – The Secrets of Star Trek

As the Enterprise encounters a primitive world, they learn a lesson about the Prime Directive. Jimmy Akin, Dom Bettinelli, and Fr. Cory Sticha the themes of respect for cultures and exploitation, environmental pollution, and the other side of alien abduction in this story.

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Can Catholics be Jedi? Saying Mass in Klingon? Saved Zombies? … & More Weird Questions – Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World

It’s a fifth Friday of the month, so Jimmy Akin is answering more weird questions, including whether Catholics can be Jedi, saying Mass in Klingon, whether zombies can be saved, whether Elves need sacraments, and more.

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Questions from this episode:

  • 02:55 -I was watching a sitcom on one of the major networks. In this episode, a teenage character was trying to win over a girl by pretending to be as religious as she was. The female character had decided to be baptized in a Baptist church and the young man joined her hoping that the gesture would garner her affections. The pastor character dunked both teenagers in the font and recited the proper Trinitarian form. Now even though they were acting on a set, it seems to me that all the necessary requirements were fulfilled for Baptism. Provided the actors had not previously been baptized, would they now be baptized?
  • 07:10 – As sort of an academic exercise among linguists, there’s a hypothetical language, Anglish, created from a Britain isolated from Latin and French influence. What would the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be sound like if Anglo-Saxon-influenced words were used exclusively in the prayers?
  • 11:11 – Would Tolkien’s Elves, as unfallen humans, require the sacraments?
  • 14:54 – Would a Mass performed in Klingon be invalid or illicit? If it is valid, where can we find a priest who could do that? Could Fr. Hugh be trained to do this?
  • 19:09 – Where did Jesus’s Y chromosome come from?
  • 20:00 – And where did Adam get his Y chromosome? And did Eve have a Y? Could the Y that was withheld from Eve have been preserved and passed down somehow until it was utilized in Jesus, the second Adam?
  • 23:34 – How long did it take to grow your beard and how long is it?
  • 25:32 – Apparently there is a Non-Theistic movement called Jediism that is based on what the Jedi follow. Would it be ok for Catholics to be a part of this even though the “real life Jedi” may not be too quick to admit they are role-players?
  • 28:38 – Can zombies be saved?
  • 30:50 – Are zombies biblical?
  • 34:04 – Does tradition give us any idea if what happened to the saints that rose from the grave and went into the holy city after the crucifixion of our Lord. Did they have incorrupt bodies or glorified bodies? Did they die again? Did they return to the grave? Were they assumed bodily into heaven? Also, is there any record of what the said to people in the Holy City?
  • 37:29 – What is the real point of liturgies where pets are blessed?
  • 38:48 – Suppose you took a single-celled human embryo. You removed the sex chromosomes from this embryo’s DNA and replaced them with chromosomes of the opposite sex. Now the child will grow up to be the opposite sex. What sex will this person be in the Resurrection?
  • 43:12 – In Scripture we read many times that Jesus wept. Yet I can’t think of a single instance to read Jesus laughed. Did he?

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Russell T. Davies and 10th Doctor Retrospective – The Secrets of Doctor Who

Russell T. Davies resurrected Doctor Who in 2005 and Jimmy Akin, Dom Bettinelli, and Fr. Cory Sticha look back at his era and his impact on the show for the future. They also discuss the 10th Doctor’s character and stories and the best and worst episodes from the RTD era.

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