Evanescence by Evanescence and Theseus' Paradox

Before buying Evanescence’s new self-titled album, I decided to check out the early customer reviews on Amazon. One reviewer raised the question of whether the album can really be considered an Evanescence album since the only original member of the band who appears on it is Amy Lee. I found the reviewer’s question, rhetorical and casual as it was, to be an interesting, if not difficult, one and immediately thought of Theseus’ paradox.

The ship of the Greek hero Theseus, Plutarch tells us in The Life of Theseus, was preserved by the Athenians for generations. Over time, the planks were replaced as they aged and decayed. The question then arose among philosophers whether it was really the same ship anymore. Suppose every last bit of it were replaced at some time or another. If not a single piece of the original ship remains, is it still Theseus’ ship?

Most of us today would say no, it is a replica of the ship of Theseus. However, let us reimagine the paradox. Suppose Theseus is still alive to sail his ship with those under his command. As the years pass and the adventures stack up, parts of the ship grow old or are damaged and must be replaced until no original piece of the ship remains. Is this still Theseus’ ship? 

Obviously, yes. In the same way, Evanescence is still Evanescence by virtue of Amy Lee, who as founding member, constant presence, guiding force and frontwoman, defines the band.

Other music groups have been able to weather massive shakeups because one or more members remain at the helm, preserving the group’s name despite changing members and musical styles. Whitesnake is still going strong under David Coverdale’s leadership--and ownership, of the band’s name--despite regular lineup changes. Billy Corgan reformed The Smashing Pumpkins for 2007’s Zeitgeist with all-new bandmates, and there have been more changes since.

“But,” you may say, “that isn’t really The Smashing Pumpkins,” which raises an interesting point: Sometimes we aren’t prepared to accept the new entity under the same name. 

Personally, as much as I admire Jimmy Chamberlain’s drumming and saw D’arcy and James Iha has important elements of the image of The Smashing Pumpkins during its rise to fame and zenith, I don’t mind recognizing anything Billy Corgan wants to call The Smashing Pumpkins as The Smashing Pumpkins. But something in me refuses to accept the band now calling itself Dream Theater as truly deserving the name. I accepted the earlier changes in keyboardists, but drummer Mike Portnoy was one of Dream Theater’s Amy Lees, the others being John Petrucci and James LaBrie. Without him, something of the essence of the band has been lost. Others may feel differently.

Evanescence is, in my opinion, the solidest of the group’s three studio albums. Whereas the previous two established a new sound and had amazing standout tracks, the other tracks tended to be stiff and just fill in space. The new album has fewer filler tracks and demonstrates a liveliness and groove that the previous albums lacked. For this reason, some of the other reviewers on Amazon feel that the band has drifted away from its alternative and Goth roots toward commercial pop, but many others, like me, hear something slightly different from what is the same band.

Kepler-22b Deals a Blow to the Design Argument

NASA’s Kepler space telescope has discovered a roughly Earth-sized planet, now named Kepler-22b, that orbits in its sun’s habitable zone, where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for life. This presents yet another challenge--as if any more were necessary--to the Christian apologist’s argument from design. 

Some Christian apologists customarily extend scientific findings to support supernatural claims, and never more so than when making the argument from design. They tell us that the conditions for planetary life are so implausible that a divine creator must have designed the universe, intentionally placing the Earth at just the sweet spot near the Sun where human beings can survive.

Even when I was a Christian, this argument never worked for me. After all, implausible events happen on a daily basis without any divine intervention--we run into acquaintances in unlikely places, say something in conversation at the same time someone else says the exact same thing, or get a lucky break at precisely the right time. On the scale of the cosmos, we should expect a few planets here and there to fall into the Goldilocks Zone.

But for some, the orbit of the Earth is not merely fortuitous for us but fine-tuned by an omnipotent intelligent being in order that we may live and be saved from our fallen nature and its resultant stay in Hell, both the works of the same Tuner.

That’s taking a great deal of liberty with the facts afforded by science. Indeed, there is a Goldilocks Zone and Earth is in it, but that isn’t anything special. Kepler-22b is one of 54 planets scientists have discovered in the habitable zone, and the universe remains mostly uncharted. The Kepler space telescope alone has discovered what appear to be five small, Earth-like planets in habitable zones and has viewed a couple thousand more planets, the data for which scientists have yet to analyze.

Life turning out to be plausible is unlikely to faze many Christians whose faith doesn't rest on the implausibility of life, but it is at least one less argument for the polished apologists given to pseudo-science and specious reasoning.

Life after the discovery of Kepler-22b will remain precarious, and precious, but we now have less reason to believe that it is a miraculous occurrence unique to Earth.