From: kilroy@gboro.glassboro.edu (Dr Nancy's Sweetie)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Quantum Leap
Date: 22 Nov 92 22:35:41 GMT
Organization: Rowan College of New Jersey

Ziggy says there's a (whack - *SQUEAL*) 99% chance of spoilers in this post.


Theorising that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr Sam Beckett
stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator... and vanished.

He awoke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that
belonged to REXLEX@linac.fnal.gov, and driven by an unknown force to write
the following about "Deliver Us from Evil":

> [...] If I was to draw an analogy it would be that the girl was human but
> non-elect and her hologram was demonic. They had somehow acheived release
> from "hell" and were on the lose in time on earth.  The girl was a leaper
> like the hero of the program, but she came to "redeemer" herself by doing
> evil acts!  Satan was alluded to, but not named.

at about this point, Al the Hologram popped in dressed in a bright orange
blazer and explaining that, according to something which will be written by
Christopher White in November 1992:

> The anti-leaper in this episode left a lot of questions. It does seem to
> be a hell/anti-redemption theme. However, this would not explain the need
> of her hologram or her AI system. Another notable lack is a complete
> ignorance to whom Sam was (he being the father of leap technology). I
> would estimate that it is more of an evil-genius-human behind things.


I agree with Mr White about the eventual explanation of the Evil Leaper; there
have been several stories in which Sam (or Al) talked about their time-travel
experiment, and at one point they even tape recorded their DoD number.  My
guess is that some unscrupulous people dug up the details on Project Quantum
Leap and decided to make their own version.  But they have some not-so-nice
results they want, and so they direct their leaper to do rotten things.

So far, there has never been any indication about who is controlling Sam's
leaps; it may be that the Evil Leaper's directors have gotten past the glitch
that PQL didn't.


In any case, all of this brings to mind some interesting questions:

Suppose you discovered that, in order to prevent some disaster, you had to do
something immoral.  You find yourself in the pilot's seat of an airplane full
of passengers, one of whom is Saddam Hussein (just as an example).  If you
crash the plane and kill the ~100 people on board, you prevent last year's
Persian Gulf War and the hundreds of thousands of casualties which resulted
from it.  (You will leap out at the last second, guaranteeing your own
safety.)  Do you crash the plane?

Disregarding orthodox Christian soteriology for the moment, suppose you die
and find out that you've earned a trip to Hell.  On your way to the Lake of
Fire, you're told of an option:  you can jump back & forth in time, wrecking
people's marriages and "setting wrong what once went right".  Would you be
willing to harm others if it would keep you from suffering in Hell?  (Would
harming others be WORSE than suffering in Hell?)


Darren F Provine / kilroy@gboro.glassboro.edu
"Gooshie, if I should suddenly pop out of existence, I want to leave
 everything to my first wife, Beth. -- Al Calavicci, "Star Light, Star Bright"