OK, I confess, I watched “Joan of Arcadia”. After all, I’m a student of religion-in-pop-culture, right? Anyway, it wasn’t so horrible as TV goes, and the God stuff wasn’t oppressive — it was just some other variant on supernatural visions. Like Cordelia on “Angel”, but less hot. But a couple of comments on peripheral points.

1. In ‘God’s Available to All of Us’: Barbara Hall, creator of the new CBS drama ‘Joan of Arcadia,’ talks about her most dangerous idea’ (”dangerous idea”?), Ms. Hall responds to a question about the science-geek brother character by saying “We don’t realize that science is a very spiritual concept. There are aspects of it that are completely in line with spirituality. Theoretical physics to me is just the math of God. I didn’t make that up — Einstein thought so.” Hey, wasn’t that kind of what old Al said “was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly”?

2. They use “(What if God was) One of us” as the theme song (the big 90’s hit for Joan Osborne). Fine tune. Pleasantly ambiguous in its theology or lack of. Not hard to hear it as “instead of the God crap, try applying that impulse to actual humans”. In this context, of course, it doesn’t sound that way at all. But the person who wrote it was Eric Bazilian (would I make up that name?) of The Hooters, and sometime Joan Osborne guitarist. Bazilian is a Jewish-raised Quaker-educated agnostic. I’m thinking my read of the song is way closer than the one implied here.