Latest / The Daily Article / The Seattle Seahawks win Super Bowl LX: The popularity of football and “the most infallible sign of the presence of God”
Transcript
- 0:02[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Monday, February 9, 2026 edition, Updinescent Forum's Daily Article Podcast.
- 0:08[SPEAKER_00]: Dr. Jim Dinescent, co-founder and CEO, wrote today's Daily article, I'm Chris Elkins, narrator.
- 0:15[SPEAKER_00]: Note, a video depicting the Obama's as primates dominated headlines over the weekend, for a biblical and personal response, please see my latest website article.
- 0:25[SPEAKER_00]: A link to it is in today's podcast show notes.
- 0:28[SPEAKER_00]: The Seattle Seahawks won yesterday's Super Bowl 60 over the New England Patriots with a dominant defensive performance.
- 0:37[SPEAKER_00]: If you're like the vast majority of us, you don't live in either team's media market, and thus likely don't have a personal interest in what I just wrote.
- 0:46[SPEAKER_00]: But if you're like the more than 200 million other Americans, you watch the game, or at least parts of it, anyway, as did people in over 180 countries in nearly 25 languages.
- 0:59[SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps it was the party you attended for which the game was more or less an excuse to go.
- 1:04[SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps it was gathering with family and friends for this now annual tradition.
- 1:09[SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps it was the commercials that interested you more than the game.
- 1:13[SPEAKER_00]: Those who made them certainly hoped you watched, since they spent $8 million on a single 30-second ad.
- 1:20[SPEAKER_00]: Nonetheless, you probably knew the result of the Super Bowl before you read it in my article this morning.
- 1:26[SPEAKER_00]: I would not necessarily expect the same, if I were writing about the World Series, the Kentucky Derby, the Masters, or any other headline sport event.
- 1:34[SPEAKER_00]: But NFL football and its championship game hold an unrivaled place in our culture.
- 1:41[SPEAKER_00]: I am reflecting on this fact today, I am also wondering, why is it so?
- 1:45[SPEAKER_00]: And I am wondering if the explanation matters for the rest of the year.
- 1:49[SPEAKER_00]: It turns out, the answer to my first question answers the second as well.
- 1:54[SPEAKER_00]: Reasons for the popularity of professional football are well-known and unsurprising.
- 1:59[SPEAKER_00]: Among other factors, watching the game, Foster's relationships, tailgating is fun.
- 2:04[SPEAKER_00]: League parity keeps things interesting.
- 2:10[SPEAKER_00]: A game with roots in its antiquity, as I noted in my recent website article on the history of the Super Bowl, a link to which is in today's podcast show notes, has become one of the most dominant parts of the contemporary culture.
- 2:23[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing rivals it for viewership, ad revenue, or any other audience metric, but I think there is another factor at work here, one that is less obvious, but even more significant.
- 2:35[SPEAKER_00]: The 18th century British philosopher, Edmund Burke, is widely considered to be the founder of Conservatism.
- 2:42[SPEAKER_00]: A biographer summarizes his worldview this way, quote, human passions are guided by empathy and imagination.
- 2:50[SPEAKER_00]: Human well-being is grounded in a social order whose values are given by divine providence.
- 2:56[SPEAKER_00]: Human reason is limited in scope, and insufficient as a basis for public morality.
- 3:02[SPEAKER_00]: People cannot reason themselves into a good society.
- 3:05[SPEAKER_00]: For a good society is rooted not merely in reason, but in the sentiments and the emotions.
- 3:11[SPEAKER_00]: Burke asserted that politics ought to be adjusted not to human reasoning, but to human nature of which the reason is but a part and by no means the greatest part.
- 3:23[SPEAKER_00]: Burke's biographer, therefore notes, human reason is a wonderful thing.
- 3:27[SPEAKER_00]: But Burke insists that we are above all creatures of sentiment, emotion, passion, and allegiance for good or ill, what matters and should matter to us is not abstract liberties, but the liberty to live our lives well alongside others and in our communities.
- 3:43[SPEAKER_00]: What does Burkian political philosophy have to do with the popularity of the Super Bowl?
- 3:48[SPEAKER_00]: Burk's reference to sentiment, emotion, and passions, aptly describe a typical fan's experience.
- 3:55[SPEAKER_00]: We feel the highs and lows of the game, we cringe at the physical collisions and marvel at the athletic exploits.
- 4:02[SPEAKER_00]: None of this is a rational choice or the product of a rational process.
- 4:06[SPEAKER_00]: In addition, almost nothing regarding our allegiance to our preferred team is the product of reason.
- 4:12[SPEAKER_00]: I can't imagine that many fans examine a team's roster in detail, explore its finances, scrutinize its leadership structure, and then make a rational decision to support it.
- 4:24[SPEAKER_00]: Our allegiance is the product of where we live and or other emotional factors that tie us to our team, quoting Burke, for good or ill.
- 4:33[SPEAKER_00]: All of this points to the transformational heart of biblical Christianity, a fact that explains its explosive early growth, and compels us to embrace it for ourselves.
- 4:43[SPEAKER_00]: Six decades after he left his father's fishing boat to follow Jesus from May 24, 2021 and 2022, John was still not over the experience.
- 4:53[SPEAKER_00]: He described his relationship with his Lord in these intimate terms in
- 5:01[SPEAKER_00]: which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life, the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, we testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us.
- 5:21[SPEAKER_00]: After teaching world religions with four seminaries and writing numerous books and articles in the area, I can report that no other religion offers such a personal engagement with the deity it worships.
- 5:33[SPEAKER_00]: But the living Lord Jesus that God made manifest to us could be looked upon and touched with our hands.
- 5:41[SPEAKER_00]: His followers hurt his omniscient wisdom, experienced his omnipotent power, and felt his omnibenevalent grace.
- 5:49[SPEAKER_00]: Then, when they were filled with the Holy Spirit at Pinnocost, they were so transformed and empowered that they had to tell the mighty works of God, and Peter had to preach the glorious gospel of redemption in Christ, referenced in Acts 2 verses 4, 11 and 14.
- 6:06[SPEAKER_00]: The movement that resulted worked out its worldview with recent brilliance to be sure, as any reading of the Book of Romans will show.
- 6:15[SPEAKER_00]: But it was birth in an intimate engagement with the personal living Lord Jesus and never lost its fervour for him.
- 6:22[SPEAKER_00]: The Christians who have made the greatest impact on my life were the believers who were the most passionate about their Lord.
- 6:29[SPEAKER_00]: Their joy in Jesus was contagious and appealing.
- 6:32[SPEAKER_00]: Their commitment to Christ often in the face of great challenges and suffering made me want what they had.
- 6:39[SPEAKER_00]: How can we experience Jesus in such a passionate way?
- 6:42[SPEAKER_00]: Noting the present tense, David said to God in Psalm 16, verse 11, in your presence there is fullness of joy.
- 6:50[SPEAKER_00]: If we make time today to meet the living Lord Jesus, to kneel before Him in adoration, hear His voice, feel His touch, and give Him our lives in profound gratitude for His astounding grace.
- 7:03[SPEAKER_00]: How can we ever be the same?
- 7:05[SPEAKER_00]: The brilliant philosopher and scientist, Pierre Tillhardt, Deschardon, claimed, joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God.
- 7:15[SPEAKER_00]: Julian of Norwich was therefore right to say, the fullness of joy is to behold God in everything.
- 7:22[SPEAKER_00]: Will you experience such joy today?