Maybe the Trinity Is the Reason

So has the culture entirely lost touch with Christian doctrine? Or has the New York Times completely lost touch with our culture. New York Times writer Andy Newman searches for the cultural power of the number three and the only mention of the Trinity is from a pop song:

Perhaps the wise man on “Schoolhouse Rock” said it best:

“Three is a magic number./Yes it is; it’s a magic number./Somewhere in the ancient, mystic trinity/You get three as a magic number.”

Whence, then, the lure of three? How did it become the perfect number of fairy tale characters, of stooges, of syllables in a loved one’s name — tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth?

Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria. Beginning, middle, end. Snap, Crackle, Pop.

Even the wise man of “Schoolhouse Rock” is mystified.

“I have no idea why three is a magic number,” Bob Dorough, the jazz composer who penned the song in 1972, said on Wednesday. “I just knew that it was, and my meager research bore me out, and the song after that just wrote itself.”

Even with the reason right there in front of them, Bob Dorough and Newman can’t make the connection. Why not?

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