—APA: No Choice for Homosexuals

 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (NIV)

⁹Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders ¹⁰nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.  [my emphasis]

Psychologists Reject Gay-to-Straight ‘Therapy’ – Health News | Current Health News | Medical News – FOXNews.com

The APA, of course, is speaking from political expedience rather than any sort of scientific or professional rigor.  Like “justice” in America, “science” is whatever makes important people feel more important—almost always at the expense of making some other group feel less important.   

How do you know you’re dealing with charlatans?  It’s the oldest trick in the quack’s little black bag;  the “science cannot prove” dodge:— “There’s no evidence… ” a proponent of the APA report says, that remedial therapy is of any use for those whose homosexual tendencies conflict with their religious beliefs. 

The report advises “…therapies that do not attempt to change sexual orientation, but rather involve acceptance, support and identity exploration and development “.  

When advocates of various sorts of sexual “diversity” first began to co-opt the momentum of the Civil Rights movement of the ’60’s and ’70’s (I first heard these sorts of arguments at the U. of Texas, in around ‘73), they steered public consciousness down a dark alley.   As far back as the early ’80’s, we were already seeing attempts by advocates of pedophilia to construe themselves as a disadvantaged “lifestyle”.  The collective decision of politically influential people and groups to go in this direction will have—actually already have had— consequences—what sorts of other behavior will receive public acclaim and advocacy next?  There are, in fact, studies which almost reasonably argue that murderers and other criminals are genetically predisposed—have a “natural tendency” —to their “lifestyle”.  I mean, why not? 

Of course, Paul’s list in 1 Corinthians (the Biblical letter, not the South American soccer club) includes all sorts of behaviors, in addition to homosexuality, which are destructive to the Church and society in general;  thieves, swindlers, and even malicious gossipers are included.  Paul also makes no distinction of the degree of evil these behaviors represent, and they all have the same outcome.  Those practicing these things will destroy themselves, unless they repent and pursue God’s way (see also Phillipians 3:12-14 ).  Paul makes it clear that people in the Church at Corinth had been guilty of the behaviors listed, but that faith in Christ had brought them out of those things.  Now they are new people (2 Corinthians 5:17), and the old, destructive ways no longer enslave them. 

Political and social expedience has had its say in the matter, and has proved to be a complete waste of time and peoples’ lives for centuries—”maybe it will work this time”, but it’s not a good bet. 

Jesus gave us a way to set aside behaviors and ways of thinking that can only destroy us, and move toward rescue and rebirth, hope and a new life, safely guided by His Spirit toward an eternal home.   Ignore what the “important people” say—we have a choice!

—Health Care Debate: Morally Bankrupt vs. Habitually Evil

My Way News – Analysis: Obama facing tough choice on health care

Why is everyone missing the point?  Let me try to explain:

My father became seriously ill one night in the late ’90’s, and was taken to the hospital in Orange, Texas.  I didn’t rush over to see about things, because there was no indication of urgency.  I have some experience in the life sciences, and there is at least a remote chance that I might have been able to prevent the fiasco that transpired, if I had the seething distrust and loathing of the medical profession then that I have now. 

The small-town hospital didn’t know what to do, and transferred him to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Beaumont.  It was the weekend, and the “B” team  on call made a classical medical blunder—they misdiagnosed congestive heart failure as pneumonia. 

The cardiac team that moved in to clean up—or rather cover up—the blunder went into hard-core damage control mode.  Our attempts to get information on my father’s condition deteriorated into several screaming matches with the cardiac professionals and the hospital administrator.  They punished our insolence by declaring that my father had contracted an antibiotic-resistant bacterial strain so they could put him in isolation and restrict our attempts to visit him.  He was, by this time, on a ventilator and a constant feed of morphine (which is how they keep elderly patients quiet until the insurance runs out).   

Rather than watch my father murdered slowly,  I next attempted to have him transferred to any of several hospitals in Houston, where most of the family lives.  This would have required a physician in Houston to take over his case.  All refused out of hand, including physicians who are prominent in our Church and have known us for years.  It would have required some physician to go against the wishes of a very prominent cardiac group in Beaumont, and nobody would have anything to do with our request.

My mother wanted to take him home to care for him, which would have been nearly impossible.  Thus, I made my second critical mistake in dealing with my father’s final illness.  I suggested that we get a doctor from nearby Port Arthur to come by and see him in the hospital and give us an independent opinion on his condition and recommendations for his further care.  A doctor I called agreed to see him the next day.  I actually thought we had reason to hope that we could then get him transferred to a non-demon-spawned medical institution.

So, still foolishly believing that even the monstrously evil medical professionals we had been screaming at in desperation to stop them from torturing my father to death would have some vestigial level of humanity,  I left my father in that Hell-hole of a hospital for one more night.  Worse,  I actually faxed the hospital administrator to tell him that a doctor outside the Beaumont cardiac establishment would be stopping by to see my father. 

It never occurred to me that they would just murder him.  But they did, and I was told the next morning that he had died—at just about the time they would have arrived in their offices, and read that message on the fax machine, plus—presumably—the time it would have taken to drop by his room and give him a little extra morphine. 

They did suffer a brief period of evident panic when I demanded an autopsy.  (There were nervous phone calls, and threats to make us pay for it.)  My mother couldn’t face the prospect, however. 

Strangely, every law firm I contacted about the situation was somehow involved with the very prominent cardiac care group responsible and couldn’t represent us.  Other family members finally couldn’t take anymore, and the matter was dropped, at least from the standpoint of mere temporal, human justice.

——

In later years, I have visited terminally ill, long-term care patients often enough to learn how you can tell when the insurance coverage is about to run out.  You see, the hospital chaplain comes around, to fret with the family that the patient “just needs to let go”. 

——

Recently, we tried to help a family friend who couldn’t work because of multiple strokes, and has no health care benefits.  Since the friend had to depend on municipal charities for her considerable medical expenses, she had to go to Ben Taub Hospital in Houston on two occasions when she suffered serious psychiatric breakdowns (One involved threatening her clinic physician).  On both occasions, we left her in the care of the alleged charity hospital, only to have her discharged by the staff within hours.  Apparently they deduced some sort of miraculous cure, and dumped her out in the lobby.

——

So it is not without some experience in the matter of health care in America that I have concluded that the Great Health Care Debate is irrelevant and fraudulent at best, and Hell’s joke on the human race at worst.  I said earlier that private health care would leave you out in the street to die if you couldn’t pay, while government managed heath care would leave you out in the street to die if they found you politically unreliable.  Neither is an acceptable model of anything which should be mistaken for humane, responsible, competent medical care.  The powerful will continue to torment and abuse the weak as they have done for centuries, no matter who pretends to pay for the process for whatever political or economic advantage.

The foundation of caring for the sick, poor, and helpless among us is not to be found in actuarial tables or economic-management models, however cutting-edge they might seem at the time.  An evil people will always produce evil results, special professional oaths to the contrary notwithstanding. 

Jesus knew us for the evil beings we were in His day, and how much more evil we would be able to accomplish later when augmented with superior technology.  He gave us the Law which actually works, from the God Who Actually Exists, and His Life in our place, so that a relative handful of us might avoid the most permanent consequences:

Matthew 22:37-39 (New International Version)

³⁷Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’^{[a] 38}This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

—PBS: "Michelangelo Revealed"

Secrets of the Dead » Michelangelo Revealed: Chapter 1 | PBS

This was a shock.  PBS has mostly deteriorated into radical political news hours and Lawrence Welk reruns.  It was stunning to happen upon this three-part program (which can be streamed from the web site), which includes a very politically-incorrect critical review of Roman Catholicism. 

The series centers on the research of art historian Antonio Forcellino, who proposes that the great artist was part of an underground reform movement which sought to introduce Protestant reforms into the Catholic church from within.  He believes that a number of Michelangelo’s prominent works show definite anti-Catholic sentiment.  The Last Judgement , for example, portrays interaction between Heaven and men, without the traditional intervention of any prominent Popes or other clergy.  There are strange features in the tomb of Julius II which are inconsistent with Catholic dogma, including a last-minute recarving of Moses’ head to look away from the altar, the instrument of the Catholic hierarchy. 

[The account here of Michelangelo's work on St. Peter's Basilica differs dramatically from the one in the guide books you would get on a tour.  I thought that he was so well-off and happy to be working for the Catholic church again that he didn't charge them for the work.]

The real shock, though, especially considering the source, is that the documentary demonstrates a credible understanding of Christian antipathy for Roman Catholic dogma and theocracy.  I didn’t know they had it in them….

—The Church, Part 2

John 13:35 

³⁵By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”(NIV)

Colossians 3:12-14 

¹²Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.(NIV)

What is the Church supposed to be?  It is the Assembly or Congregation of the redeemed in Jesus Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit of the Living God.  We have the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels, Luke’s history of the Acts of the Apostles and the 1st-Century Churches,  and the letters of the Apostles and others to those Churches.  How do the practices of Churches today—scattered as they are among the numerous factions and denominations—compare with Jesus’ stated intention for His Church?

We find ourselves separated from the practices of the Church recorded in the New Testament and the authoritative writings of the first few centuries after Christ, on the far side of a 1,000-year gulf (approximately the span from the formal declaration of religious supremacy by Leo I in the 5th Century to the Reformation in the 16th) of a deliberate deception which attempted to drown out  the faith which more direct forms of persecution had only made stronger.   It is hard to sort out which of the components of the modern Church are constructive Spiritual guidance, and which are old habits formed from previous generations of state-sponsored misdirection.  

But a Spiritually sound and productive Church is not a matter of religious practice or ceremony.  Paul gives us a concise summary in Romans, chapter 14,  of the role of such “disputable matters” as special days and dietary restrictions in the life of the Church.  They are to be tolerated for the well-being of the Spiritually-less-mature, who might otherwise be harmed in their formative stages by confusion or temptation, but they are hardly the defining purpose of the Church. 

Neither is Church a matter of merely resuming the literal pattern of the early Church as recorded in Acts and the Apostles’ writings.   As our local pastor has pointed out, the Churches spoken of in the New Testament were often at least as dysfunctional and self-destructive as modern congregations.   We can easily understand Paul’s anger in letters to the Corinthian and Galatian Churches.  When left on their own, these immature congregations quickly toddled away from the Spirit’s direction and into serious trouble.  The Revelation of John begins with cautions to key Churches against doctrinal failings and loss of fervor.   Almost all of the letters from the Apostles have to warn their audiences against falling away, favoritism to the rich and powerful, superficial and lifeless faith, being distracted by defective doctrine.  Then, as now, Churches were made up of “busted”, defective people who struggled to set aside the old ways, and take their places in the new Creation.

Modern Churches, Protestant or other (some are opposed to the idea of being derived by separation from Roman Catholicism rather than legitimate Scriptural and Spiritual heritage), almost always retain the carefully scripted weekly “stage show” format, with songs, recitations, and a speech by a specially trained pastor.  No one in the “audience” would think to interject their own thoughts or feelings or individual Spiritual insight into the sermon (I’ve only actually walked out of one sermon in my life—I still can’t bring myself to talk about its subject).  Our Bible studies (Baptists call them Sunday School) have often lapsed into programmed sales pitches distributed from a central office for the denomination.  And yet, I have met individuals within those rigid, institutional Churches who spoke from genuine Spiritual inspiration, and showed that a real, breathing Church was inside the structure, alive and well.  I have received messages during those formal sermons and even during some of those canned Bible studies that redirected and encouraged me when I needed it most.  Even a busted, deficient Church is a place where people who take God’s purpose seriously gather, and as God has promised, His Spirit is there.

What is the Church supposed to be like?  What makes it alive even when buried under layers of lifeless, institutional pavement?  Jesus calls us His real Family(Mark 3:31-33).   Paul described the function of the Church with that wonderful organic metaphor, as in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 12—all the individuals working to support and build up one another with the individual gifts given them by the Holy Spirit, bound together by Love, unified in the task set for us by Jesus Christ.   Further, we are told:

Ephesians 4:11-16

¹¹It was he [Christ] who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, ¹²to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up ¹³until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

¹⁴Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. ¹⁵Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. ¹⁶From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.(NIV)

This is what the Church is.  Everything else is religion.  We have to set aside the things we’ve been told by other people about what Churches are supposed to do and how they are supposed to act, and the historical formalities and ceremonies made by men (Matthew 15:9), and the “pretensions set up against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:5), and submit humbly to the guidance of the Holy Spirit by the grace of God through faith in Jesus, to serve one another in Love.

—The Church, Part 1

2 Chronicles 6:3

וַיַּסֵּב הַמֶּלֶךְ אֶת־פָּנָיו וַיְבָרֶךְ אֵת כָּל־קְהַל יִשְׂרָאֵל וְכָל־קְהַל יִשְׂרָאֵל עֹומֵד׃ [BHS]

καὶ ἐπέστρεψεν ὁ βασιλεὺς τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ καὶ εὐλόγησεν τὴν πᾶσαν ἐκκλησίαν ισραηλ καὶ πᾶσα ἐκκλησία ισραηλ παρειστήκει [Septuagint]

2 Chronicles 6:3

While the whole assembly of Israel was standing there, the king turned around and blessed them.(NIV)

Matthew 16:18

κἀγὼ δέ σοι λέγω ὅτι σὺ εἶ Πέτρος, καὶ ἐπὶ ταύτῃ τῇ πέτρᾳ οἰκοδομήσω μου τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, καὶ πύλαι ἅ|δου οὐ κατισχύσουσιν αὐτῆς. [GNT]

Matthew 16:18

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.[NIV]

I have posted in several places here about the continuity of God’s revelation to man from the Patriarchs through the Exodus, to Jesus’ ministry to the Revelation of John. The Truth which God had to teach us in order to save us is so alien to human experience that many of the lessons had to be extremely graphic and often painful—as the experiences of Israel attest. The Congregation, or Assembly of Israel is seen to be a foreshadowing—perhaps we could call it the “demo version”?—of God’s ultimate intention for His Family on earth, the Church established by Grace through Jesus Christ.

If one only reads the English translations of the Bible, though, it is possible to conclude that Jesus has simply made up a new word for an unprecedented institution entirely unique to the religious construction we call Christianity. Extreme literalists apply extreme human logic to such words, and extract (or actually, introduce) such extreme extra-Biblical constructions as Dispensationalism. The Congregation of Israel is held to be so literally unique and separate from Jesus’ Church that this logic requires that the Church be “snatched away” so that Israel can come back and finish the events literally prophesied for it. God must be restricted to having acted in ways suitable for human understanding, lest we lose control of our Deity and be forced to submit to personal humility and all those other uncomfortable things Jesus talked that we don’t really want to think about very much.

[Since I have started exploring the Biblical languages, I have actually heard Dispensationalism passionately discussed in terms of the Hebrew and Greek, with arguments about how many Temples there have been (some conclude, apparently, that one is missing), and so on. ]

If we look with appropriate child-like humility at the available Biblical texts in Hebrew and Greek, though, this dichotomy sort of evaporates. In the example from 2 Chronicles, Solomon blesses the “whole Assembly of Israel”, the Cal Qahal Israel. The Septuagint—the authoritative translation of the Hebrew Bible (which we call the Old Testament) into Greek—here translates the phrase as πᾶσα ἐκκλησία ισραηλ. In the Gospel of Matthew , in response to Peter’s Spiritually-inspired declaration of Jesus as the Messiah, Jesus establishes μου τὴν ἐκκλησίαν —”My Assembly”, which is usually translated into English as “My Church”.

This is not a logical proof of concept. Elsewhere in the Septuagint, as in Numbers 14:5, qahal is translated as συναγωγῆς.   In fact, since we are told that Jesus probably often spoke in Aramaic , even the Greek text of our New Testament should likely be considered a translation of His words.  There are no rational or logical proofs of these things, because they have to be “Spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).   Spiritually, this ekklesia of the Old ways is completed by Jesus in the New—like everything else in God’s Plan.   It is God’s Family in Christ (John 1:12, Mark 3:31-34) built on the power of the Holy Spirit in each of us—-as it was with His revelation to Peter and the  inner circle of His disciples so long ago.

[Dictionary.com relates the origins of the English word “Church” from several sources (which, of course, I looked up after I searched through texts in three different languages and wrote this). For example:

Middle English chirche, from Old English cirice, ultimately from Medieval Greek kūrikon, from Late Greek kūriakon (dōma), the Lord's (house), neuter of Greek kūriakos, of the lord, from kūrios, lord; see keuə- in Indo-European roots.

Church
Derived probably from the Greek kuriakon (i.e., "the Lord's house"), which was used by ancient authors for the place of worship. In the New Testament it is the translation of the Greek word ecclesia, which is synonymous with the Hebrew _kahal_ of the Old Testament, both words meaning simply an assembly, the character of which can only be known from the connection in which the word is found. There is no clear instance of its being used for a place of meeting or of worship, although in post-apostolic times it early received this meaning.]

The Church of the Boiled Frogs

Opportunities for communication have become rare—my one regular contact with the pastor of our Church  usually includes several other preachers from various churches in the same room, and a non-conforming comment from a layman is made obviously unwelcome.  I think at this point I’m traditionally supposed to nail something to a door somewhere, but I’m going to try this medium first.

It has been growing gradually over the years—someone comes in to perform a psychoanalysis of our Spiritual gifts, or we are encouraged to use special “breathing techniques” while reading the Psalms.  There have been special get-togethers that included prayer labyrinths.  Many sermons for several years have included long quotations from Roman Catholic scholars (there are a fairly large number of former Catholics in our congregation).  More recently, our pastor has concluded several powerful messages containing important truths about the Word, Salvation, Faith, and the Holy Spirit with brief quotes from the Koran, Buddha, and others.  When present in services—I’m under a lot of stress already, and I’m afraid of what I’m going to hear next—I especially grind my teeth in anticipation of the weekly “other great religions moment”.  I suppose in future weeks, we can look forward to seeing the Word and the Truth conversationally placed alongside the Veda, the Dallas Cowboys playbook, perhaps a brief discussion about Krishna, just in case we got the pronunciation wrong….

As well as I can figure these things out, our Church is well along the road to “emerging“.  Even if these citations were merely comparative cultural references, they will confuse the more impressionable children in the family (Galatians 1:6-8).  The recent extractions from Catholicism I’ve spoken to, for example, have residues of their former beliefs ranging from simply preferring our childcare, to sincere confusion about genuine Christian doctrine.  No one will benefit from this provocative mingling of the Word with the dross of other religions. 

Sooner or later, this road the Church is on is going to lead to a collision.  The God Who Actually Exists will have His Church back, or will find a replacement.

—Some Other Questions

—faith?

Galatians 3

23Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. 24So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.

Faith? It is one of the most common and unifying themes in the New Testament. Our Salvation is said repeatedly to depend directly on it. But what is it? Why is it important? Why does it work?

—-in progress—

—the Plan?

Matthew 5

17″Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

I’ve heard comments, both recently and in past years, that God had to somehow “experiment” on Israel, or use the Old Covenant as some kind of “learning experience” before He could arrive at the solution to our Salvation in Jesus. I continue to insist that the whole story of the Law, the Prophets, the Histories, the Gospels, and the Letters of the Apostles represent one miraculously coherent Plan to bring us safely home to our Father’s house.

Through God’s Plan, we were given the leadership of Moses, the strength of Samson, the Godliness of David, the wisdom of Solomon, and the steadfastness and faith of Elijah and John, so that a few would see what was missing in their examples, and yearn for it, and finally recognize it in Jesus when He appeared.

Those of us who have come along later can also see what is missing in our lives and in the things our world gives us in place of justice, and wisdom, and strength, and for examples of how to lead our lives, and discard them all in favor of the whole Truth of Jesus Christ.

—Integrity? and/or a failure to communicate?

I tried—really tried—-to have an argument with some proponents of science a few weeks ago. They were complaining that since they couldn’t take religious thought seriously, they should be allowed to take public oaths on their “personal integrity”. I got the same ad hominem reaction I always get when trying to argue with proponents of Catholicism, Islam, and various other belief systems I’ve been confronted with over the years. I’m too old and tired to deal with it anymore.

The comparison isn’t entirely fair, of course. Science is actually good for something, in the right context. It produces a consistent, candid, systematic outlook for evaluating the physical world around us, if used in conjunction with a little personal humility. Unfortunately, the illusion of power it tends to promote in less stable personalities leads to its use as a sort of “religion replacement therapy”.

The catechism of this scientific pseudo-religion allows its users to ask “how”? “when”? “where”? but never, ever “why”? Even when Einstein allowed himself to speculate about the subject of God, he went “all Spinozan”, and decided that God was indifferent and needn’t intrude on his thought experiments.

This terribly un-scientific outlook cripples its users by forcing them to rely on their own extremely finite integrity and understanding in confronting an infinite reality. I wish I still had the energy to argue with people who aren’t listening anyway. Utter futility is good training for personal humility.

—Merry Christmas!

Isaiah 9
⁶ For to us a child is born, to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷ Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

Maybe I’m expecting too much. I should know better by now, having read a fair amount of history. Every government devised by man has been based on some proportion of hanging, flogging, and the willing suspension of disbelief.

When I get mad and write or say mean things because my government determines to spend my money to find the most efficient way to mash the words on its founding documents to lay aside its vital promise to stay out of the people’s religious business, I am getting distracted from the things that really matter. When I get angry that the government wastes resources and makes decisions that have no basis in any form of sense or the civil welfare, I’m wasting the energy that I should be using to state positive truths.

This is the positive truth, the basis of our hope, that if we hear God’s Word, and what His Son said and did, and make the decision that these are the treasure of a lifetime, to be cherished for eternity, to be trusted above everything else in Heaven or on Earth, He will forgive what we have done wrong and send His Spirit to live in us and guide us and teach us His Way. Faith, Hope, and Love are the basis of a Government that will never fail or end. Everything else is a temporary inconvenience.

Oh, and Merry Christmas.

—On Science

1 Corinthians 2
14The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

—Can’t make this stuff up….

My Way News – Techies Ponder Computers Smarter Than Us
I really thought the idea of a “technological singularitly” was just a science fiction thing. My only prior contact with “Singularitarianism” was a recurring gag from the webcomic “Dresden Codak”. (The protagonist explicates at length about the “technological singularity”, and the “post-singularity” world, and one of the secondary characters says, “Sounds awfully religious coming from an atheist”.)

But, of course, it couldn’t be that easy. It turns out that the whole “Technological Singularity” thing is a subject of actual debate in the scienterrific community. The “Singularity” is described as a point in human development when our machines get smarter than we are, and the augmented species—or its successor—becomes capable of indefinite “self improvement”.

One of the conference participants in the AP story says that “His greatest fear…is that a brilliant inventor creates a self-improving but amoral artificial intelligence that turns hostile.” (He’s right, of course. It would be better—relatively speaking—for any number of rogue states to get nuclear weapons than for anyone on the planet to acquire such a monstrous technology.)

So, are science and technology precursors of our destruction, or the salvation of human-kind enslaved in the darkness of mysticism? (Okay, not a very good rendition of a “steampunk” soliloquy, but I’m not really trying very hard. )

There have been any number of efforts at imagining scientific or humanistic “religions”, including Asimov’s “Foundation” and Card’s “Speakers for the Dead”. The computer game “Civilization 4” optimistically renders all the trappings of religion—such as temples and priests—-obsolete with the initial advent of the “scientific method”. Less optimistic speculations about the technological “tipping point” include the “Terminator” movies and the various animated “Ghost in the Shell” series (which are so incomprehensible—especially in the English translations—that they are usually at least half explication).

Then there’s the relevant entry from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy—“The Universe”:

There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.There is another theory which states that this has already happened. [Preface, “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe” ISBN: 0345418921]

All humor aside, the Guide is beginning to seem prophetic. Just look at this stuff! Eeek! Quantum entanglement! Yike! Properties that only exist when you measure them! Ulp! Superstrings! Extra Dimensions! Infinite parallel universes, where infinite yous and mes (okay, I’m also not a physicist, or a grammarian) branch into different realities every time wes (!) make a choice! Glurfle! Oh, forget it…..

Study the Universe intently enough, and it has sprung into bizarre existence from a geometric point, for which we daren’t try to assign a purpose lest we be ostracized for getting “all religious”. Keep staring, and it isn’t just flying apart from a primordial explosion, it’s accelerating away from its origin point faster and faster because of “a whole bunch of stuff we can’t see”!

Huh? Cosmological Constant?! We’re studying this in the first place because our Universe “just happens” to have a CC that promotes the development of biological molecules, complex lifeforms, and finally sentient life? Don’t, however, think to suggest that the Universe was “designed” to produce life, or people will get uncomfortable. Silly “Intelligent Design”-ers!

As long as we contemplate notions about complex, self-aware beings springing into existence (Oh, I forgot about “Boltzmann Brains”, but never mind.) as a consequence of a pseudo-mystical convergence of statistical properties that would make a shaman or a Cargo Cultist roll on the floor laughing at our gullibility, or as long as we jump under a desk or quote obscure Hindu scriptures whenever anyone asks “why?”, we will be wasting time we are going to need to answer The Greatest Question in Science:

Is this stuff for real, or is someone making fun of us?

It wouldn’t be the first time that sentient beings who came to depend on their own capacity for understanding came out looking foolish. This is because the things we have been intensely inspecting and investing in and wasting our lives on are fantasy, while the things of God are reality.

—The Religion Market

Exodus16
13 That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread the LORD has given you to eat.

31 The people of Israel called the bread manna. [d] It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey.

35 The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land that was settled; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan.

d. Exodus 16:31 Manna means What is it? ([NIV text note] see verse 15).

Numbers 21
4 They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, [a] to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; 5 they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”

John 6
30So they asked him, “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the True Bread from Heaven. 33For the Bread of God is He who comes down from Heaven and gives Life to the world.”

[Capitals and emphases added to the NIV text.]

Earlier this year, the History Channel aired an episode of their “Ancient Discoveries” series, entitled “Machines Of The Gods” [The episode summary itself is no longer linked for some reason]. This was pretty provocative stuff. A major conclusion of the presentation is that key foundations of modern engineering, such as the work of Heron in Alexandria in the 1st Century A.D. in pneumatics, hydraulics, and– amazingly—in the precursors of programmable automata, were sponsored by the religious priesthood of the city for use as “magic tricks” to inspire awe and belief—and contributions—from visitors to their temples.

This is, of course, one of the most fundamental requirements of religion, necessary to prehistoric shamans, Egyptian and Babylonian priests, doubtless unnumbered forms of Eastern and Middle-Eastern religious practice, and the past and present Pontifices Maximae (?) at Rome:

If you want to keep the rubes coming back, you have to bring in a new freak every now and then to freshen up the act.

Thus too, the endless modern processions of blood-weeping and milk-drinking statues, images on screen doors and cavern walls, self-flagellations, and so on and on and on.

It seems that Christianity would be at a severe disadvantage in such a “market”. After all:

Hebrews 13
8Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

And:

Psalm 33
11 … the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.

The manna was given to Israel day after day for forty years. It never apparently came in flavors, or got a new texture, nor was repackaged in any way, and before long they came to “detest this miserable food” God provided for them. Likewise, the “True Bread from Heaven” will never change, and the requirements of the eternal life it gives will never change with the “times”, fashions, or the collective attention span of the world around us. Real Christianity is just plain boring….

…unless, like the apostle Peter, you realize:

John 6
68…”Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

This faith isn’t part of the “religion marketplace”. It is the eternal, unchanging purpose of God to provide permanent Spiritual sustenance for the soul, joy, and peace, through the ministry of Jesus Christ. The longer you’ve been starved by “showmanship”, and “miracles”, or even by receiving nothing at all, the sooner and more desperately you need to receive this food.