New Tech, Old Issue

Good to discuss topics with you both again, as I haven't posted in a while, and have not seen you (though you may have posted on other entries and I just missed you)on some of the threads.

Amiably yours,
TC

Thanks for your kind words TC. The religious questions have not been too exciting as of late, but it certainly is good to reconnect and to share some thoughts with each other.

GK

I would suggest, CCNL, that we confine the discussion to *email,* since 'The Internet' is so big.

Of course, as the world gets more 'wired,' it seems to me that email has become a medium of very perfunctory communication, like an answering machine, when more 'realtime' communication isn't possible.

Even in recent years, corresponding in *substance* via email seems to have taken a back seat to chat windows, text IMs, or, in fact, cheap and nationally-available cell-phone coverage.

I suppose even the question is behind the times.

I have been convinced for sometime now that one of the major reason we have so many horriffic acts today is that we have spent the last 50 years furnishing excuses for them.

I like the points you make GK and GaryD about having perspective on the information that's out there as well as that found in literature and source material, and about tools not having free will, respectively.

Unfortunately our culture tends to not be discerning in what information is put before them. Also implied in GK's point is how our culture tends to let their minds run away with conspiracy theories. In this case, conspiracists usually tend to imply that the Gnostic Gospels such as Thomas, that you reference, and others such as Judas & Mary Magdalen are the types of Christianity that the early church leaders "didn't want you to hear" in order to control you, when, in fact, it's that they were unreliable for various reasons as well as diverting from the original "good news" verbal & eventual literary testimonies about Christ. As the original Chesterton wrote when examining what a writer is saying in a particular work regardless of time period, we need to ask ourselves, "is it true?"

GaryD, I too shake my head at the irresponsibility of people in not taking credit for their actions. Again, it is a product of our culture, I fear. "Officer, it's not my fault that I was driving drunk. The bartender shouldn't have served me that last drink. My friend should have taken my car keys away from me. That stop sign was not properly posted. The intersection was not well lit, and the car manufacturer installed faulty brakes." To go along with your point on tools not being capable of good or evil, it's very ironic the Alfred Nobel (of Nobel Peace Prize fame) invented dynamite for aiding in mining to assist human kind, but that it has also been used in warfare and for destructive purposes.

Good to discuss topics with you both again, as I haven't posted in a while, and have not seen you (though you may have posted on other entries and I just missed you)on some of the threads.

Amiably yours,
TC

Garyd:

What a novel idea and coming from you, people should take responsibility for HOW they use machines. I can't tell the highway patrolman that it wasn't me speeding but the car did it so he can't give me a ticket. But I can blame the computer.

Computers are all different. Computers have free will and make decisions we must live with. Yep, it sure seems like a stupid question that has a one word answer but neither blessing nor curse is it.

I'm saving all my worrying about computers for when they start reproducing themselves. Then computers will likely own people -should they decide we're allowed to live.

E-mail is a lot older than computers of course or the Internet. It dates the late 19th - early 20th century -a device called the teletype. News services were still using teletypes past the 1960's. That's the source of the term, "on the wire" the act of one person typing the news on h/er teletype, cut a "paper tape or ticker tape" and then "feeding" the tape to the teletype broadcasting it to all who plugged into h/er telephone wire. That's sorta how it works with computers that use electronic memory instead of paper memory which is the major difference.

Private individuals also owned teletypes. I have a cousin that got one during the late 1940's to augment his ham/short wave radio setup. He loved to talk to people and could all over the world. It was expensive of course -toll charges.

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The internet is like any source of information. It needs to be assimilated in the proper perspective. For example, if you look at some of the dating resources for canonical and non-canonical books regarding the Christian faith, some will give you such a wide span of time that presumes there is wide disagreement among the scholary community.

Take for example, the Gospel of Thomas. Most scholars date it around A.D. 175 or even later and a very few minority of scholars date it as early as A.D. 50 making it sound like there were many "Christianities" being espoused in the 1st century.

Also, I've noticed that many internet posters use these websites to discount religion even though their starting points do not represent mainstream biblical scholarship.

Moral of story: Internet websites + post-modern skepticism easily might take you down a path that is not grounded in anything that is remotely close to the Christian faith.

I am at a loss to explain this modern tendency to assume tools have free will and can over power their users to compel those users to do things they do not wish to do.

Email is in and of itself value neutral it cannot be either curse or blessing until someone choose to use or abuse it.

Anon, Anon, Anon whomever you are,

The flaws of all religions to include Islam will negate anymore crusades and mosques, castles, churches and synagogues will be turned into museums.

Concerned The Christian Now Liberated:

Please don't tell us the bishop will need to get a regular job. Most likely the English will keep the clergy like they keep the crown. Think of all the landmarks like Saint Paul's and Notre Dame.

Religion is here to stay. Haven't you heard. Saudi Arabia is building a huge mosque in London to rival Satin Paul's. The crusades continue as well. It may be up to the Muslims to allow the Church of England to continue and not the English.

Great for the consumer!! A disaster for the US Postal Service.

But since e-mail is a subtechnology of the Internet, the question should have been "Internet, blessing or curse?"

And with that, the discussion of the value of rapid dissemination of information would ensue.

A good example of this is the 24/7 review of the flaws of religions and how that is impacting people's views on said religions. The recent Pew poll shows that people are finally questioning religious doctrines using information readily available on the Internet.