When you take over God’s job, you have no end of problems.
Take that business about being the Creator. It’s maddening. All you’ve got to work with is stuff God already created. Even the minds of secular humanists were created by God. We do not know why He didn’t make them better at using them.
God created man, so humanists want to create something better. Their creation, their Homo sapiens 2.0, will be new, improved, far superior to the current version. It will be able to solve all the world’s problems that have licked us so far–war, poverty, hate, and getting blackberry seeds stuck between your teeth.
This is the humanist messiah. Artificial Intelligence. Flawed, sinful, mortal man will, with his own intelligence that has given us movies like Gigli and foreign policies that look like they were dreamed up by Punch and Judy, create intelligent beings that’ll be much smarter and much better behaved than their creators.
Yes, there are a few scientists who’ve been trying to warn us that the A.I. enterprise is bound to turn out like Windows 8–not quite as nice as you expected. But because there is no one as anti-human as a humanist, the God wannabes seem eager to scrap H. sapiens 1.0 altogether, just plain get rid of us, with all our stupid problems, and replace us with their own creation. “It’ll be sooo much better! You’ll see!” Although how we’ll actually be able to see it from the boneyard, they don’t say.
C.S. Lewis already told us all about this, way back in 1945, in That Hideous Strength.
We already have a God, a Creator and a Savior, and He has equipped us with enough common sense to see that something perfect cannot and will not be created by imperfect beings. But it was Satan who told us that it can–way back in the beginning (see Genesis 3).
And it is Satan who’s the god of humanism.
But.. the true paradox is that God (allegedly) has created us in his own image. Therefore, who and what we are reflects the creation of God. Would it not be better to live in harmony with God based on the wonders of his creation rather than under some duress from some contrived fear?
It’s interesting how they can look at history, and then conclude that if we just fine tune things a bit we can make all of this work. In reality, mankind has failed over and over again. Most recently, after WW II, there was a period of relative stability and in some places there was real improvement. But, as a group, the lessons of that war have been forgotten and it appears that the world is on the path to a greater conflict in the near future.
But they continue, promising the moon and delivering nothing of value, over and over again until many people don’t even realize that they have a choice in whether or not to promote the latest and greatest scheme to redeem mankind on its own terms.
Actually, software is a perfect metaphor. Windows used to be straightforward and fairly easy for the uninitiated to use. There were some inherent security limitations, so they came up with Windows 7, which addressed the core security issues and had a great user interface. Then came Windows 8, which was very difficult for many end users. During the 8.0 era, I helped people with computers they brought home from the store and could not use at all. I kept the computers under my management on Windows 7.
Windows 8.1 took care of the completely inscrutable user interface, but was still much less straightforward than 7 had been. I didn’t bite. Then windows 10 came along and all sorts of adware came with it. Now I had the problem of giving end users a computer that would try to sell them software and services that the company did not authorize. I’m still running Win 7 throughout my network and am hoping that something less godawful is released before total end of support, which happens in 2020.
But the thinking behind this is what fascinates me. They take a serviceable product and add a under interface that few people can understand without training. It was supposed to be easier to use, but it was all but impossible for many people. I could use it, but shortcuts I’ve used over the years have been replaced with more circuitous procedures. If the people being this cared about customers, they would give them something they want, but they don’t care and they don’t want to help the customer, they want to manipulate the customer.
Now apply this to governments, which have become less and less responsive to their citizens and more and more self-centered. They can try to make things better, but it will fail.
If they get rid of windows 7 in 2020, they’ll get rid of me, too!!!!! I can just barely get along, as it is. The thought of having to learn everything all over again, when it’s taken me all these years just to scrape by in Windows 7–
you know, I think I just might kill somebody.
I gave up on Windows entirely, seven years ago. I still manage around 100 Windows PCs and servers, but I’ve been using a Mac since 2010 and have no interest in ever going back to Microsoft.
There are builds of Linux which are laid out to resemble Windows 7, so that’s an avenue as well. In my humble opinion, the tail now wags the dog at Microsoft. They are so hooked on features and continuous upgrades that they have lost sight of everything else. It’s been my experience that the reliability of their software is in decline and many of their tools for network administrators work poorly, if at all.
A lot of people don’t realize that they have a choice, but there are choices. Macs are wonderful, reliable machines that avoid some of Windows nastier habits. Linux is free, or nearly free, and can be quite good. Almost all of my computer time, apart from work, is done on an iPad. They are wonderful computers, but I don’t know that they would do the trick for an author.
Were I nearby, I’d offer to come over and help you out with some of this, but at roughly 2,100 miles, it’s a bit of a drive the Metuchen. 🙂
And ye shall be as gods… it seems mankind has been doing this ever since the garden. We seem to think we can do better than God. It’s not just us either, but God’s other creation, a third of the angels, also believed that. But it’s that idea which is why things are they way the are. Death, wars, sickness, etc. can invariably be traced back to rebellion, and thinking we can replace God.
I’ve pondered why God doesn’t fix everything immediately instead of having this long drawn out process. But then it occurred to me if God did that, we wouldn’t learn anything. If rebellion is the root cause of all problems, then he has to teach His creation the ultimate object lesson. And that lesson is there’s only one God, and were not Him. He’s working within the confines of free will, and once His point is made all things will be made new.
Good points, Watchman.
One thing I find heartening, is that more and more people are seeming to realize these same things for themselves. Truth and light are in no danger of extinction.