tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65065766465752354552024-03-18T04:00:31.420-07:00A Layman's TermsA Modern Christian's Thoughts On Life, Writing, Tech, And Politics.Mike van Gochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17272961792389811195noreply@blogger.comBlogger94125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506576646575235455.post-14668410396470261852024-03-18T04:00:00.000-07:002024-03-18T04:00:00.135-07:00To A Chainsaw, Every Problem Looks Like A Massacre.The adage goes, guns don't kill people, people kill people. And as a pro-gun person, I used to blindly accept this statement. I knew my gun safety basics, and intermediates, and knew that it takes a person to kill another person, via negligent or nefarious actions, and not via the gun. The gun does the dirty work but it's the person who brings the dirty.But then I saw footage from the war in Mike van Gochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17272961792389811195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506576646575235455.post-73802212621351897282024-03-01T04:43:00.000-08:002024-03-01T04:43:36.597-08:00On Cool Church Music And Drug Dealers.The technology we use to make things cool will make things uncool with time as the only variable. That's because technology only makes things cool by connecting the desired product with the desires of the consumer. In short, technology is a means to fulfilment that otherwise would have to come from one's self. McLuhan talks about this as technology is the extension of our nervous system intoMike van Gochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17272961792389811195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506576646575235455.post-5998955567075252472024-02-23T04:00:00.000-08:002024-02-27T05:07:27.350-08:00Did You Hear The One About Robot Zombie George Carlin.It's not nearly as funny as the late great king of cuss words, by far. But it is still funny. Not funny haha. Funny that we think jokes from a robot zombie would be worth sullying the memory of our favourite dead guys. Funny the way margarine tastes like butter but is in no way shape or form as good for you as butter. And yes, I know you can't believe that. Faith will always have problems with Mike van Gochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17272961792389811195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506576646575235455.post-1475811956869052512024-02-16T04:00:00.000-08:002024-02-16T04:00:00.139-08:00A Litmus Test For Worshiping Large Language Models.I make a lot of fuss about the similarities of what mankind is doing with A.I. and what mankind has done with idols. The comparison often falls on deaf ears, stuffed with Airpods, and I plant my feet firmly in the sands of what it means to do theology honestly in the face of no longer being a cool kid.I get called a traditionalist and old-fashioned and get accused of holding the church back from Mike van Gochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17272961792389811195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506576646575235455.post-3606391618198569052023-10-25T04:59:00.000-07:002023-11-13T12:44:34.840-08:00A Change Of Coates' Now That It's Flu Season.I should start off by saying it has been a hot minute since I stopped writing about COVID and tyranny and started writing about where that tyranny pushed the church. My focus as a writer has been and is the relationship the church has with technology in general. But to not address what was one of the iconic moments of my province during the last few years in relation to where COVID pushed the Mike van Gochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17272961792389811195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506576646575235455.post-35331776313278994632023-08-25T04:00:00.003-07:002023-08-25T08:15:15.352-07:00A Hand Up The "Ehem, Interpretation" Of A Biblical Puppet.We all get told at Bible college that eisegesis is a poor way to make our arguments in any faith conversation because it doesn't say what the text said, it says what we want to say by using the words of the text. This twisting of scripture is problematic on a number of levels but mostly because it makes the focal point of the text used for justification, the person's own mind and not the originalMike van Gochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17272961792389811195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506576646575235455.post-73375544957214813962023-08-18T10:39:00.000-07:002023-08-18T10:39:23.263-07:00Is It Okay For Christians To Autofill. In a recent article on churchleaders.com , James Emery White did a great job of illustrating the need for wisdom in an age of asking Google things. And the associated why's that orbit that particular part of our modern-day culture. Here's a link for those interested. But that title was frankly wasted on such nice writing. Can Christian autofill? At all? Do we even have the Mike van Gochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17272961792389811195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506576646575235455.post-50992542804745915042023-08-11T04:18:00.003-07:002023-08-11T04:18:40.479-07:00The Technological Progress That Never Was.Did technology progress throughout the scriptures? Or did we just find varied ways to do what God did first? I get a common response to most of my tweets when I challenge the blanket use of tech for church purposes. That response tries to get me back on my theological heels by asking a practical question. If I am against technology (x) then I likely am ignorantly, also, against technology (yMike van Gochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17272961792389811195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506576646575235455.post-28683100947166682362023-08-04T04:00:00.010-07:002023-08-04T04:00:00.159-07:00The Feminist/Robot Cocktail Headed Our Way.Continuing with the last post theme of jokes we ought to take a bit more seriously. I'd like to take a closer look at the odd relationship women in pastoral and church leadership roles, are going to have with the various forms of A.I. headed our way.You would think that these two broad categories wouldn't interact past a lazy lady pastor using ChatGPT to phone in a sermon once or twice. Gender Mike van Gochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17272961792389811195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506576646575235455.post-39591356899087045662023-07-28T07:59:00.001-07:002023-07-28T07:59:03.231-07:00Book Review: The Pastor Evangelist In Worship, Richard Stoll Armstrong. Mike van Gochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17272961792389811195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506576646575235455.post-57887224229407282552023-07-28T04:00:00.001-07:002023-07-28T04:00:00.147-07:00The Inevitable Clash Of Church Tech And Climate Science.A joke we ought to take a little more seriously.There's a single-panel cartoon making the theological Twitter rounds, (or X as it were now I guess) that warrants a bit more thought than most Saturday morning paper comics, that no one in my demographic actually reads. Mostly because we have Reddit and Substack now.Essentially, it points out the very real and very timely correlation, that at one Mike van Gochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17272961792389811195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506576646575235455.post-36355087322110456812023-07-26T12:59:00.004-07:002023-07-26T12:59:38.607-07:00Book Review: The Bondage Break, Neil T. Anderson Mike van Gochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17272961792389811195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506576646575235455.post-1938814416939733462023-07-26T08:17:00.001-07:002023-07-26T08:17:01.283-07:00Book Review: The Conservative Tradition, Patrick N. Allitt Mike van Gochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17272961792389811195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506576646575235455.post-34746474487626644872023-07-24T17:40:00.003-07:002023-07-24T17:40:35.320-07:00Book Review: Getting Things Done, David Allen Mike van Gochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17272961792389811195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506576646575235455.post-33735743342345775652023-07-24T17:39:00.005-07:002023-07-24T17:39:54.507-07:00Book Review: For Paradise to the Promised Land, T. Desmond Alexander. Mike van Gochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17272961792389811195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506576646575235455.post-69641337523553725622023-07-24T17:39:00.000-07:002023-07-24T17:39:07.752-07:00Book Review: Stuff Christian Like, Jonathon Acuff Mike van Gochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17272961792389811195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506576646575235455.post-55773209788703825022023-07-07T13:04:00.007-07:002023-07-07T13:05:16.471-07:00Book Review: It's Your Ship, Captain D. Michael AbrashoffMike van Gochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17272961792389811195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506576646575235455.post-22735637598871790472023-06-23T04:00:00.043-07:002023-06-23T04:00:00.135-07:00A Theology Of Apples And VisionsLet's get the obvious low-hanging fruit and cliches out of the way. Yes, my target for this theological lash is one that chose a bitten apple as a logo as if that wouldn't come back to haunt the company and their version of good and evil knowledge later.Yes, the fanboys are as easy to mock as their obsessive and expensive foibles would suggest.Yes, these are the kind of first-world problems Mike van Gochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17272961792389811195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506576646575235455.post-29107051858461682452023-06-16T05:00:00.002-07:002023-06-16T05:00:00.136-07:00Boniface.exe _AXE is "getting rusty": trueYou'll have to forgive my Luddite attempt at a C++ joke in the title. It was a swing of an axe too heavy for me to lift. One that is often thrust into the hands of coal miners and truckers, as their jobs are deleted via ideological progress. The ever inflammatory, "learn to code" is simply not going to just happen. But then again, neither seems to be this technological reformation we've Mike van Gochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17272961792389811195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506576646575235455.post-6793994069444076022023-06-13T08:52:00.004-07:002023-06-13T08:52:27.360-07:00My Reaction To The First AI Generated Church Service / Idolatry Mike van Gochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17272961792389811195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506576646575235455.post-5957358949245661952023-06-09T08:15:00.000-07:002023-06-09T08:15:00.141-07:00The Naughty Bits Of Social Media, And How We Use Greek Words.There is a reason we call the girl who is loud, and wears tight clothing, and is overly inquisitive, and suggestively opinionated, and all those things combined, an attention whore. It has nothing to do with her sexual activity, though, it is tangentially related to it. And also, a reason why that character I have just produced in your mind does not have to be a She to be an attention whore. Mike van Gochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17272961792389811195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506576646575235455.post-63464469048915289782023-06-01T04:00:00.005-07:002023-06-01T04:00:00.146-07:00The Tragedy Of "The Last Of Us" Is How It's Gay. (A Guest Post From My Pen Name)In honour of pride month, I wrote an article on my Pen Name's blog on the popular drama de jour with Bella Ramsay and Pedro Pascal, The Last Of UsEnjoy the crosspost, everyone.*************************************************That's a click-bait-y title if there ever was one, I do say so myself. And far be it for me to judge the efforts and characters of other writers who write characters as Mike van Gochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17272961792389811195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506576646575235455.post-45591744907772408842023-05-15T08:31:00.006-07:002023-05-15T08:31:41.935-07:00The Macbeth's Dagger Of Online MissionsIn high school, I participated in a one-act condensation of Macbeth. It was roughshod and fun. We did it as opposing hockey teams and the three witches were played by one girl with two sockpuppets, A gag we stole from another one-act version of Macbeth with clowns in it. All that the high school drama world has done to a play about Scottish kings and destiny can't simply or adequately be written Mike van Gochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17272961792389811195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506576646575235455.post-4044427104978287002023-05-11T12:12:00.003-07:002023-05-11T12:12:17.596-07:00Electric Sheep And The Dream Of An Android Apologist There is an assumption at play in the church that hasn't quite got its footing in the real world of what tech means to the Bride of Christ. We like to talk big and talk often at the expense of our dead guy de jour (in this case, Gutenberg), borrowing their posthumous authority to staple onto our lack thereof.This assumption is that tech always lands in the hand of the reformers. And that the Mike van Gochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17272961792389811195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506576646575235455.post-78548027697022321642023-05-09T14:23:00.009-07:002023-05-31T08:31:53.063-07:00Our Current Paul Bettany "Man" Crush.Jeff Reed posed the question "How do we disciple artificial intelligence?" In a recent article on the digital church network, I encourage you to read it first before we start taking it apart. You can find it here.I've talked about the term Aesthetic Equivalencies before. On a video here, and I really want to drill down on this kind of thing because it seems to be the founding idea that no Mike van Gochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17272961792389811195noreply@blogger.com0