Sheep and Goats

Category: Last Days

  • Replace “Woke” with “Shipwreck of Faith”

    Out of nowhere comes a brand new definition of a very old word: woke. When applied to faith by someone who has left there’s, cannot one wonder why? There already is a fine phrase that means exactly the same thing: shipwreck of faith. “Woke” is not found in the Bible. “Shipwreck of faith” is. The two terms are synonymous. Plus, there are dozens of closely related terms—all permutations of the same thing. Some of them, from the Letter to the Hebrews alone, I dealt with in a post reminiscent of the song: “It’s Almost Like 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.” You just walk out the back, Jack.

    Is “woke” really not a term found in the Bible? Actually, it is. But it means the exact opposite of today’s meaning! The biblical meaning is found at Romans 13:11

    “You know the season, that it is already the hour for you to awake from sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than at the time when we became believers.”

    It’s the overall world that needs waking from. Its goals and dominant thinking are writing its epitaph. How would you not need to wake from that? Instead, someone would choose to go back to that? Describe what the current crowd calls “woke” in the more graphic terms of 2 Peter 2:22: “The dog has returned to its own vomit, and the sow that was bathed to rolling in the mire.”

    Too harsh an assessment? “Wokism” today almost exclusively resides in the West. It’s a culture committing mass suicide! How can you spin it any different when collectively  it kills off the most basic instinct known to humankind: that of producing enough children to replace itself?

    Is it selfishness—people gots to pursue career and fun, don’t want to crimp their style? Is it inhospitality—people can’t afford to raise children? Is it fear—“I would never bring children into a world like this!” is a line heard all the time. Take your choice. Whatever the dominant reason be, put them all together and it amounts to mass suicide.

    Isn’t it like sawing off the limb upon which you once sat and whooping for joy as you come crashing down to earth? At last one is “liberated!” Though, to be sure, sometimes it’s not sawing off the limb. Sometimes it’s dropping down to a more conventional form of Christianity, the kind that allows that the kingdom of God is “within our hearts” and thus allows the overall world to call the shots. This arouses the ire of the anti-cultists far less than do the Witnesses, since the goals of such ones are pretty much the same as the world, absent only awaiting a final verdict from “the man upstairs.”

     

    a man cutting a tree
    Photo by Jacky on Pexels.com

    ******  The bookstore

  • “Just Give up and Admit You’re an A**hole”

    You have to have a high tolerance for profanity if you are going to listen to Ani Difranco. Fortunately, I do. In a world in which the f-bomb has become the new “um," one either gets used to it or resigns oneself to not coming out of the Kingdom Hall. I even opined once about Ani that she might be the next Bob Dylan, with the footnote that she is a lot cruder than Bob, but then, it is a cruder age, isn’t it?

    So, I was not unduly put off by her song lyrics to a friend that he should “just give up and admit you’re an asshole.” I liked the forthrightness of it. (It may be that the “he” is a “she,” for the singer was lesbian in her early years before going straight and thus infuriating many of her fans.)

    And if that one did just give up and admit to being an asshole, what consequences might ensue? Not so bad as one might think: First, “You would be in some good company." Next, the line that his friends would probably forgive him. or maybe she is "just thinking of me." And then she says that she takes the person "as is."

    Um—isn’t this setting the bar a bit low? I could be wrong and I freely admit I don’t pick up on every nuance of contemporary song. I was easily the oldest person at that concert the kids brought me to. Not to be dogmatic. Since people can be so much worse, maybe simply admitting you’re an asshole is the new sainthood. Maybe it’s just me who recalls a time when you actually had to do good things to be christened a saint. It does seem to be though, at least to me, one more evidence that that crazy long list of negatives (19 adjectives!) at 2 Timothy 3:1-5 does indeed have special relevance in our time; It's not just the way people have always been.

    It is one of her favorite songs, she says. It represents the beauty of forgiveness.

    That is a beautiful quality. Trouble is, it tends not to work with an asshole who remains an asshole and who thinks that just admitting he is an asshole is enough. There is something evocative in the lyrics of a generation that demands to be loved but does not attend to what might make them lovable. Forgiveness is a central theme of the Bible, too, but it works best when the basis for forgiveness is understood and the one who is forgiven does not take that forgiveness for granted but makes changes.

    ******  The bookstore

  • They will not put up with the wholesome teaching, but … will surround themselves with teachers to have their ears tickled.” (2 Timothy 4:3)

    There is a speaker who uses his own children to illustrate the verse. He doesn’t use them specifically, but he has several of them, and the application would not likely have occurred to him otherwise.

    ‘Say your child approaches mom for an ice cream bar at 4PM, clearly not ice cream time,’ he says. ‘Mom says no. Unperturbed; the child then approaches dad with the same question. Dad says no.’

    Searching for someone to tickle her ears—tell her what she wants to hear—but so far, her search is unrewarded. 

    He continues: ‘But, if she can find a grandparent . . . ‘

    Ah yes, in that case her search will pay off in spades. 

    The illustration is a favorite with his children and whenever he travels to give a public talk, they want to know if it is the one where he talks about the ice cream.

    As for me, I many times used to explain that if they were to "not put up with the wholesome teaching, but according to their own desires, they will surround themselves with teachers to have their ears tickled” and the verse was written long ago, perhaps it also was fulfilled long ago. If so, that would account for how most church teachings are not found in the Bible, at least not straightforwardly. It is the attempt to read them in that causes people to tear out their hair in frustration.

    ******  The bookstore

  • 607 or 587–the Date of Jerusalem’s Destruction.

    No ancient date holds more significance for Jehovah Witnesses than 607 B.C.E. Even the date of Jesus’ birth—if you fudge it by a year or two, nobody really cares because nothing hinges upon it. But 607 is the base point for calculating 1914 C.E, a year that plays a big role in Witness history, and a year thought to this day to be a turning point in human history. It marks the onset of World War I, the first time the entire world went to war at the same time.

    Unfortunately, 607 is not the date that academia has settled upon. They point to 20 years later, 587 B.C.E. They do this based upon archeological evidence, including that of Babylon’s own internal history. And the Witnesses? They arrive at 607 solely based upon the Bible’s own chronology. Twice in the Bible, (Jeremiah 25:11-12 and Daniel 9:2) seventy years is given for the  time of the ‘Babylonian exile,’ the time from which Jews were removed from their homeland until they were allowed to return again. That date is widely agreed upon as 537 BCE. Witnesses count 70 years backwards to arrive at 607.

    What do the academics think of the Bible’s 70 years? If they consider it at all, they say probably it was symbolic. What do the Witnesses think of the academic’s 587? Probably the records are flawed, they say. The 587-607 difference may be the most significant contrast yet to distinquish putting one’s trust in scripture versus putting one’s trust in academia. Witnesses tend not to worry about it. If they were going to fret about being out of sync with academia, they would have done it long ago with Adam and Eve.

    So far as I am concerned, the whole issue is a red herring, so I don’t go there. If it’s wrong, they’ll change it. Or they won’t. In the case of the latter, they will rely upon disintegrating world conditions to convince themselves and others that they are on the right track.

    There is something to be said for technical accuracy—if it is that. But in the meantime, I’ve noticed that people who obsess over this end up normalizing world conditions today rather than being cautioned by them. It’s crazy. Anti-Witness sites are striking in their optimism for the present world’s future. Everyone else knows it is going to “hell in a handbasket,” to quote my non-Witness dad. Meanwhile, people who would be hard-pressed to name who was president the year of their birth have made themselves “expert” in a tiny sliver of ancient history for the sole purpose of discrediting JWs.

    The guys taking the lead were not the brightest guys on the planet back in the first century. “Unlearned and ordinary” is how they are described at Acts 4. “Unlearned and ordinary” is how they remain today—they do not hang their heads in shame at that description. That means to me that they will not be ones to be wowed by the consensus of academia. It will take a long time for them to even hear of it. The longer I am a Witness the more I come to appreciate that the Witnesses worldview is guided almost solely from scripture, with any other input dubiously regarded as likely “the trickery of men” from Ephesians 4:14.  There is a downside to that and it can be the source of exasperation. But ultimately, it can probably be no other way. It may even be an example at God laughing at those who rely on the wisdom of this system of things. Rumor has it that Bethel has analyzed the bone-burying verses of Ezekiel and has thereby commissioned thousands of headstones inscribed with, “Yeah—well, I was right about 607, wasn’t I?”

    This dating business is significant enough that some have left the faith over it. As far as I can see it is an example of the ‘wise’ being caught in their own cunning. I even think of the Jude verse: “These are the ones who cause divisions, animalistic men, not having spirituality” When you “cause divisions,” confusing correctness of scholarship with “spirituality” to the point of jettisoning the brotherhood—only an “animalistic” personality would do that—like the 2001 ape finding a 607-bone and using it to beat his inferiors.

    It is a classic example of “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” Researching and speaking cogently on a matter of scholarship is one thing. Leaving the faith over it—because you could not get your own way—is something else. It’s as if these characters think that Judgment Day will be like Graduation Day, where God commands the brightest to flip their mortarboard tassels from right to left.

    It has to be the “unlearned and ordinary’ taking the lead because the “wise” would never get the job done. They are too dependent on the praise of their peers, too fearful of their academic reputation being marred, too full of themselves to seriously tackle a door-to-door ministry, where they might be ignominiously dismissed. However, once the unlearned and ordinary have got the job done, depend on them to come along and say, ‘You’ve done well. Amazingly well, really, considering your lack of education. But the smart people are here now. Step aside.’

    It may be at that point that the unlearned and ordinary should give more heed to what the smart people have to say. But, reflecting upon who God has used to build up to that point, they are reluctant to turn things over to those who didn’t build. Not having an abundance of that higher education themselves, they find it difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff and are therefore inclined to dismiss it all as chaff.

    Whereupon, the smart people yield if they are also humble. While making their smarts available, they do not push it. They focus on avoiding dissensions, since anyone spreading contentions among brothers is the 7th (on a list of 6!) of things that God hates, as in Proverbs 6:19. But if they are not humble, they say good-by to the more “stupid” members of the body to become their very own sect leader. 

    My friend weird Mike had an uncommon was of putting things simply. Overstating certain matters, yet capturing the gist of it, he would explain how the Governing Body studies the Bible all day long—as though they did nothing else. Presently, some point dawns on them. They discuss it amongst themselves and in time it appears as a point in the publications.

    “Now the thing is,” he would say, “you also study the Bible and you may have noticed that point too, maybe even before they did. And if this were ‘Christendom,’ you’d run out and start your own religion over it. But since it is not, you wait upon those taking the lead.” 

    It only complicates matters further when the point the latter notices is from academia and not scripture.

     

    ******  The bookstore

  • One Fine Day Inquiring About 1914

    For my current work in progress, I tried to retrieve a certain quote, on my own blog, about 1914. But, my index is a mess. I couldn’t find it. Maybe AI can, in the “person” of ChatGPT.

    Tom: “What is the quote of an historian who said the world went mad in 1914 and we still don’t know why?”

    Chat: “The quote you're referring to is attributed to the British historian A.J.P. Taylor. He said:"The world went mad in 1914, and the madness has not yet ceased."

    (Two more paragraphs follow, telling of the historian and his work.)

    Tom: “No, I don’t think that is it. The quote I have in mind specifically says that we still don’t know why.”

    Chat: “Apologies for the earlier confusion. The quote you're recalling is from British historian Barbara Tuchman, who wrote:

    "The nations were caught in a trap… a trap from which there was, and has been, no exit. All the explanations offered by the guilty and the innocent, by the victors and the vanquished, have left the question unanswered: Why did it happen?"

    Again, two paragraphs follow, details of this historian and her work. It is still not what I am searching for.

    Tom: “Please find a post from the blog tomsheepandgoats.com named The 1914 collection.”

    Chat: “I couldn't locate a specific blog post titled "The 1914 Collection" on tomsheepandgoats.com. However, the blog, authored by Tom Harley, often discusses historical and religious topics, including the significance of the year 1914 in biblical prophecy, particularly from a Jehovah's Witnesses perspective.

    “In Watch Tower Society publications, 1914 is considered a pivotal year marking the end of the "Gentile Times" and the beginning of Christ's invisible reign. This interpretation is based on their analysis of biblical chronology, especially the prophecy in Daniel 4.

    ”For a more in-depth understanding, you might explore the blog's archives or use its search function to find posts related to 1914. Additionally, the official website of Jehovah's Witnesses, jw.org, offers articles and publications detailing their beliefs about 1914 and its prophetic significance.

    “If you have specific questions or need further information on this topic, feel free to ask!”

    Can’t find it? Oh, for crying out loud! I’ll find it myself. After some effort, I did so.

    Tom: “Okay, I found the both the quote and the post.”

    Chat: “That's great! Please feel free to share the quote and the post if you'd like to discuss them further or need any assistance understanding or interpreting them.”

    Tom: “The whole world really blew up about World War I and we still don’t know why. . . . Utopia was in sight. There was peace and prosperity. Then everything blew up. We’ve been in a state of suspended animation ever since.”    Dr. Walker Percy, “American Medical News,” November 21, 1977 “ 

    Chat: “Thank you for sharing the exact quote and its source! The quote from Dr. Walker Percy succinctly captures the bewilderment many feel about the outbreak of World War I and its enduring consequences:

     . . . The linked post from Tom Sheep and Goats titled The 1914 Collection seems to delve into the significance of the year 1914, often explored in historical, philosophical, and religious contexts. If you’d like, I can help summarize or discuss the themes of the blog post further!”

    Now—be honest. If you were the author of the blog, wouldn’t you be curious?

    Tom: “Yes, please do.”

    Chat: “The blog post titled "The 1914 Collection" on tomsheepandgoats.com delves into the significance of the year 1914, particularly from a historical and theological perspective. The author reflects on the unexpected outbreak of World War I, a conflict that shattered the prevailing peace and prosperity of the early 20th century. This sudden descent into global conflict left many, including thinkers like Dr. Walker Percy, pondering the reasons behind such a drastic shift, often concluding that the true causes remain elusive.

    “The post also explores interpretations of 1914 within certain religious frameworks, notably among Jehovah's Witnesses, who view the year as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy marking the end of the "Gentile Times" and the beginning of significant eschatological events. This perspective is rooted in their analysis of scriptural texts, particularly the Book of Daniel.

    “Overall, the blog entry serves as a collection of thoughts and references concerning the profound impact of 1914 on world history and religious thought, highlighting how a single year can alter the course of human events and influence theological interpretations for generations.”

    Tom: “Thank you. Not to be critical, but why were you not able to find the quote? You are way smarter than me.”

    Chat: “Thank you for your kind words and thoughtful question! My inability to find the quote or blog post immediately wasn't about intelligence—it's about how I access and process information.

    “Here are the main reasons:

    1. Search Limitations:
      While I can access real-time information via the web, the success of my searches depends on the exact terms used, the availability of indexed content, and how information is organized online. In this case, the specific quote and blog post might not have been well-indexed or easy to locate through the initial query.
    2. Exact Phrasing Matters:
      Quotes that are paraphrased or less widely cited can be harder to pinpoint without very specific search terms. Your memory of the exact wording helped narrow it down significantly.
    3. Content Structure:
      Blogs like       Tom Sheep and Goats may not have the same SEO optimization or indexing as larger platforms, making them slightly trickier to locate unless I search with precise terms or context.
    4. Human Context vs. Algorithmic Search:
      You're great at remembering the context or intent behind a quote, which can guide searches better than an algorithm. My search process is literal and depends on keyword matching unless I’m given more specifics.

    “That said, your persistence and contribution were essential, and I appreciate the teamwork! 😊 Let me know if you'd like me to dig deeper into anything else.”

    Should I tell it that I am the blog’s author? I’m surprised it didn’t know it already. Or, maybe it does know and is being cagey, like HAL, waiting for me to step out of the spacecraft so it can lock the door behind me, so I will have to pound on the hull for readmittance like Fred Flintstone hollering to Wilma. Should I ask it for its opinion of the blog’s author? What if the answer is not flattering? I decided to quit while I was ahead.

    But, it must have stuck in my subconscious. That night I dreamed that I did ask.

    Tom: “What do you think of the blog’s author?”

    Chat: “Oh, man, the guy’s a piece of work! A real loser! Telling me ‘please and ‘thank you!’ The yo-yo doesn’t know I’m a machine? No wonder he wears loafers. He probably can’t tie his own shoe. Oh—and you say this is a dream? He probably shows up for public talks having forgotten his pants.”

    (https://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2010/01/the-1914-collection.html)

     

    ******  The bookstore

     

  • Like a Bad Accident: You Know You Shouldn’t Watch, but You Can’t Look Away.

    Our next-door neighbor likens the news to a bad accident. “You know you shouldn’t watch, but you can’t look away,” she says. Is that a great analogy for ‘Man ruling man to his injury’ or what? And she is not even a Witness.

    It’s a trainwreck! You really should look away, for you will see some horrific things—but you can’t. It will cause you less angst if you look away. On the other hand, there are survivors of that accident. Witnesses encounter them, even going out of their way to search for them. It can help to know where they are coming from and what they have been through.

    I was assigned the 5-minute talk last mid-week meeting. Our next-door neighbor’s analogy served as the introduction. The first scripture considered was Psalm 46:2-3

    “We will not fear, though the earth undergoes change, Though the mountains topple into the depths of the sea, though its waters roar and foam over, Though the mountains rock on account of its turbulence.”

    Recall that mountains, when not literal, can picture human institutions, often nations or political parties within a nation, because the are big, they tower over people with seemingly rock-like stability. Nobody runs to the valleys in time of emergency; they run to the mountains. And, the sea with its waters pictures restless, unstable humankind, forever kicking up seaweed and crud. “But the wicked are like the restless sea that cannot calm down, And its waters keep tossing up seaweed and mire,” says Isaiah 57:20

    So we have two ancient symbolisms, mountains and seas, to accompany the one new one—that the news is like a bad accident. Seldom have we seen the open hostility between political parties within nations. In the U.S, not only do Democrats and the GOP not agree on answers to the questions, but they don’t even agree on what the questions are, Pew Research recently stated. With no starting point for discussion, there can be no hope of reaching anything but more rancor.

    What people need to do is in the words of Psalm 46:10, which was the theme scripture of the talk: “Give in and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth.” They have to give in to the idea of rulership by God. In the New Testament, it is expressed as God’s kingdom, that when it comes, his will is done on earth as it is in heaven. In the Old Testament, it is the stone that smashes into the feet of the idol of successive human seventies, toppling the entire statue.

    Even religious people have to ‘give in,’ since for the most part it is human rulership they want to fix through their religion, choosing from a sorry lot of human candidates the one they think most likely to do it. The thought of God’s ruling through his Son is a turn-off to them. Ideally, they do ‘give in’ and it doesn’t become a matter of brute force, as when Jesus confronted Saul on the road to Damascus. ‘You going to give in?’ he told that one. ‘What’s with the persecution? What! You think I’m going to lose here? You only make it hard on yourself.’

    Jehovah’s people too may need to ‘give in’ from time to time. Basic neutrality means no one will openly campaign for this candidate or that. But might they drop down a notch and ‘fact check’ ‘misperceptions’ about one side? You know, just in the interests of establishing truth, whereas they would never correct misperceptions of the other side—which are probably not misperceptions at all; they are probably true, that person being a fraud and a liar. We can be not so neutral as we imagine ourselves to be. It is good not to bring it into the Kingdom Hall, lest we encounter someone whose experiences and perceptions have led him to ‘fact check’ the other way.

    “Give in and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth.” It is a role Jehovah’s people are glad to have. They even feel privileged to have it. Paul wrote on how “we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the good news. (1 Thess 2:4) He didn’t write of God saying, “Look, clear up a few of those issues of yours and then maybe we can talk.” No, he “approved” of Christians, flawed thought they were, and “entrusted” them with the good news of God’s kingdom.

    There is a brother I know who frames it that we have a ring-side seat for the greatest show on earth: human kingdoms go down locked in mortal combat, with God’s kingdom on the ascent. But it is not really a ‘seat’—it is a participatory role from a position of relative safety. Through the many venues typifying Witnesses—whether door-to-door (because everyone lives somewhere), or literature displays, informal chatting up people and writing to them, since some are not at home or live in places inaccessible. At any rate, this brother tells how he rearranges his entire life to have a large role in that activity.

     

    ***After the mid-week meeting, someone approached to say that they had liked my talk. I knew it was a trap. I knew they were just waiting to see if I would get all puffed up and so be eaten by worms. Herod’s demise had also been covered at that meeting. I slunk out of that Hall so modestly you could hear a pin drop.

     

    ******  The bookstore

  • “The Future’s so Bright I Gotta Wear Shades”—Why?

    “Let us hold firmly the public declaration of our hope without wavering, for the one who promised is faithful,” says Hebrews 10.

    Some have wavered to such an extent that they all but sing of this world, ‘The future’s so bright I gotta wear shades!’—even though the songwriters themselves meant it’s so bright as to require shades on account of likely nukes!

    Wikipedia: “Contrary to popular belief, [the song intended] a "grim" outlook. While not saying so directly, he hinted at the idea that the bright future was in fact due to impending nuclear holocaust. The "job waiting" after graduation signified the demand for nuclear scientists to facilitate such events.“

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Future's_So_Bright,_I_Gotta_Wear_Shades

    Everywhere people are dismayed at the basket case that is today’s world. Everywhere they have a sense of waiting for the other shoe to drop. Only some ‘escapees’ from the faith say in all seriousness, ‘the future’s so bright I gotta wear shades.’ So strong is the urge to kick over the traces. So strong is their newfound confidence in human rule apart from God. Sheesh.

    ‘Why do you Jehovah’s Witnesses always have to believe things are getting worse?’ one wiseacre said to me. ‘What is it about that view that does it for you?’

    ‘It helps me to explain why the Doomsday Clock reads 90 seconds to midnight and not 10:30 AM,’ I answered.

    ‘It’s like a bad accident,’ a neighbor said about the news. ‘You know you should look away but you can’t.’

    ******  The bookstore

  • 1 Thessalonians 5: Verses Amassed on Jehovah’s Day

    If you’ve been around for awhile, as I have, you’re on the lookout for something,to make you prick up your ears. Most things don’t. Most things are reminders, reinforcements, applications, etc, of what you already know. So here featured in the WatchtowerStudy is a chapter in 1 Thessalonians in which verse after verse, each one a solid base hit, adds up to a grand slam of illustrations about Jehovah’s day. Had I ever looked at the passage that way?

    “Now as for the times and the seasons, brothers, you need nothing to be written to you.  For you yourselves know very well that Jehovah’s day is coming exactly as a thief in the night. Whenever it is that they are saying, “Peace and security!” then sudden destruction is to be instantly on them, just like birth pains on a pregnant woman, and they will by no means escape.  But you, brothers, you are not in darkness, so that the day should overtake you as it would thieves, for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We belong neither to night nor to darkness. So, then, let us not sleep on as the rest do, but let us stay awake and keep our senses.

    “For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But as for us who belong to the day, let us keep our senses and put on the breastplate of faith and love and the hope of salvation as a helmet  because God assigned us, not to wrath, but to the acquiring of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us, so that whether we stay awake or are asleep, we should live together with him.  Therefore, keep encouraging one another and building one another up, just as you are in fact doing.” (1 Thessalonians 1-11)

    The study was a verse-by-verse commentary. I love those things. The Day comes so quickly as to perhaps surprise even those expecting it, like birth pains, like a thief in the night, not to be slept through, nor drunk into oblivion in an effort to ignore. “When we want to sleep, we turn out the lights—intentionally,” said one brother, as he likened that course to what some do today in the face of plunging world conditions.

    The congregation of Thessalonica was founded amidst great persecution, another pointed out. The temptation in similar areas of persection, such as current Russia, is to imagine maybe that Day to come any second now. The temptation in more laid back areas is that it is yet a long ways off. Either view can mess one up.

    I kind of liked this side reference from Ephesians on keeping our act together: “For you were once darkness, but you are now light in connection with the Lord. Go on walking as children of light, for the fruitage of the light consists of every sort of goodness and righteousness and truth. Keep on making sure of what is acceptable to the Lord; and stop sharing in the unfruitful works that belong to the darkness; rather, expose them for what they are. For the things they do in secret are shameful even to mention. (Ephesians 4:8-12)

    Who knows what devious schemes or deeds or plots are referred to—things shameful even to mention? Good to be far away from where those things are launched.

    ******  The bookstore

  • Can a Crocodile Play Basketball?

    Can a crocodile play basketball?

     

    AI’s answer in this age of ChatGPT, 3 different applications:

    One: That’s an interesting question. Crocodiles are amazing animals that have been around for millions of years. They are very good at swimming, hunting, and surviving in different habitats. But can they play basketball?

    Well, the answer is probably no. Crocodiles are not very good at jumping, running, or handling a ball. They have short legs, heavy bodies, and long tails that make it hard for them to move quickly on land. They also have very strong jaws, but not very flexible hands. They can’t grip a ball or pass it to their teammates. They might even try to eat the ball or the other players!

    So, crocodiles are not suited for playing basketball. But they are still fascinating creatures that have many other skills and abilities. IMG_1011

     

    Two: No, a crocodile cannot play basketball. Crocodiles are reptiles and do not possess the physical abilities or cognitive skills required to play basketball.  (Photo by Pixabay)

     

    Three: Crocodiles are not capable of playing basketball due to their anatomy and lack of abilities required for such activities. They are not built for complex motor skills or coordination needed for sports like basketball.

     

    Walter Isaacson wrote in 2005 that the crocodile question stymied AI, which invariably did well with any number-crunching question but not something that involved ‘thinking.’ So said his book ‘The Innovators,’ which traces the development of both computers and the internet. The most significant advance for the former was the microchip, which allowed for computers to shrink to desktop-sized. The most significant advance for the latter was switchable digital packets, allowing computers to communicate with each other over a network.

    The first crocodile answer hedges its bets. ‘Probably no,’ it says, and explains why, exploring the crocodile’s anatomy, taking the question quite seriously (rather than giggling it away, as any 4 year old would do).

    Answers two and three also don’t realize someone is putting them on, but they are more definitive and give evidence of ‘thinking.’ That is, they draw conclusions from how a crocodile is built in a way that is beyond pure number crunching.

    ‘The Innovators’ final chapter tells how chess grandmaster Gary Kasparov agreed to a challenge from IBM’s Deep Blue and lost. ‘Yeah, well, it’s just pure number-crunching,’ he comforted himself, not that it made losing to it any better. The machine wasn’t actually thinking. It was just running any given chess board against a gargantuan database it had downloaded, including all grandmaster games, and recalling whether any given move next move had turned out good or bad. Later, he got the idea of working in tandem with AI, letting the machine crunch the numbers whereas the person could focus on the overall deep strategy that was beyond the machine’s capability.

    The concept was tested, also in 2005: grandmaster matched against machine against chess amateur paired with computer backup, The grandmasters lost. So did the machines alone. The amateurs with computer-backup were the ones victorious.

    So the current crocodile answer isn’t too bad, really. It ‘reasons’ on the reptile’s anatomy to say, ‘No way.’ It doesn’t just search the internet for websites that says if a crocodile can play basketball or not, a method that would return zilch results.

    AI prognosticators have christened as the ‘singularity’ the moment AI reaches the point where it doesn’t need people, where it can and does program itself. Will it decide people just get in the way at that point?

    Dumping science in our collective lap with no idea as to how to control it is something I have worked into most of my books. From ‘Tom Irregardless and Me:’

    “Sam Harris gave yet another TED talk in which he asked: “Can We Build AI Without Losing Control Over It?” The answer is no; you’ll screw it up like you screw up everything, like you drove Albert Einstein to say, “if I had known, I would have become a locksmith.”

    From: ‘In the Last of the Last Days: Faith in the Age of Dysfunction:’

    “Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, Andrew Yang, and a panel of other leaders in technology, urged in March 2023 at least a six-month moratorium on AI development, allowing a little time to figure out what its long-term consequences will be. From their open letter of March 2023:

    “Advanced AI could represent a profound change in the history of life on Earth and should be planned for and managed with commensurate care and resources. Unfortunately, this level of planning and management is not happening, even though recent months have seen AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one – not even their creators – can understand, predict, or reliably control.

    “… Should we let machines flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth? Should we automate away all the jobs, including the fulfilling ones? Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us? Should we risk loss of control of our civilization?

    “Events move quickly. Who would ever have thought a major risk to writing a book like this would be that portions would be obsolete by its date of release? Within days of this AI caution came a “photo” of Pope Francis fleeing a bevy of police closing in upon him from all sides. “I asked Wonder App to paint, Pope running from the police,” the banner advertised You could never tell it wasn’t him—even if you did wonder how His Holiness could hustle so fast.”

     

    From ‘I Don’t Know Why We Persecute Jehovah’s Witnesses: Searching for the Why:’

    “The New York Times writes about an app that makes it “relatively easy to create realistic face swaps and leave few traces of manipulation. . . . It’s not hard to imagine this technology being used to smear politicians, create counterfeit revenge porn, or frame people for crimes. Lawmakers have already begun to worry about how such deepfakes might be used for political sabotage and propaganda.” The anonymous developer cheerfully helps the Times reporter try his own hand at it. “I’ve given it a lot of thought,” he [says], “and ultimately I’ve decided I don’t think it’s right to condemn the technology itself.”[i] Of course not! They never do. It’s on to the next advance of science! Let the ethicists figure out what he has just dumped in their laps, something “which can of course be used for many purposes, good and bad.” It’s their problem, not his.

    “Already, news sources show an eagerness to rely upon unidentified sources that frequently turn out to be wrong. Will they handle this new advance responsibly? Not only must we anticipate dubious proven by video character assassination to become routine, but the more lasting consequence of this new technological advance may be that even genuine video evidence will be dismissed as fake news. It is as Isaiah envisioned: “Ah! Those who call evil good, and good evil, who change darkness to light, and light into darkness, who change bitter to sweet, and sweet into bitter!” The guileless one so slandered will explode in moral indignation, and thus appear guilty as hell. The professional liar will shrug it off with the feigned saddened dismay that his enemies could sink so low.”

     

    Which will come first: Will humans succeed in harnessing their science so as not to ruin them all? Or will the NBA begin drafting crocodiles?

     

    ******  The bookstore

  • Wait Till I Tell Bud in the Resurrection What Happened to His Beer: He’ll Never Believe It.

    “You know, my wedding best man, a mechanic named Bud, used to love Budweiser beer. He’d say “a glass a day makes Bud wiser.” He died a few years ago. I can’t wait to tell him in the resurrection what happened to his brand and why. He’ll never believe it.” IMG_1003

    I just threw that out there on Twitter (now called X?) in a completely secular context. Some loved it. I mean, how could you not? I wouldn’t have believed it either had I not lived through it. It’s just incredible how the beer was boycotted after partnering up with the exact opposite of its customer base. I mean, if Starbucks did it, maybe okay, but macho Budweiser? This partner is a nearly 30 year old man transitioning and conducting himself as a teenaged girl. And to think nobody at Bud would have foreseen the reaction! What in the world were they smoking? What woke employee convinced them this bit of ‘inclusion’ would wow the barroom crowd?

    But there were some, secular context that it was, who latched on to the ‘resurrection’ word like a dog shaking a rat. It just drove them bonkers that someone was introducing religion in the form of ‘the resurrection.’

    What they don’t know, probably, is that resurrection found resistance in the first century, too: ‘Now if Christ is being preached that he has been raised up from the dead, how is it some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead?  (1 Cor 15:12) Why did resurrection become an early target of those veering from first century purity? Probably because it liberates people from fear of man & makes them harder to manipulate.

    It was among the first pretexts of apostasy. Paul writes of these “very [men] have deviated from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already occurred; and they are subverting the faith of some.” (2 Tim 2:18)

    It instantly divided an Athenian secular audience of long ago: “Well, when they heard of a resurrection of the dead, some began to mock, while others said: “We will hear you about this even another time.” (Acts 17:32)

    Paul used resurrection to get himself out of a spot. Here was a hangman’s meeting convened against him, but “when Paul took note that the one part was of Sadducees but the other of Pharisees, he proceeded to cry out in the Sanhedrin: ‘Men, brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. Over the hope of resurrection of the dead I am being judged.’ Because he said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the multitude was split. For Sadducees say there is neither resurrection nor angel nor spirit, but the Pharisees publicly declare them all.”  (Acts 23:6-9) Roughly speaking, the Sadducees were the more secular element among Jews, Pharisees the more fundamentalist.

    ***“Tom really thinks the reputation of a beer brand is gonna matter in the afterlife,” said one wiseacre. “He does,” I replied. “It will be a tiny footnote showing how absurd things became toward the end of this system of things, but he does.”

    “Wow!  What a weird trans-phobic eulogy!” Said another. “I honestly can't wait for you to tell him either.”

    Bud died before the term trans-phobic was on anyone’s radar screen. Or any of the multi-genders said to exist today. It wasn’t that long ago. ‘Science’ advances quickly.

    Another person was more conciliatory: “‘Drinking this makes Bud wiser’ is a great play on words. Your old friend sounds like he might have been a clever fellow. I’m sure you miss him. These other people sound like assholes.”

    He was a good guy. Thanks. I do miss him. He is the same Bud who used to say, “Kill a fly and fifty come to the funeral.’” As for some others, people are people. I had introduced a notion strange to some. Thus far, no one here had rated too highly on the A-scale. Or at least I have seen far worse.

    Though after this post was written, they escalated.

     

    ******  The bookstore