• whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    5 hours ago

    If you ever forget what you confessed you can just ask your clergy or politician to pull up your complete history, I’m sure nobody would ever use this for blackmail or extortion or pressuring someone to cover up crimes

  • Boomer Humor Doomergod@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    65
    ·
    11 hours ago

    The Electric Monk was a labour-saving device, like a dishwasher or a video recorder… Electric Monks believed things for you, thus saving you what was becoming an increasingly onerous task, that of believing all the things the world expected you to believe.

    • Sjmarf@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      27
      ·
      10 hours ago

      This is from Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, for those (like me) who haven’t read it.

      • Almacca@aussie.zone
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        4 hours ago

        It’s very good. It takes a couple of reads to see all the interconnections.

        Here’s another choice passage:

        “Well, it was a kind of back - to - front program. It’s funny how many of the best ideas are just an old idea back - to - front. You see there have already been several programs written that help you to arrive at decisions by properly ordering and analysing all the relevant facts so that they then point naturally towards the right decision. The drawback with these is that the decision which all the properly ordered and analysed facts point to is not necessarily the one you want.”
        “Yeeeess…” said Reg’s voice from the kitchen.
        "Well, Gordon’s great insight was to design a program which allowed you to specify in advance what decision you wished it to reach, and only then to give it all the facts. The program’s task, which it was able to accomplish with consummate ease, was simply to construct a plausible series of logical - sounding steps to connect the premises with the conclusion.
        “And I have to say that it worked brilliantly. Gordon was able to buy himself a Porsche almost immediately despite being completely broke and a hopeless driver. Even his bank manager was unable to find fault with his reasoning. Even when Gordon wrote it off three weeks later.”
        “Heavens. And did the program sell very well?”
        “No. We never sold a single copy.”
        “You astonish me. It sounds like a real winner to me.”
        “It was,” said Richard hesitantly. "The entire project was bought up, lock, stock and barrel, by the Pentagon. The deal put WayForward on a very sound financial foundation. Its moral foundation, on the other hand, is not something I would want to trust my weight to. I’ve recently been analysing a lot of the arguments put forward in favour of the Star Wars project, and if you know what you’re looking for, the pattern of the algorithms is very clear.
        “So much so, in fact, that looking at Pentagon policies over the last couple of years I think I can be fairly sure that the US Navy is using version 2.00 of the program, while the Air Force for some reason only has the beta - test version of 1.5. Odd, that.”

  • eestileib@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    37
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    10 hours ago

    When I was a kid, the christians were still insane, obviously, but they at least used to know a verse or two and would have been able to call this out as idolatry.

    The current crop still want to nuke the middle east to end the world, but don’t even know their lore.

    Christians are a bunch of dudes wearing Ramones shirts who don’t even know it’s a band.

    • rustydrd@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      4 hours ago

      You can call this out as idolatry even if you don’t know a single verse. Surface-level knowledge of the scripture is enough, which arguably makes this even worse.

    • jjagaimo@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      8 hours ago

      The bible requires a 12th grade reading level to understand and at least 54% of these people are below 6th grade. They literally can’t understand it if it was read to them

      • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        6 hours ago

        Tbh, that seems like a weird oversight- someone should translate the entire bible into simple language. Like, I definitely had simply worded bible stories as a kid, but there are plenty of adults who would prefer simple, modern phrasing, and plenty of kids who want more than just the story of Jonah and the whale.

        • jjagaimo@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          56 minutes ago

          Most of them go by the King James version because its the one their church uses and also they think any other version isn’t the real Bible. Half of them haven’t really read it outside what is taught to them by the church and they dont have the critical thinking ability to understand what they are hearing and interpret/synthesize it, to understand the broader context or to understand the biases of the authors and editors. Bibles do exist which translate it into American English (simplified) but they refuse to use it.

          • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            2 hours ago

            Well yeah, but there is ISO guidance for translating into simple language, and if a congregation can agree on an English translation, going from that into simple English would be a lot easier for people to double check.

            Actually, I went to Catholic school. It would have been a great exercise to have us translate a biblical passage into simple English- why the hell didn’t we do that?*

            • I know, I know, Catholics don’t want people forming their own views on the text without the intermediary of the church… but they definitely encouraged us to do so in a bunch of other ways, because they are trying to modernize a little. Plus, we had a teacher who was a technically not out to the students but very stereotypical (in the affected way that some thoughtful teachers who want to be obviously safe for students to talk to about gender and sexual orientation are) lesbian and we definitely had remarried divorcées as teachers who were open about that m, so it’s not like we were that strict.
          • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            4 hours ago

            The New Testament’s only there for Paul to relieve Christians from mosaic law, and for revelations, if you’re nasty.

        • fibojoly@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          5 hours ago

          Uh, I don’t know how it is these days, but there definitely was a “modern French” version of the full Bible, when I was a kid. And that was an Adventist church so it’s pretty sure there is the same in the US. I also had the whole bible as a comic book, very accessible.

          Are you saying that you need something like the Simple English Bible, for normally educated US audiences?

          • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            4 hours ago

            I’m not trying to comment on that, but lots of people everywhere benefit from simple text versions of things. That’s why there’s a simple English Wikipedia and a leichte Sprache version of German government websites.

            They would serve their goals better by casting a wider net. There’s also an unfortunate overlap between people who need simple language versions of texts and vulnerable people, whom churches normally like to target.

    • Zephorah@discuss.online
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      10 hours ago

      Pretty sure this breaks the no idols commandment.

      This is disappointing to hear. I like to think, alongside the garbage, there are good players seeking perspective and a better way to live as they explore religion. And then I read this.

      Worse, you could program a Jesus bot to speak hate, in spite of the actual acts of the man.

      • MrShankles@reddthat.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        10 hours ago

        “Worshipping a golden calf” was just as disappointing to witness, I assume. Maybe a truth to why the warning exists?

      • NochMehrG@feddit.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        9 hours ago

        Well the hate part is to be expected. With all the prejudice and hate ingrained in the training data it would have to be very well prompted to reduce the chances of two steps to mecha-hitler. And thinking about what I hear about American congregations across the pond, I don’t have much hope that they’d care.

        • Zephorah@discuss.online
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          3 hours ago

          There is so much variation. When I was sent to Sunday school as a kid, there was no hate. I was never confirmed or anything, I don’t go now, but I have no memories of a negative experience. My impression, looking back, is Jesus hit history hard as the first recorded hippie.

          Growing up where I did, there were 6 denominations in town. No internet. No cable. I corded phone in the house (see; Napoleon Dynamite). People hung out together looking for places to do that in. So I went to a Wednesday catechism with a friend at a different church. It was an odd experience that still resonates.

          The pastor showed up for a brief serman where I was told there’s a Book of Life that predetermines who is going to Heaven or Hell. God knows all and it’s in this book. And you can’t change any of it. If you’re going to Hell you’re going to Hell, no matter what you do, it’s been known from birth.

          That’s a hell of thing to say to a child.

          That’s the variation though, even in one small town, here across the pond.

          If you’re curious, the non hate version I experienced was Methodist. The friend’s Hell church was Baptist.

    • Skullgrid@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      11 hours ago

      I’m pretty sure there’s a Ministry, Fear Factory, Meshuggah or industrial metal song/hymn about this.

  • 6_electrons@piefed.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    10 hours ago

    First off I’m not a Catholic but this is beyond mischaracterization of what they did…

    They made it clear this was “not confession” or “intending to imitate a confession”
    They also make it very clear that “due to space limitations they repurposed a confessional booth”

    The point of this booth was to be a place for people to ask questions about the bible and the “avatar” they choose was Jesus after considering other saints, theologians or people and ultimately decided on Jesus.

    This was put up in partnership with a local university

    All that said I still think its a dumb idea and not something I’d ever have interest in participating but jumping on 2 misguided tweets is peak reddit BS.