Fun_People Archive
22 Oct
Theology from a hacker perspective...

Date: Sun, 22 Oct 95 11:26:08 -0700
From: Peter Langston <psl>
To: Fun_People
Subject: Theology from a hacker perspective...

Forwarded-by: tompar@world.std.com (Tom Parmenter)

Some Important Theological Questions are Answered if we think of God as a
Computer Programmer.


Q: Does God control everything that happens in my life?
A: He could, if he used the debugger, but it's tedious to step through
   all those variables.

Q: Why does God allow evil to happen?
A: God thought he eliminated evil in one of the earlier revs.

Q: Does God know everything?
A: He likes to think so, but he is often amazed to find out what goes
   on in the overnite job.

Q: What causes God to intervene in earthly affairs?
A: If an critical error occurs, the system pages him automatically and
   he logs on from home to try to bring it up.  Otherwise things can
   wait until tomorrow.

Q: Did God really create the world in seven days?
A: He did it in six days and nights while living on cola and candy
   bars.  On the seventh day he went home and found out his girlfriend
   had left him.

Q: How come the Age of Miracles Ended?
A: That was the development phase of the project, now we are in the
   maintenance phase.

Q: Will there be another Universe after the Big Bang?
A: A lot of people are drawing things on the white board, but
   personally, God doubts that it will ever be implemented.

Q: Who is Satan?
A: Satan is an MIS director who takes credit for more powers than he
   actually possesses, so people who aren't programmers are scared of
   him.  God thinks of him as irritating but irrelevant.

Q: What is the role of sinners?
A: Sinners are the people who find new an imaginative ways to mess up
   the system when God has made it idiot-proof.

Q: Where will I go after I die?
A: Onto a DAT tape.

Q: Will I be reincarnated?
A: Not unless there is a special need to recreate you.  And searching
   those .tar files is a major hassle, so if there is a request for you,
   God will just say that the tape has been lost.

Q: Am I unique and special in the universe?
A: There are over 10,000 major university and corporate sites running
   exact duplicates of you in the present release version.

Q: What is the purpose of the universe?
A: God created it because he values elegance and simplicity, but then
   the users and managers demanded he tack all this senseless stuff onto
   it and now everything is more complicated and expensive than ever.

Q: If I pray to God, will he listen?
A: You can waste his time telling him what to do, or you can just get
   off his back and let him program.

Q: What is the one true religion?
A: All systems have their advantages and disadvantages, so just pick
   the one that best suits your needs and don't let anyone put you down.

Q: Is God angry that we crucified him?
A: Let's just say he's not going to any more meetings if he can help
   it, because that last one with the twelve managers and the food
   turned out to be murder.

Q: How can I protect myself from evil?
A: Change your password every month and don't make it a name, a common
   word, or a date like your birthday.

Q: Some people claim they hear the voice of God.  Is this true?
A: They are much more likely to receive email.

Q: Some people say God is Love.
A: That is not a question.  Please restate your query in the form of a
   question.
   Abort, Retry, Fail?

© 1995 Peter Langston