Shalom Place
Christ OS Quotes
exerpted from group
discussion
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Subject: Introducing the Topic: Christ OS
As many of you know, I am part-time spiritual director at our local
retreat center, and part-time computer handyman for the same center,
and for whoever else wants to pay me (at least a cup of coffee). Last
Tuesday was one of those days when the geek role got a big work-out.
I upgraded the operating system on my old Power Mac from OS 7.6.1 to
OS 9.1, then, later in the day, I upgraded a couple of computers at
the convent from Windows 95 to Windows 2000.
What struck me about the Mac upgrade was that everything had a new
look, but the same basic interface. The icons had depth, the windows
opened and closed more crisply, my connection to the Internet was
finally stabilized, and the overall performance seems much more
stable. Same goes for the Windows operating system (OS) upgrade: same
basic look, but more stability, and quite a few new features that I
haven't explored yet, as I spend most of my time on my Mac.
. . . What I thought about was how Christ did much the same with our
human nature. By becoming incarnate as a man, he took our human
nature and "upgraded it" into his human-divine nature. He is like a
new OS that preserves the distinctive features of the old--our basic
human OS--but elevates it to a new level of potentiality, energy and
stability. Here's another key insight: after upgrading to Mac OS 9.1,
some of my old software wouldn't run at all, and I had to get newer
versions. The analogy I drew was how in order for individual humans
to live out of the Christ nature, our human nature must be
transformed. "New wine, new wineskins," as Jesus put it.
Philoman
- Wednesday, January 31, 2001 at 11:30:21 (PST)
Subject: What does OS mean and what's the analaogy?
Napthali wrote: this might sound like a really dumb question, but
i'm still not clear on what the OS refers to. is it the soul?
creation? and when you say that Christ OS is an upgrade, what is it
an upgrade to?
Philoman replied:
To me, Christ OS refers to an upgrade to our human nature. This would
be what St. Paul meant by the New Man, which he contrasted with Adam,
the Old Man (Human OS).
We are all individual souls, but we are members of the human race,
all sharing in one human nature. That would be Human OS. If we accept
that Christ has effected an ontological change in the nature of
things, then this Human OS has been upgrades/incorporated into Christ
OS, and all human souls born today participate in this new nature.
Precisely how this happens is a discussion developing in other
threads.
Napthali and Philoman
- Wednesday, January 31, 2001 at 11:32:46 (PST)
Subject: Christ OS as Evolutionary Phenomenon
Philoís key insight about applications and utility softwares
not always running in new operating system environments really hit
home! Philo, a question: Do you conceive of your PxOS upgrade process
as a developmental phenomenon, going through new versions and
releases through time? I havenít worked out the metaphor to my
complete satisfaction yet but I am wanting to think in terms of
various computer components (hardware, software and peripherals) as
corresponding to our different human faculties. To the extent humans
experience the development of these faculties, of their cognitive
life (Piaget), moral life (Kohlberg), personality (Erikson), faith
(Fowler), etc for instance, and are thus catechized and evangelized
in a ìdevelopmentally appropriateî way, would they
receive PxOS upgrades incrementally in your paradigm?
Woody
- Saturday, February 03, 2001 at 19:02:10 (PST)
Subject: Computers and Evolution
I was struck by the evolutionary dimension of the Christ OS analogy.
In evolution, one stage builds on another, and incorporates it. For
example, cells incorporate molecules; tissues incorporate cells,
organs incorporate tissues, organisms incorporate organs, and so
forth. One level develops in all directions, but then a higher level
of complexity emerges, using the lower level as a foundation. The
lower level then becomes integrated into the higher level--as the
cells of our body are part of our very humanity.
Charlotte
- Saturday, February 03, 2001 at 19:03:46 (PST)
Subject: Limitations of an OS and Evolutionary level
But, yes, I agree with your basic insight: namely, that OS upgrades
are kind of like stages of evolution, where a higher level of
complexity and consciousness incorporates a lower. Same goes for the
software that runs on the various versions of OS, as for the types of
creatures that are possible for each stage of evolution. There's only
so much intelligence that can be developed from that crustacean
nervous system structure. . . and only some pretty basic software
that could run on DOS 1.0 or Mac OS 6.0.
Philoman
- Saturday, February 03, 2001 at 19:07:10 (PST)
Subject: Christ OS and Scalability
Now think of the Incarnation and the justification, the one time
event when PxOS became available on the market as *freeware*.
Perfectly self-contained and fully functional in every regard, it was
made available in different versions, all versions providing
resurrection, but each version tailored to each
hardware/software/peripheral/firmware environment, an environment
constantly undergoing upgrades --- more RAM; higher CPU
mhz/processing speed; more storage space and new devices (hard
drives, floppies, zip disks, CD-RW, DVD, etc); bigger monitors and
better pixelation, brighter colors; enhanced application software
programs; greater connectivity and broader bandwidth; etc
With each upgrade of the total computer environment, one gets a free
download of the most powerful release of PxOS Freeware. Again, the
freeware is there, available, once and for all, when justification
was accomplished.
Our sanctification is ongoing and our downloading of the
corresponding enhanced versions of PxOS freeware require our ongoing
cooperation. All of the PxOS freeware versions are out there, always
available, always free, always developmentally-appropriate.
And, best of all, it's scalable!
Woody
- Saturday, February 03, 2001 at 19:09:32 (PST)
Subject: The goals of evolution and operating systems
A Jesuit theologian names Teilhard de Chardin considered the target
of evolution to be what he called the Omega Point, and he identified
Christ as the historical appearance of that realization. He looked at
evolution as branching in all directions, which it does, of course,
but there is a movement from lower to higher complexity, which
corresponds with the movement from lower to higher consciousness.
This culminates in the human, who is the most complex and conscious
of creatures, and finds it ultimate fulfillment in Christ.
Teilhard viewed Omega as the dynamism at work in all the levels of
complexity and consciousness--in all of evolution. In theistic
language, we could say that it's the creative Word spoken by the
Creator, forming the creation so that it ultimately manifests God
fully in the historical appearance of Omega as Christ.
I suppose there is a kind of omega dynamism at work in the evolution
of computer operating systems. It seems the human creator wants
something ever faster, more stable, more efficient, more versatile.
Who can say where this will ultimately culminate? In an android like
Data on Star Trek? Who knows? Perhaps it is here, as Philoman and
others have noted, that the analogy breaks down. There will always be
computer OS upgrades, I'm sure, but there's no evolution beyond
Christ. That doesn't mean that growth and learning don't go on, or
even that the body doesn't continue to evolve, however. More on all
that later, if there's interest.
Teresita
- Saturday, February 03, 2001 at 19:11:27 (PST)
Subject: Computer analogy and the Trinity
I manage a small network of PC's for a local business, and I teach
theology at a small college as well. A friend referred me to this
website, and then I found my way to this disucssion.
I haven't read all the exchanges, but one of the lessons I teach in
my theology class attempts to relate the Trinity to my class. I'll
give you the skinny on it below, and you can see if it can be related
to the computer/OS metaphor.
God the Father/Creator is the Intelligence/Will responsible for the
creation and existence of the universe.
God the Son is the Idea or Word expressed by the Father, and thus the
means through Whom the Father creates. God the Holy Spirit is the
Energy with Whom God the Father creates through the Word.
These Three are not totally separate, of course. The Word is not
separate from the Creator, but is the Creator's Self-expression.
Likewise, the Divine Energy is not something separate from the
Creator, but moves as the Intelligence and Volition of the Creator
moves It, to energize the Divine Ideas expressed through the
Word.
Father = Intelligence/Volition Son = Word/Form Spirit = Energy
-------------
In the computer analogy now:
Human being is the creator Hardware/Software is the form/expression
Electricity is the energy
Just think of it: all the stuff we see on our monitors is naught but
electricity filtered through some very complex structures (hardware,
OS, software). In like manner, what we see in creation is the Energy
of God manifest through all created forms, revealing the Intelligence
and Will of the Creator.
Teresita
- Saturday, February 03, 2001 at 19:15:50 (PST)
Subject: Extending the metaphor to other areas
Teresita, very good! and welcome to our forum. I'm hoping we can use
your consideration of the Trinity to expand the metaphor.
I like to take off on Julian of Norwich's all may be well, can be
well, will be well, shall be well, etc where the permissive will
(may) is that of the Father, the Designer; the efficacious will (can)
is the Son; the "desiring will" (will/would) is the Spirit and the
mandatory will (shall) is the Trinity's aligned wills.
Understanding/Design corresponding to faith; the Will/Efficacy
corresponding to love; Memory/Desire corresponding to hope. Adding
the component of energy to the Spirit's faculty is wonderful!
In the computer analogy, the intelligence and understanding might
correspond to the processor and co-processor chips, the active memory
(RAM), the parts that do the thinking that are loaded into this
memory, both operating system and applications software, the "what"
of it all, matter.
The form/expression, input/output devices, might correspond to the
visible products --- on the monitor, printer, sound card, etc, the
"how" of it all, energy.
The memory might correspond, of course, to storage devices and
mechanisms, file allocation tables, the "when and where" of it all,
space-time.
These all address the space-time-matter-energy aspects, the
where-when-what-how aspects of science. Philosophy would deal with
the "why" and we've spent much time there already (remember the
ontological discontinuity discussion? sorry for reminding you).
Theology, myth and religion would deal with the "who". Now, if as
Philo suggests, the PxOS is a "thou" and not an "it", things can get
theological real quickly. . .
Woody
- Saturday, February 03, 2001 at 19:18:48 (PST)
Subject: Creation as resistance to the Divine Electricity
OK, I guess a Thomist would say that creation is a kind of
"resistance" to the divine electricity. A kind of resistance called a
light bulb produces light; a toaster produces heat; the
motherboard/chip/OS/software/monitor, etc. produces digital
information. It's all using the same electricity, but the
manifestations are a consequence of the kind of resistance set
up.
So, creation could be viewed a various forms of limitation, or
resistance to the Divine Energy. All these forms are words of the
Word, and express something of the Creator's Intelligence and Will.
That seems to be the Trinitarian dynamic that Teresita brought to our
attention, and I LIKE IT.
In Christ, then, we see the perfect expression of the Divine and
unlimited transmission of Divine Energy--no distorting resistance!
And this Energy is Love.
The OS analogy of human as creator, hardware/software as word, and
electricity as energy fits, but seems so tepid in contrast to the
real thing that I almost want to close down the thread. Perhaps it
can be instructive to some, however.
Philoman
- Saturday, February 03, 2001 at 19:20:52 (PST)
Subject: Philosophical and scientific musings
using a hierarchical universe or chain of being, we can imagine how
there can be ontological discontinuity that is only "apparent" while
not systematically denying the possibility that there just might be a
realm, a domain which encompasses our own and which we can but
penetrate but not fully embrace --- this domain needn't be thought of
as over us, as a level per se, but maybe could be conceived of as a
field or something similar
perhaps we struggle as to the origin of the Christ OS upgrade
precisely because we very humanly want to identify the precise cause;
but need this be so in the age of such quantum realities as
nonlocality? psychological realities as synchronicity? biological
phenomena suggesting morphic resonance?
perhaps we can turn to the world of holography? of holons? of
fractals? or could return to the ideas of Plato? the metaphysics of
Aristotle? the philosophy of Aquinas?
maybe, just maybe we needn't abandon causal explanations for
phenomena whatsoever and can now grasp the time-honored principles of
logical cause, formal cause, final cause and place them back in our
epistemological brief cases to be used in physics and metaphysics,
biology and theology?
maybe, too, we can admit the inherent limitations which exist by
definition and which all of the time-honored traditions recognized;
yes, any good theology nurtures mystery, requires the occulting, the
closing off of some knowledge (funny, this occurs in physics,
too)
Johnboy
- Saturday, February 03, 2001 at 19:23:44 (PST)
Subject: Making a practical spiritual application
Since I started reading parts of this thread, I've become more aware
of how when I turn my computer on, the operating system or OS is
loading up, and how when it finishes loading, I can use my
software.
I can relate this to my morning prayer time. My usual routine is to
awaken, do a few stretches, wash up a bit, have some coffee, then sit
with Scripture for awhile. I can literally feel myself coming alive
through this routine, and if I skip any part of it, I don't feel as
alive. Reading and reflecting on Scripture is the most important part
for me. If I can only do one part of the routine, it's that one that
I choose.
From all our discussion, I get a sense that through my morning
routine, I am allowing the Christ consciousness (Christ OS) to "load
up." I think that's the term. Once it's done, I can do my daily tasks
in a different state of mind.
Jenn
- Saturday, February 03, 2001 at 19:25:23 (PST)
Subject: Computer analogy and spiritual implications--esp. prayer
Well, for one thing, with PxOS installed, there are javascripts
available in your web browser that weren't available before. To use
your anagogical/metaphorical/unitive triad (but didn't
pseudo-Dionysius come up with that before you?), your javascript
allows the prayer and the pray-er to seamlessly operate as one: the
prayer, the one who is praying and the act of praying, the person and
God, are all unitively joined.
Without PxOS, there maybe could be the prayer of a "natural
theology", with its myths and chants in this religion or that
culture. For instance, perhaps a prayer of imperfect contrition from
an early Kohlbergian stage of morality?
With PxOS, the direct experience of God was made possible, the
mediated experience became fully operative, the liminal threshold
between the two loaded into RAM and, always resident, acted as
controller, allowing for a seamless processing of the experiences as
they alternate between the most elemental command line editing, like
PC Anywhere or LapLink (apophatic prayer) and the jazziest, snazziest
graphical user interface (kataphtaic prayer).
When idle, the PxOS invokes an habitual awareness of the presence of
God, the most beatific and pacific screensaver, and overrides all of
the old invasive programs, bad habits, fixes and addictions which
would not only wreak havoc with the CPU and cache memory but also
were serious resource hogs.
For prayer, PxOS made possible the going forth, the resting and the
return, allowing the system to remain stable, to, from and in its
Program Code. The application programs, doctor, lawyer or indian
chief can now run mindfully, charitably, in service and virtue,
natural and supernatural.
Woody
- Saturday, February 03, 2001 at 19:28:25 (PST)
Subject: What about sin? You must be "carbonized"?
Loretta asked?
: Well, Philo, if everyone is running Christ OS, presumably from
the time of their conception or birth, then why do we still see sin
in the world?
: Following your own metaphor, then, with Christ OS installed, sin
must be an illusion created by our false judgments. If everyone is
already justified, then what in the world is going on? What's
happening with the operating system when Woody talks about
sanctification? when I talk about enlightenment?
Good questions!
I think the most obvious answer is that each individual is like a
software program that has yet to be upgraded. We were created for
Human OS, which is now incorpoarted into Christ OS, but we cannot
enjoy all the benefits of the new OS until we are upgraded.
Going from Mac OS 9.1 to OS X would require that an application be
"carbonized." Then, it could run in the OS X environment, incoproate
the interface, and benefit from the stability and versatility of the
new OS.
Although I have no real understanding of the technical aspects of
carbonization, I know what it does, and the analogy applies quite
well to faith--even baptism. Carbonization configures the software to
work with the new OS, just as baptism (including baptism of desire)
configures the soul to receive the graces merited the race by
Christ.
Even after this configuration, however, there must be transformation,
as the old coding is over-written by the new. This is the spiritual
journey, which has been described in various ways through the
ages.
We're living in a world where the transformation from the Human OS to
Christ OS is still underway. Therefore, we still see the nasty
effects of the sin virus affecting our individual software programs,
and we also see them being transformed. Saints and sinners, living
side by side--even in the same psyche! Such is the situation during
this time in history.
Loretta and Philoman
- Thursday, February 15, 2001 at 10:48:35 (PST)
Subject: Intetrating OX, comments on discontinuity
Yes, Philo, with the others I concur that you have advanced the
discussion, here, and proven the OS analogy to have even more merit
than I had thought it would.
Classic/OS 9.x can work inside of OS X, and that's pretty cool and
gives us some idea of the ongotlogical situation in which we live.
But there's a sense in which Christ OS is more involved in Human OS
than in the computer analogy. After all, OS 9.x is working in a more
or less self-contained way inside of OS X--or maybe along-side, I'm
not sure. Christ OS, however, is not so radically disconnected from
the Human OS, but is a dynamism interior to it. There is radical,
ontological discontinuity between the Human and Christic levels in
that one doesn't evolve into the other: for sure. But there is also
an energetic continuity between the two in that a bridge of love
mediated by the human/divine person of Jesus connects the them in
such a way that Christ OS is intimately present to every block on the
Human OS configured hard drive. Every time we consent to love, we
travers that bridge and become more transformed--carbonized, to use
the current OS metaphor.
So, yes, I think we're getting somewhere with all of this, especially
if we can keep in mind that what we are calling Christ OS has always
been an interior dynamism at work in evolution even prior to the
Incarnation. With the Incarnation, it attained a conscious
realization in the person of Jesus, who is indeed the first-born of
the new creation, as Paul affirmed so powerfully in the first
generation of Christianity.
Teresita
- Thursday, February 15, 2001 at 10:52:39 (PST)
Subject: Windows OS and discontinuity
T, anyone?: I vaguely recall, between DOS 6.0 and W95 those early
windows programs, the last version/release being 3.1 maybe? prior to
W 95?
One clue to the discontinuity might be the changes in start-up
sequences at boot-up. In DOS there were the old autoexec.bat and
config.sys files which were edited at the command line level. These
still had a role with Win 3.1, along with various *.ini files and
*.sys files which would be invoked along with application programs
when they were run.
My take is that, progressively, the registry (system.dat and
user.dat) has taken over most of these functions although there are
still some artifactual *.ini files, *.sys files and other batch files
which get used. There is also, as someone pointed out before, an
unwieldly amount of file proliferation in the windows environment
when programs are installed (all over the place). There was
positively a discontinuity along the way when the file allocation
tables began to operate in a 32 bit environment.
Teresita, any help here? I want to make sure our Microsoft users
grasp this metaphor but am fuzzy on those upgrades from years ago
(although I recall mightily resisting them all!). I didn't like
having batch file editing functions hidden from my eyes.
Woody
- Thursday, February 15, 2001 at 10:57:49 (PST)
Subject: Faith, sin, and carbonization
Teresita wrote: Every time we consent to love, we travers that
bridge and become more transformed--carbonized, to use the current OS
metaphor.
-------
Dear T.,
Just when I was starting to really buy into the OS metaphor as a
posible catechetical tool, you come out with the above. You seem to
be saying that "all you need is love," to quote JPGR.
I know 1 Jn. 4 says God is love, and those who love are in God and
God in them. But the New Testament also has a lot to say about faith
in Christ. "No one comes to the Father except through me," said
Jesus.
So, could you be saying that faith enables us to love better, and so
become transformed/carbonized more effectively than if we don't have
faith? I could buy that, as far as it goes. It seems to me that more
credit needs be given the role of faith in overcoming the
disintegrative dynamism of sin.
What say?
Fe
Fides
- Thursday, February 15, 2001 at 11:02:09 (PST)
Subject: Mac OS X demo and Christ OS parallel
Hey Philo,
I liked this very much--especially the OS X part. I was at CompUSA
today and they had a demo of OS X running on an iMac. Some of the
software on OS X was written for OS X and will run only on OS X. I
think they called that Cocoa versions. Others ran on both OS X and OS
9.x--the carbonized software you mentioned. Others ran on OS 9.x
only; Classic software.
The demo teacher opened a Cocoa word processor and it worked fine, of
course. Next, he opened AppleWorks 6.0, which is a Carbonized app,
and it worked just fine, too--had all the OS X interface buttons,
bells and whistles to use.
Then came the really cool part. He clicked on Eudora 4.3, which is
not carbonized. OS X opened OS 9.x, which is called Classic, and then
Eudora opened in Classic/OS 9.x. There was OS 9.x, working within the
OS X environment: very cool indeed! When done, he closed Eudora, then
quit Classic/OS 9.x, and we're back to OS X only.
If what you're saying, Philo, is that our situation now is like OS
9.x (Human OS) working inside the OS X (Christ OX) environment, I can
buy it. We're like OS 9.x/Classic software running on Classic inside
the OS X environment. As we become carbonized, we run less on Classic
and more on the OS X code.
This responds to some of the concerns I had: radical discontinutiy in
evolution; the importance of faith, baptism, grace. I can even see
how some apps might never move up to OS X, which would be a kind of
Hell. Good job!
I work mostly on Windows, and I've never seen anything on Windows
similar to what I described above. Maybe using DOS inside of Windows
would come close, but DOS is not making use of Windows in the same
way that OS 9.x was running is OS X.
Fides
- Thursday, February 15, 2001 at 11:06:29 (PST)
Subject: Another parallel from the Windows side
: Yes, Fe. Kudos, again, to Philo. I may be stretching the analogy
somewhat, or at least it is imperfect, but I seem to recall in the
Windows environs where some 16bit programs would run alright in the
new 32bit environment when it became available. Also, once Windows 95
came out and used a big registry (system.dat and user.dat) instead of
a bunch of individual configuration and *.ini files, some
applications would use the registry but would still have an ini file
similar to what ran on Windows 3.1 let's say. I also recall all the
funny ads that Apple ran when Windows finally could use filenames
with more than 8 characters; there was one in the Wall Street
Journal: "Conratulati.ons!" or something like that. The OS X metaphor
is working well!
: Another analogy might involve different program algorithms, like
encrypted files or directories, for instance, or "read only" files,
where the user retains control over any access, whether for copying,
moving, deleting, read-write, etc It occurs to me that our fixes and
addictions, our vices and bad habits, can all be like that. What
computer analogy would correspond to the will which must surrender
those files, unprotect them, that they may be accessed, written to,
deleted?
Woody
- Thursday, February 15, 2001 at 11:11:32 (PST)
Subject: The upgrade parade and evolution
Woody wrote: Philo, a question: Do you conceive of your PxOS
upgrade process as a developmental phenomenon, going through new
versions and releases through time? I havenít worked out the
metaphor to my complete satisfaction yet but I am wanting to think in
terms of various computer components (hardware, software and
peripherals) as corresponding to our different human faculties. To
the extent humans experience the development of these faculties, of
their cognitive life (Piaget), moral life (Kohlberg), personality
(Erikson), faith (Fowler), etc for instance, and are thus catechized
and evangelized in a ìdevelopmentally appropriateî way,
would they receive PxOS upgrades incrementally in your paradigm?
I see where you're going, and I suppose the
analogy limps most in that it seems that there's a never-ending
process of OS and software upgrades, while with Christ there are no
further upgrades. How do you go beyond resurrection and eternal
life?
So, let that paradigmatic limitation be acknowledged, while affirming
how it provides a metaphor for understanding how the human can become
incorporated into the Christic, and, yes, with it, all the various
peripherals connected with our consciousness as well.
Perhaps the computer upgrade parade could be applied to evolution, or
human development. If you've a bit of excitement about this prospect,
be my guest.
Woody and Philoman
- Thursday, February 15, 2001 at 11:15:08 (PST)