Archive for the ‘Thinking’ Category

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AI, God, and the Pope

June 8, 2026

Secularist, scientism proponent, rationalist Richard Dawkins wants to end any influence of “religion.” In doing so, he actually tries to start a new religion. This new secular religion most likely began with French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes. The coterie of Silicon Valley Generative AI leaders follow those unfortunate footsteps.

American Christians, hardly a unified voice, have responded without cohesion and with some uncertainty. Pope Leo XIV unhesitatingly issued a 42,000-word encyclical, ”Magnifica Humanitas,” in response to the challenges of artificial intelligence.

Cultural technology critic and professor of computer science Cal Newport wrote, “Last week, Pope Leo XIV released  I’m still digesting the full document, but early summaries indicate that the Pope is not ready to meekly acquiesce to the AI future that we’ve been told is inevitable.”

Leo wrote, “With the heart of a shepherd and a father, I ask everyone to abandon the construction of yet another Tower of Babel and to join forces in building up the common good, so that humanity will never lose its beauty, and the world once again will come to recognize the human heart as the place where God desires to dwell.”

I’ve been involved with automation for more than 40 years. Its value has always been as a tool to remove humans from dangerous jobs, enhance consistent quality, and eventually providing necessary data to feed business systems. They are best when used to build up the common good.

I wrote a longer philosophical piece last week on the subject. I continue to caution us as Jesus followers not to be distracted by the hype. We must continue to focus on what Jesus told us to do—Love—God and one another. Do not become distracted or distraught by momentary whims in media or by “influencers.”

Newport adds his observation, “When AI leaders resignedly shake their heads, and talk about the need for the government to provide guaranteed income once their AI models automate all work, or eagerly describe a future in which we live happily alongside ‘machines of loving grace,’ this is not forward-looking pragmatism; it’s hubris. A new Tower of Babel built out of GPUs.”

Just as I wrote last week about how I’d love to see a huge outbreak of humility amongst us.

Is there some hope in the discourse? Newport concludes his essay this way.

“Thankfully, in recent weeks, there has been a marked shift in how technology executives talk about AI. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called BS on executives claiming they’re laying people off due to AI, calling the excuse ‘lazy’ and ‘just a way for them to sound smart.’ Perhaps even more surprising, just last week, Sam Altman admitted he had been ‘pretty wrong’ about his previous predictions that AI would automate large numbers of jobs.”

Enter email address on the right and click follow to receive updates via email. I will never spam you. I’m not in that business! Thank you. You can also check out my book list and my 10-part video series on Romans as a Guid to Spiritual Formation.

Posted in Spirituality, Thinking | Leave a Comment »

Choose What To Think About

May 26, 2026

Writer David Foster Wallace on education, “The most important thing you learn in university isn’t just to think, but to choose what to think about.”

Social media companies spend millions on their engineers and researching how to capture and control our attention. They construct algorithms designed to spike our brain chemicals promoting good feelings to keep us scrolling endlessly. In that way, they can sell our attention to advertisers and promoters of false information continually raking in more and more money.

We get to choose. We can wake up and consider alternatives. We can choose to focus on ancient truths of living and the spirit. We can choose forgiveness, joy, generosity, peace, love.

Don’t be like the bad guy in  Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade of whom the last crusaders drolly comments, “He chose poorly.”

Choose wisely. Wake up!

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Cramming New Thinking Into Our Old Ways

May 1, 2026

Rich Dixon thought about Jesus’ metaphor of pouring new wine into old wineskins.

Of course, we have no clue what Jesus was picturing. What the heck is a wineskin? You mean they were allowed to drink wine back then?

Rich transformed the thinking from first to twenty-first century language.

It’s tempting to cram Jesus’ teaching into our old ways of thinking.

For a math teacher, I think he nailed it.

Can we think of times someone has tried to persuade us that their old way of thinking actually reflected what Jesus taught? I hope we haven’t fallen victim to reinterpreting Jesus to suit our own politics or prejudices. That would be a huge loss.

Posted in Attitude, Thinking, Wisdom | 2 Comments »

Writing Is Thinking

March 20, 2026

AI news and opinion notes clog my sidebar of potential blogs. Go ahead, try getting an hour free from some AI hype or dire warning.

One I find a bit amusing is the fear of AI LLMs taking over writing.

I’m old enough to remember teachers telling students not to just copy from encyclopedia entries.

I wrote a paper for my university freshman composition class (do they still have those?). It cited one major source book. I lived at home and used a book from my local library. Now, what are the odds that two students from a class of 40 would pick the same topic—Henrik Ibsen’s Concept of Truth in Peer Gynt? It happened. 

The copy of that source disappeared from the university library. The instructor called me to her office. “Can you  bring in the book?” she asked. No problem. Turns out the other student copied their paper from the book. Net result—I received an A and a suggestion that I major in English.

Cheating must be as old as schools.

Back to AI. I have recently guided Claude through a series of questions to research smart manufacturing. Wound up with many notes. I asked it to write an essay in the style of The Manufacturing Connection (my other website). It did. 

I have now discovered what programming leaders are discovering about using AI to write code—checking the work and (in my case rewriting to suit me). That entails a lot of time and work. 

Writing is thinking. If you want to think through something, don’t just copy AI. Write your thoughts and then organize them. 

Oh, I didn’t major in English. International politics and philosophy. Add that to all the math classes I took, it became an ideal background for working on the technical side of business.

The point of the essay—truth is the creative response to life. Try it.

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Overthinking

March 6, 2026

Philosophers have devised “razors” that “shave off” unlikely explanations. I rather like Hanlon’s Razor—Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

The razor of the day today is another of my favorites, Occam’s razor. “Explanations that require fewer unjustified assumptions are more likely to be correct.” We usually shorten this to “the simplest explanation is often the best.”

The other day, I read this thought from Adam in The Pump App (my fitness newsletter). I worry people overthink fitness and want everything to be perfect when it never will be. When you use that much brainpower stressing and beating yourself up, you are wasting the energy you can use to get moving forward.

The same thought holds true for far too many of us in biblical study. We think too much. Maybe Jesus meant what he said. Maybe there isn’t an underlying devious theology beneath what Paul wrote in his letters. 

We do need to read a complete thought and put it into context. But there’s probably not anything beyond what Jesus said and what he did.

Don’t overthink your fitness experiences. Don’t overthink your various relationships. Don’t overthink Jesus. Take him for what he said. No more. No less.

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Posted in Attitude, Thinking | 1 Comment »

Distraction v Daydreaming

February 9, 2026

Yesterday I wrote about distraction arguing for the need to focus on what’s important. Mary, for example, was focused on Jesus’s teaching. Martha was distracted by many things to do. Perhaps Martha would have felt more at ease in serving or whatever through focus. I don’t want to carry that metaphor too far.

When we are learning or teaching or driving, we need focus. Distraction is our enemy.

However, there are times when the opposite is true.

Sometimes we may be working out a problem or working out a theme for something we are writing. 

At these times, a walk in nature with no music or podcasts or audiobooks contains the medicine. We sit on a bench by the pond or walk through the woods. We allow our minds to drift. Daydreaming, it’s called. 

Ideas come. Unforced. Seemingly from nowhere. Maybe the spirit is talking to us. Maybe a jumble of ideas and thoughts coalesce into something firm.

Yesterday found me in such a state. Out of nowhere the lyrics to a song perhaps called The Ballad of Minneapolis formed clearly.

Unfortunately, that is only the beginning. The hard work of writing the thoughts making sense of the thoughts now begins. I’ll let you know if I finish and post to YouTube.

I’ve worked out many problems over the past 45 years that way.

Go take a walk. Not in the dismissive way of someone telling you to get lost. Really, go take a walk.

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How Do You See God?

November 5, 2025

When someone talks of God to you, what image comes into your mind?

Remembering, of course, that the famous Ten Commandments tell us not to visualize a picture of God.

Yet, we instinctively construct something in our mind.

Perhaps you imagine an old white guy with a long beard? Sitting on a Medieval Throne?

You’re not Caucasian? Do you imagine an old person who looks like those around you? Perhaps a female figure?

The Gospels tell us God is spirit, but how do you visualize spirit?

Since God is the ultimate Creator, I imagine God as “the supreme creative force” of the universe and beyond. I don’t picture a person but sort of a whoosh.

(And, OK, I’m weird.)

Reading the poet John O’Donohue, I see this description:

Imagine God not as a remote spirit but as wild, passionate, liberating, powerful.

It may be my Celtic ancestry. Or, I’m weird. But I find that “image” liberating.

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Posted in spirit, Thinking | Leave a Comment »

What If Church Were Different?

October 30, 2025

Ed Sheeran wrote a song, Thinking Out Loud.

Just so, I’m thinking out loud.

What if church resembled an AA meeting?

  • Honesty in recognizing shortcomings, no need to hide behind a cover of perfect
  • Supportive community
  • Guidance from a sponsor
  • No shame, guilt (there’s already too much)
  • Communion around a real table, not a metaphorical one

A priest with the curse of alcoholism said that he received more support and help from the AA meeting in the basement of the church than from the worshippers upstairs.

Just Thinking Our Loud.

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Posted in Compassion, forgiveness, Thinking | Leave a Comment »

PSA On Lead in Protein Powder Hype

October 17, 2025

While I’m in Public Service Announcement mode—and concerned with how someone searching for a viral headline in their reporting can distort science try this one on. I’ve seen many similar misuses of science in search of viral headlines over the past 20 years. It is disheartening.

Consumer Reports just released an “investigation” into lead in protein powder. They concluded that there is an unsafe amount—based upon their own internal standard safe levels.

I am not shocked. A little story. I was a member of a Technical Committee of the engineering society ASHRAE. At one meeting, an “investigator” from Consumer Reports attended to talk about research into a product under our jurisdiction. I remember the conversation and the looks that passed around the table among the engineers in attendance. The CR guy said, “Here is the conclusion I’ve made about the product. The testing will begin next week.”

I’ve never read a word from that organization since. 

I’m not surprised that they butchered a so-called investigation into protein powder. I have no idea what the chip is on their shoulder, but the organization should just fold up in my opinion.

Here are a couple of science-backed rebuttals to the story. And a word of warning about jumping into belief based upon hyped headlines.

These quotes are a reply to hype about lead in protein powder in Arnold’s Pump Club Newsletter. The link takes you to a web site where you can check another response that goes deeper into the science.

But when you ask what’s actually being compared—to what, at what dose, and in whom—you begin to see the full picture. The difference between fear and understanding often comes down to asking one more question.

Take the recent Consumer Reports article we covered yesterday about “dangerous” levels of lead in protein powders. The headline spread everywhere: Protein Powder Contains Toxic Lead. Social media lit up. Every major news outlet covered it and took the information at face value. People lost their minds, got worried about lead poisoning, and threw away their supplements. 

That’s not being dramatic. People were genuinely worried. 

But, as we discussed yesterday, here’s what most stories left out:

Consumer Reports based its claim on a misleading safety threshold of just 0.5 micrograms of lead per day. That number is not a federal standard; it’s an ultra-conservative internal benchmark with no clinical evidence that it represents harm.

The FDA’s actual guidance for lead in foods is actually many multiples higher. 

Common foods like spinach, strawberries, apples, carrots, and chocolate naturally contain trace amounts of lead from soil, sometimes more than the protein powders being criticized.

When you put those numbers in context, the danger looks a lot different. The protein powders weren’t unsafe; the problem was a misleading definition of “safe.”

And that’s what made it so frustrating. There are many issues you could point out in the supplement industry. This just wasn’t one, and it created unnecessary panic because of a lack of context.

There’s another response on this blog.

Posted in Awareness, Thinking, Trust | Leave a Comment »

Wondering About AI? Scared? Don’t Be.

October 17, 2025

This post is a bit off my main topics, bit I thought it perhaps relevant to many of you. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its derivatives Generative AI, aka Large Language Models (LLM)—which is a real thing—, and hyped buzz words superintelligence and artificial general intelligence—not real things— are all over the news with loads of hype. Over at my technology blog The Manufacturing Connection, I try to get behind the hype diving into real-world applications (in manufacturing, of course).

Those of you who might have your mental and emotional equilibrium knocked a bit off center by the AI hype might find something in the tips I just shared. Consider this as a Public Service Announcement.

I’ve published a podcast both on my podcast app (available in Apple, Overcast, or wherever you download them) and on YouTube. You can subscribe on any.

Why pursue AI? As a tool to help entrepreneurs add value to their companies. The appropriate roll out entails organizing small “pirate ships” empowered to experiment and implement with a budget and air cover. Many concerns about AI’s impact on employment and organization are over blown. History shows that new technology winds up creating more jobs than it destroys. This podcast is sponsored by Inductive Automation.

Humans have developed and used technology for millennia. It has provided longer and better lives. It has also created great destruction (check out current photos from Gaza). It’s up to humans to decide how to use it.

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Posted in discernment, Thinking | Leave a Comment »

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