Google's Gemini, Marilynne Robinson's Genesis & Gerald Ford's Secret Transition Team
Here’s your weekly roundup of everything I’ve curated or created online, March 3–9, 2024
Thought-Provoking Content
Why Children Need Risk, Fear, and Excitement in Play by Mariana Brussoni in After Babel:
Research shows that enrollment in structured activities is not associated with improved developmental outcomes, and the loss of free time can be detrimental to developing basic executive function skills.
Google Abandoned "Don't Be Evil”—and Gemini Is the Result by Nate Silver in Silver Bulletin:
With Gemini, Google is coming dangerously close to a philosophy of the ends justifying the means, a philosophy that many people would consider to be evil.
Forgiveness in Genesis: Another Kind of Vision by Marilynne Robinson in Commonweal:
In every instance where it arises, forgiveness is rewarded by consequences that could not have been foreseen or imagined.
Initial Notes on Ministry in a Therapeutic Age by Jake Meador in Mere Orthodoxy:
The weak seem to have a special greatness in God’s kingdom, for they remind us all of the fact that whatever we have is a gift and so we should be humble, not vain.
Interview Clips Do Not Show Buzz Aldrin Saying Moon Landing Was Fake at Reuters:
In the circulating video, however, Aldrin’s remarks are taken out of their original context and truncated to suggest he is describing the Apollo 11 mission as never having happened.
The Only Kept Secret in Washington by Heath Brown in Washington Monthly:
It was a big secret, maybe Washington’s biggest secret that never leaked. Whitehead and three friends were planning for Gerald Ford’s ascension to the presidency, but nobody, not even the Vice President himself, knew what they were up to.
Whitehead and three friends were planning for Gerald Ford’s ascension to the presidency, but nobody, not even the Vice President himself, knew what they were up to.
What Can Natural Law Do? by Jake Meador in Mere Orthodoxy:
What worries me is what happens when we treat natural law as a kind of magical box into which we stuff all our Christian ideas, slap a label on the box that says “new natural law,” as if to ‘secularize’ those ideas for public discourse in order to persuade non-Christian neighbors or accomplish certain political reforms, and then expect this plan to work.
Worshiping Nature by Peter Mommsen and Susannah Black Roberts with Ross Douthat in PloughCast:
The idea that the natural world is to be worshipped can take many forms ... ranging from Wordsworthian spiritual experiences in a national park, to worshiping ancestral or local gods, to civic religions of left and right, to tarot card reading, to affirming the Darwinian struggle for existence as a source of moral guidance.
Music
Jesus Jesus how I trust him
How I've proved him o'er and o'er
Jesus Jesus precious Jesus
Oh for grace to trust him more
And the earth then was welter and waste and darkness over the deep and God’s breath hovering over the waters (Genesis 1:2, trans. Robert Alter).
Devotional
Cooking and Fires on Sabbath
Traditionally, observant Jews do not kindle a fire during the Sabbath by starting any combustion engine or electronic device, nor do they cook any food. Thus, the “Sabbath mode” on devices such as elevators in Israel and available for ovens sold around the world. This is clear in the teachings of the rabbis, but is it well-founded Scripture or mere "human traditions" (Mark 7:8)?
Recognizing the New Testament as Scripture, Adventists interpret Sabbath observance through Jesus's observation that “the Sabbath was made for humanity, not humanity for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27b) But this seems to ground ‘exceptions.’ So what is the biblical ‘rule’ in these cases?
Regarding cooking on the weekly Sabbath, the biblical prohibition is related to the provision of manna in place of ordinary food, which is no longer the case. The Israelites were never instructed not to make food on Sabbath, but rather to gather extra manna the day before and boil or bake it for use on Sabbath because no manna would come down to be gathered on Sabbath (Exodus 16:23–27).
Furthermore, the first sabbaths the Israelites were instructed to keep as days of “holy convocation” (compare Leviticus 23:3), when no work is to be “done” (Hebrew: ‘asah), were the first and last days of the Festival of Unleavened Bread. Yet, the people were instructed to “make” (Hebrew: ‘asah) food for themselves on those yearly sabbaths (Exodus 12:16). So when interpreting the Fourth Commandment's prohibition against doing [‘asah] work on the weekly Sabbath relative to cooking (Exodus 20:10), the instruction given for Festival of Unleavened Bread pertains to those who are not receiving manna.
It is within the spirit of avoiding work during the Sabbath to do as much food preparation ahead of time as possible. (I view Ellen White's comments applying Exodus 16 to cooking on Sabbath in this light.) But when that is not possible, “the Sabbath was made for humanity.”
Regarding the prohibition against kindling of fire on Sabbath (Exodus 35:3), because of how this command was enforced under Israel's theocracy when they found a man gathering sticks during Sabbath (Numbers 15:32–36), the objectionable feature of this act seems to be the labor involved in the whole preparation of the fire. Kindling a fire—not to mention starting a vehicle or electronic device—is not laborious with the help of industrial technology and has even become a recreational practice in post-industrial societies. In circumstances where fires are necessary for cooking or heating, it is most consistent with the divine mandate to rest on the Sabbath to prepare the fuel ahead of time and keep the necessary fires burning throughout the day. But if that is not possible or the fire goes out, “the Sabbath was made for humanity.”
According to God's original design, the Sabbath is a day set apart for us to rest in the good gifts—food, family, and nature—that he gave to humanity at creation. It is not a day on which it honors God for us to go cold and hungry. Rather, we should find wholistic satisfaction on that day God set apart for us to enjoy his special presence as the One who gave it all for us.