Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2001/11/17/blessed_are_the_windows_xpmakers/

Blessed are the Windows XP-makers

Rev.Colson explained

By Andrew Orlowski

Posted in Bootnotes, 17th November 2001 01:47 GMT

Watergate jailbird sees God in Windows XP

"Religion costs much", the prophet Mark E Smith of The Fall once wrote - "but irreligion costs more"*.

Our bootnote on the musings of a Watergate jailbird-turned-preacher on Windows XP drew a huge postbag, disproportionate to the importance of the story.

Were we mocking Christianity? Of course not. If we even had a list of religions to knock, which we don't, we've got about five hundred and eleven truly bogus ones to get through first. And rounding on Christianity would risk getting beaten up by fellow staffers, to boot.No, what puzzled us was Chuck Colson's elliptical logic and weird similes. The two just didn't seem to be connected. This seemed to interesting to ignore.

We got it in the end, thanks to our Christian readers. But not before some intra-dominational clarity:-If I remember correctly Colson is a Charismatic/Pentecostal, not a Fundamentalist. This might seem trivial to you and me, but not in certain circles...


- Terry Bowman

OK. Now the light:-What Chuck is actually saying is what a lot of Christians are saying: thatthe evolution theory is just a theory and isn't proven fact. It's only taken as"proven fact" because people say it is.

The Bible offers a different theory, which happens to not be flavour-of-the-month these days, which is that a supreme being we call GOD designed and created the universe.

Chuck was trying to say that "if you reverse Engineer XP, you would discoverit's been designed, and he concludes that, if you reverse Engineer DNA, you also discover that it's so cleverly put together that you have to come to theconclusion that it's been designed. Chuck Coulson doesn't see God in Windows XP - he sees design. If you readthe last paragraph again:If Windows XP points to Bill Gates, how much more do the marvelous complexities of DNA point directly to God, the great Intelligent Designerit says that he sees God in DNA, just as you'd see the work of MS designers in XP. Look around at the world you live in and marvel at how things like trees and the human body are designed. I for one find it hard to believe that this all came about as a result of an enormous bomb going off.

Andy Watkins

Many others articulated the same argument. Thanks.

D Sandberg thinks Chuck's on to something...

Sounds like Chuck Colson (who was best know in the Watergate days as thatguy who had the plaque on his wall that read "When you've got them by theballs, their hearts and minds will follow") has got that ol' time religion -- real ol' time religion, like that 18th Century Revealed or Natural Religion.

No thoughtful theologian from today would propose that"watchmaker and the watch" argument given that it exposes the nature of Godto interpretation based on observation of the world around us.

Given that innocent children still drowned in the creek, this usually leads to theconclusion that God is either: a) Hateful, b) Incompetent, or, c) Amazingly unaware of His creation (or some combination of those three, and many more).Although this clearly is not a very useful argument for the spiritual world,it may be very helpful in gaining an understanding Mr. Gates.

If we follow Mr. (Reverend?) Colson's lead, what can we say about the nature of Bill Gates from the observation of Windows XP?

* Product Activation ==> Distrustful

* Interface Design ==> Coveting to the point of thievery

* Failure to work with older systems ==> Decadent and Incompetent

* Bundling programs to the detriment of others' livelihoods ==> Greedy

You know, the Chuckster may be on to something here.

®

* Slates, 1981.