When Joan and I get tired of sex and violence on TV -- something that happens increasingly often as TV channels vie for showing more and more blood and gore -- we turn to the cable music channels.

            The system runs on autopilot. The labels often fail to match the music. The album cover purports to be playing Michel LeGrand's Windmills of your Mind. But the actual tune playing is Peewee Hunt’s Twelfth Street Rag. And the little blue line that indicates progress, second by second, seems to have no connection to either the audio or the video.

            Setting up a music program can’t be terribly complex. How difficult can it be, to cross reference a visual image along with filename of the music itself?

            Surely an algorithm -- technically, the lines of code that run a program -- should contain some auto-correction capabilities. If the song and the visuals don't match, it should recognize that discrepancy. And fix it.

Dangerous mismatches

            Algorithms need a built-in reality check.

            I’m not thinking just about music programs.

            Do I want a car’s self-driving system, for example, to set its cruise control for a highway’s Google-defined speed limit -- say, 100 km/hr -- if it cannot recognize that the highway ahead has been ripped up for repaving?

            Do I want a pharmacy to fill a prescription for a diuretic that eases heart congestion if it conflicts with another medication for malfunctioning kidneys?

            Should an economic fix -- from tax incentives to austerity cuts -- proceed even when the situation they were supposed to fix has changed?

To defend or disprove?

            Reality check is, I think, the fundamental principle of science. As soon as someone comes up with a new theory, other scientists try to confirm or to disprove it. If they can’t replicate the results -- remember the furore over “cold fusion” a few decades ago? -- the theory goes into the garbage.

            Scientists test for flaws in reasoning, errors in procedure, to find the exception that invalidates a general rule. A theory or process only becomes accepted wisdom when repeated attempts fail to find a flaw in it.

            As an Australian chemistry professor reminded me, that's where science differs from religion. Or from politics, for that matter. Science, in general terms, tries to disprove new theories; religion and politics try to defend old theories. Or dogmas, to use a more theological term. Challenges are attacked. Not welcomed.

            Although, admittedly, even in science, many will still cling to an earlier “law” until a new generation of scientists take over.

            Little wonder that for years, preaching classes in seminaries were called "apologetics" -- creating an apologia, a defence, for historically accepted truths.

            Politics doesn't call speechifying apologetics, but the principle is the same -- defend a party's existing policies at all costs. Including one’s own personal integrity. Even when austerity budgets, tax cuts, or giveaway grants are no longer what the economy needs.

            Sometimes when I listen to election debates, the handout melody and the hard-times label don't seem to be connected.

            And when I listen to a sermon or a homily, the message of unconditional love doesn’t match the promise of eternal punishment for sinners.

            Sometimes we need to step back from predigested programs and do a reality check.

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Copyright © 2017 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups, and links from other blogs, welcomed; all other rights reserved.

            To comment on this column, write jimt@quixotic.ca

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YOUR TURN

Fortunately, you didn’t take my column about a surplus of beans too seriously. (You were also kind enough not to treat the column as the natural output of eating too many beans! Although Tom Watson came close: “Are you suggesting that, at your tender age, you are now ‘full of beans?’”)

John Shaffer had a helpful suggestion: “If you get over run with food, remember Food Banks and other such programs.

            “Last week our Rotary Club was invited to harvest zucchini at a nearby farm that didn't have labor to harvest them commercially.  We ended up with 1500 pounds for Northwest Harvest which supplies Food Banks in the Greater Seattle Area.  I gave up growing zucchini

John Shaffer had a helpful suggestion: “If you get overrun with food, remember Food Banks and several years ago, as I was losing too many friends and my church members started locking their cars in the parking lot.  (a feeble attempt at a joke)

            “Encourage people to share their surplus food with others.”

Cliff Boldt celebrated “the unexpected.  I have been so blessed in my life and I had no idea things would work out so well for us.”

Isabel Gibson had her own metaphor: “A friend used to talk about some people charging along a path, and some blooming where they were planted. It's an interesting metaphor for different ways of being in the world.  Even when I don't think I can accomplish great things, I can always remember to bloom.  Right here, right now.

            “P.S. If you want a recipe that uses a whack of green beans in a spicy chicken dish, check out Easy General Tso's Chicken on Epicurious.com.”

And Barbara Parrott had a comment about a column back in August (maybe she just got back from vacation?): “Everything fell into place for me when I began to understand that here is no such thing as nothing, either inside or outside of the universe. There is only what is.  Call it God.

            “The reality is that everything is connected to every other thing.  Everything is a piece of the universe, a piece of God. 

            “I have a sense of connectedness when I think about being a piece of the universe, a piece of God.”

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PSALM PARAPHRASES

The Lectionary calls for only verses 1-5 of Psalm 98; I think it feels incomplete without the rest of the verses.

1          Grandparents perch on the edge of the bed;
young ones snuggle in beside their parents.

2          The family circle is unbroken;
everyone belongs here.
It is a time of expectation and of celebration.

3          Wherever they go, whatever they do,
members of this family will be faithful to each other.
They will always be each other's children, each other's parents.

4          They all talk at once, excitedly;
when they hear themselves, they burst into laughter.

5          Laughter is the icing on a cake of comfort that generations have baked;
it tinkles around the room like glass bells hung on a tree.

6          As cold toes grow warmer under a comfy quilt,
so loving relationships grow warmer with time.

7          Though icy winds howl and blizzards rage,
children will wriggle and seniors smile gently.

8          The simple pleasures of companionship rise from them to heaven;
it is an offering pleasing to God.

9          for God loves a loving relationship, and judges the quality of our lives together.

For paraphrases of most of the psalms used by the Revised Common Lectionary, you can order my book Everyday Psalms from Wood Lake Publishing, info@woodlake.com.

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YOU SCRATCH MY BACK…

·       Ralph Milton’s most recent project, Sing Hallelujah -- the world’s first video hymnal -- consists of 100 popular hymns, both new and old, on five DVDs that can be played using a standard DVD player and TV screen, for use in congregations who lack skilled musicians to play piano or organ. More details at www.singhallelujah.ca

·       Isabel Gibson's thoughtful and well-written blog, www.traditionaliconoclast.com

·       Wayne Irwin's “Churchweb Canada,” an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://www.churchwebcanada.ca>

·       Alva Wood's satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town are not particularly religious, but they are fun; write alvawood@gmail.com to get onto her mailing list.

·       Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” -- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at twatson@sentex.net

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TECHNICAL STUFF

If you want to comment on something, send a message directly to me, jimt@quixotic.ca.

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            My webpage is up and running again -- thanks to Wayne Irwin and ChurchWeb Canada. You can now access current columns and about five years of archives at http://quixotic.ca

            I write a second column each Sunday called Sharp Edges, which tends to be somewhat more cutting about social and justice issues. To sign up for Sharp Edges, write to me directly, jimt@quixotic.ca, or send a note to sharpedges-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca

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