Post-human by David Simpson

Post-Human (November 23, 2011)

Trans-Human (November 23, 2011)

Sub-Human (August 15, 2012)

Human Plus (March 10, 2013)

  

I’ve downloaded several free books (especially science fiction and fantasy) on my Kindle, and I have even enjoyed a few of them.  One particular deal was forwarded to me by a friends – upon the release of Book 5 of his Post-Human series, David Simpson was giving away the first four books for free (for a limited time – a time that is now past).

It took me a while to start them, and whenever I would finish one, I would pick up something different to break up the series.  While the first three books were not mind-blowing in any way, they were good enough to warrant continued reading.  I’m glad I did, because the fourth book, Human Plus, actually is exceptional.  It’s an adventure story, set in a world of cyberspace and artificial intelligences, and the action in all of the books is very good.  They are very readable, and the pacing is very nice.

But there are also some deeper questions being asked, and that is why I’m writing about it here.  The common question to these books is simply this – what it is that makes us human? 

I want to make a comment on your blog, CalvinistNerd! Why can't I?

"I want to make a comment on your blog!"

Do you?  Sleep on it.

That’s what I do when I’m writing for this blog, so I would ask the same consideration from you.

Not that there are not occasions where an immediate reply is needed, but probably not on this blog.  We don’t really deal with the topic of the day or current events.  We review art.  That doesn’t have to hit the press today.  In fact, most of the art we review has been out for a while anyone, so no one is knocking down my door for this stuff.  Even when I address something more currently, I haven’t come across anything yet that demands that I reply this very instant.

I’m also the sort that writes very strongly in a first draft, and I tend to mellow in the editing process as I see that I don’t need to be so harsh or whatever.  And I’ve read comments on the Internet.  I’m not the only one who writes strongly in their first drafts.

So my basic rule here is that I write something, I let it sit overnight – sometimes multiple nights – and edit it again.  That way I am sure that I’ve let my own emotions settle, that I’ve done my own devotion time, read the Bible, prayed, and come back to the piece again.  I don’t believe that you necessarily need to say something now, and I’m firmly believe the world would be a better place if we all took a moment to decide whether something needs to be said now rather than later, and opted for later much more often.

Internet comments don’t work that way.  And frankly, of the thousands upon thousands upon thousands I have read, only a handful were actually worthwhile, and most of them, honestly, came from James White.  Since I doubt he’s reading this blog, I’m relatively comfortable in turning off comments.

By the way – James White has mentioned before how he doesn’t like the rush of the comment-craze either.

If you want to say something about what I have written, I would ask that you sleep on it.  If it is still important tomorrow, then have at it.  Write it down, post it on your own blog or Facebook or wherever you like, then send me the link.  My Twitter handle is @CalvinistNerd if you want to tweet it at me.  Don’t expect an immediate reply.  It’ll probably be a few days so I can digest what you have said, worked to take my own emotions out of it, and reply.

But don’t expect me to make my corner of the internet a haven for hasty responses and trolls just because you feel that your comment is critical to get down.

Most of what went wrong with the New Calvinism could have been fixed by Old Calvinism

When I was a young Christian, I was influenced from many directions, and I was listening to and reading quite a few different (and contradictory) authors and pastors, not really knowing which path I needed to take (or really what the differences were between them).  As I matured in my faith and my understanding of the Scriptures, I took a hard turn down the New Calvinism stream.  I was introduced to this through John Piper, as were most people in this group, and people like Mark Driscoll were regulars on my iPod.

As time went on, I continued to learn and to grow, and eventually I found myself in what we may call the Old Calvinism, though still enjoying listening to these other pastors.  It was about that time though that things started shifting, and not for the good, and now I had the theological foundation to recognize the problems.  Some time ago, I publically (over Twitter) repented of my role in the New Calvinism, because I started seeing the movement as inherently dangerous and getting more dangerous.  I was well behind people like John MacArthur and Carl Trueman, who had recognized the problems much earlier, but they were starting to become clear to me.