All the chapters are good topics so far. Shouldn't there be one for the religious response? Yourdon has already mentioned the Hutterites and their response to technology. What is the response to the technology failure? One might notice that there certainly does seem to be some moral point to this disaster. I myself see some element of God's retribution in it. (Serves us right for our pride, sloth, greed, etc.) On the other hand, I've seen some tapes for sale in a local Christian store (they should not have been) tying 2000 to the end times. As pointed out by numerous theologians already, God Himself told us the date was not predictable. Therefore, no one should react in this fashion. Not that this discredits Y2K, far from it: need I mention two World Wars that some people must have thought were the end of the world? That they were not offers no consolation to the tens of millions of dead and the weary nations remaining in the aftermath. Still, this end times speculation should not be encouraged. After all, if one can believe this heresy, surely he can believe other heresy, too. Suppose a cultist thinks things aren't collapsing fast enough and decides to "help" them a little? Considering the biological agents and free-floating uranium out there, religion could be either a force for rebuilding the community, or a force for finishing it off. Isn't that worth a little consideration?

-- Loren Blackmun Meyer (RorschachKovacs@Hotmail.com), August 25, 1999

Answers

I think the end of the world scenario is sort of like Koskinen's "local" problems. If its YOUR life that is effected, then it is the end of YOUR world. I wonder if the thousands left homeless in Turkey would't call it the end of the world? I for one would not like to see religion brought into this book except in a general "vanilla" manner. Perhaps a blurp on churches organizing relief.

Taz

-- Taz (Tassie@aol.com), August 25, 1999.

good idea. while on the subject, look at response of non-christians. i understand the Muslims have long had an end-time prophecy that basically says that their nations would become wealthy and powerful again, just before the end of the world. i don't know how prevalent that belief is.

i do believe churches could be discredited (or not) depending on how well they respond.

-- jocelyne slough (jonslough@tln.net), August 25, 1999.

I heard a Enlightened Master speak this... it's an appropriate "religious" answer me thinks...

"Do you really believe God sanctions humanity's suffering? Is that what your heart tells you? Have you not heard God asking you to love one another, in every reflection of your outer world, in every "seeming" problem?

"If ever a time existed for us to make the journey from our heads to our hearts, it is now. Do you not hear the cries of humanity through every miscreation occuring in our modern world? Be aware, be awake... man's greatest hour may come in any form, but it's not with the mind that you will know it..."

-- Christine Columbo (Sammadhi@msn.com), August 25, 1999.

(How about this for a possible future? - I refer to religion in the last paragraph.)

I think that the long term effects of a major year 2000 collapse (worse that the 1930s) may lead to people in the West living a harder life, in a society largely regulated by the Mafia, local war lords, and other rich, influential folk (nobles), with nominal and decreasing state and federal government presence in a barter/exchange and alargely black market economy (similar to what is emerging in Russia). Taxes could be collected via force and with the Mafia and nobles taking their share. Continuing already existing trends, the rich folk will congregate in affluent and safe areas, increasingly guarded by neighbourhood watch groups, and then armed guardes, evolving to fortified and guarded gated estates and communities, each with armed forces. These areas may be on the boundaries of cities or in affluent inner suburban areas close to a food distribution centre..

Local produce may largely be exchanged by barter or with cash and precious metals (for major acquisition such as land, houses, medical operations, cars, etc). The rich might buy via traders at the gates or via minions at the local markets. Free service may be offered to pay off debts, thereby bringing in a new form of slavery. The rich will be home educated with computers and home tutors. They may communicate by internet and buy through electronic commerce for imported commodities, with deliveries from the wharves and airports by armed convoys. Shipping and aircraft travel could be at a small fraction of the 1990s level. There will probably be local armed disputes, larger wars over resources, and mass migrations. New and old resistant viruses and bacteria will kill enormous numbers. Africa might continue to break down to anarchy and warring tribalism, and Islamic fundamentalism predominate in many counties being strictly enforced with brutal control.

Given the present feeble state of Christian faith, the rich folk may increasingly and unconsciously worship the spirit of the new technology Cybor with the technology wizards knowing the commands and words of magic of the internet. The rich women and artists, intuitives, thinkers and mystics might be drawn towards the worship of nature and fertility Gaia. In the rich gated communites, there may be rich intellectual opportunities using the internet. In this essentially feudal society, Roman Catholicism will stage a big comeback and may evolve to include some worship of Gaia, but perhaps even some worship of Cybor as the dominant medium of education and communication for the rich families. Various new age religious prophets and sects could arise, stressing earth-human mediation, both in the poor peasant communities and the more materialistic catering to the rich gated communities and communicating over the internet. New forms of religious movement could also spring from within Roman Catholicism (see Tielhard de Chardins books and the Father Thomas Berry's books as per "The Universe Story" (1992 with Brian Swimme) and "The Dream of the Earth" (1988) which call for a new "religion" which is an earth-human mediation).

-- Mark Williams (m.williams@cowan.edu.au), August 26, 1999.

Whew! Mark do you have to conscienciously think this stuff out or does it just sort of leak out of your brain?? I am always so in awe of how different people have such diverse thoughts. I have never thought or "leaked out of my brain" anything that closely resembles your train of thought. I have a hard time getting past keeping corn hoed after 1999 and finding the nests of the free ranging hens. But I may not understand the world that I am in, but by damn, I know how to survive as long as I have a piece of ground. I can look back on life's experience and draw my survival from them. But have a difficult time looking ahead. My looking ahead is really turning the clocks back to the "old days".

Taz...who has to read such essays two or three times to begin to grasp what the hell is going on!! Maybe I had better go see some movies. The last one I saw was "Driving Miss Daisey". LOL

-- Taz (Tassie@aol.com), August 26, 1999.

Religious groups have an opportunity to be a force for good during any period of stress, disruption, etc. Y2K provides such an opportunity. Some groups will fall flat on their face; others will be shining pillars of examples to the rest of us.

Same thing happened on Kaua'i after hurricane Iniki...ask the local folks about the Salvation Army! They did good work, indeed. Will your church pass the test as well?

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), August 27, 1999.

I once read something written by Albert Einstein about religion.

He viewed three levels:

1. Animistic religions based on emotion. 2. Social religions based on hygene. 3. Personal religion based on mysticism.

The main point in the essay was that the mystic was free from the rules and rituals of the first two, but that only a very fraction of humanity were in category 3 (meaning profound personal experience of divine nature strong enough to banish the need for 1 or 2).

Most likely, the post y2k world will put a lot of stress on category 2, since y2k is most threatening to large organizations.

I think Ed should put a survey on his page: Has preparing for y2k allowed you to experience a satori? Has growing non-hybrid seeds taught you about the karmic wheel of rebirth? Did having 2000 gallons of diesel fuel allow you to advance your christian ministry? Maybe the chapter can be called "Zen and the Art of Tractor Maintainance"

-- Thom Gilligan (thomgill@eznet.net), August 30, 1999.