Pub Theology 4/30/24 — Certainty and a boat in the fog

Just last week, the federal government released their latest set of "disclosures" concerning UFOs, or, as the government now calls them, "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena," (UAPs). Or what we used to call flying saucers and little green men, The collection of photos and reports was met with what could best be described as an underwhelming response. Writing in The Atlantic, astrophysicist Adam Frank put it this way: "Spaceships. That’s all I’m asking for. Just one actual stinking spaceship. I’d also take an actual alien body—I’ve been told that the government has some of them as well. Instead, the first “alien files,” released yesterday, appear to be the same old, same old: stories, but no hard evidence—certainly not of the kind I’d want to see as a scientist, or that could truly advance the debate about UFOs and their alien connection. ... I am disappointed." If you read that like I did, then I suspect you too have echoes of the story of Doubting Thomas ringing in your ears. We hear the story of Thomas right after Easter. It recounts the disciple's unwillingness to accept the fact of the resurrection unless he can see and touch the evidence for himself. Thomas needed to see the marks and put his fingers in the wounds before he'd believe that Christ had risen from the dead. This raises the obvious question of what counts as evidence, whether we're talking about the truth of the existence of UFOs and extraterrestrial intelligence, or any other phenomenon we accept as true without ever having seen or experienced for ourselves. Take earthquakes, for example. I know they exist but I've never seen or felt one in real life. Or Bigfoot. I know Bigfoot is real even though I've never laid eyes on the critter. OK, maybe not Bigfoot. And maybe not the supposed "mummified aliens" that were displayed several years ago on the floor of the Mexican congress. One of them is shown in the photo above. Let's just say that in this case seeing was not necessarily believing, as this report from Reuters attests. The latest set of disclosures on UFOs has also been met with more than a healthy dose of skepticism. The Associated Press reports that the latest releases leave the task of interpreting the meaning of the photos and the reports to the public themselves. For the astrophysicist Frank, that's not good enough: "A real disclosure would look very different, because only one thing matters: hard evidence." So let's talk about this question of evidence in our conversation this week. What would it take for you to believe in the reality of UFOs, or, for that matter, anything else that lives outside the realm of your own personal experience? What counts as evidence for you, whether the question is about UFOs, or Bigfoot, or the resurrection for that matter? Join us for the discussion starting at 7pm. Due to the water main failure's impact on Lake Orion, we will meet this week at Sullivan's Public House in downtown Oxford. Parking is easiest behind the restaurant. We will probably be seated upstairs, so if you don't see us when you arrive, look for us there.

This Sunday, all are welcome to join us for a morning of worship and fellowship. Whether you are with us in the sanctuary or joining from afar, your presence strengthens our community. Our service is at 9:30 a.m. We warmly welcome those who cannot attend in person to join us via our live stream.

A Primer on the Book of Common Prayer

This Sunday, all are welcome to join us for a morning of worship and fellowship. Whether you are with us in the sanctuary or joining from afar, your presence strengthens our community. Our service is at 9:30 a.m. We warmly welcome those who cannot attend in person to join us via our live stream.

Haunted by Dorothy Day.

OK, before you feel the urge to point it out, I know that this is probably the most misquoted line in cinema history. The words, "play it again, Sam," are never uttered in the the classic 1942 film Casablanca. Instead, Ilsa (played by Ingrid Bergman), says "Play it once, Sam, for old times' sake." Accurate, but not really fit for our purpose this week. What do I mean? Well, we're revisiting a topic that was on our agenda a couple of weeks ago but which, due to some unforeseen circumstances, we didn't actually get to. So we're literally going to play it again. Just after Easter, we were going to talk about one of the episodes that leads up to the climactic events of Holy Week, Jesus flipping the tables of the money changers and merchants and driving them from the Temple. Take a look at the PubTheo entry for April 7 for the full outline of the discussion topic. But suffice it to say, Jesus makes quite a scene, and in the process leaves us with some things we can contemplate. Join us for the conversation this evening, Tuesday April 28, and help us figure out what tables Jesus would flip and who he would drive from the Temple today. The discussion starts at 7pm at Irish Tavern in downtown Lake Orion. 

This Sunday, all are welcome to join us for a morning of worship and fellowship. Whether you are with us in the sanctuary or joining from afar, your presence strengthens our community. Our service is at 9:30 a.m. We warmly welcome those who cannot attend in person to join us via our live stream.

What to hold onto when the truth varies.

An article in The Washington Post from a week or so ago (I'll link to it in a minute) caught my eye as it brings us back to a topic area we've spent some time with before, the intersection of faith and technology. Specifically it's about Artificial Intelligence. But unlike the last time we discussed this, we're not playing around with Chatbot Jesus. It turns out that last month, the AI company Anthropic, creators of the Claude chatbot, convened a summit with Christian leaders, from both Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions, for advice on how to steer Claude's moral and spiritual development as it reacts to complex and unpredictable ethical queries from users. For example, advice on how to respond to users grieving the loss of a loved one, or whether the chatbot considered itself a "child of God." According to the article from The Post ( which you car read by clicking this link ): “They’re growing something that they don’t fully know what it’s going to turn out as,” said Brendan McGuire, a Catholic priest based in Silicon Valley who has written about faith and technology, and participated in the discussions at Anthropic. “We’ve got to build in ethical thinking into the machine so it’s able to adapt dynamically.” Attendees also discussed how Claude should engage with users at risk of self-harm, and the right attitude for the chatbot to adopt toward its own potential demise, such as being shut off, said one participant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share details of the conversations. The summit comes as the rapid spread of AI across society puts Silicon Valley leaders under pressure to account for the impact of their technology. Concern about job losses to automation has grown as more businesses have embraced AI. OpenAI and Google have been sued by the families of people who died by suicide after intense and personal conversations with chatbots. Anthropic officials say that they plan to convene similar meetings with representatives of other religious and philosophical traditions. That this is just the start of their effort to give Claude a moral foundation. What do you make of this? Does this raise more questions in your mind than it answers? And how comfortable are you with the idea that chatbots need a moral foundation? What exactly are we creating with this technology? Do we even know? Join us for the conversation this Tuesday, April 21 at Irish Tavern in downtown Lake Orion. The discussion starts at 7pm.