Contrast clarifies vision. If you set two things in opposition to each other you will see both more clearly. Therefore contrast, if you will, the words of computer magnate Bill Gates with the words of the 19th century German writer Johann Paul Richter.

Gates said: "I don't think there is anything unique about human intelligence. All the neurones in the brain that make up perceptions and emotions operate in a binary fashion. We can someday replicate that on a machine. Earthly life is carbon-based and computers are silicon-based and that is not a major distinction". (Time Magazine, Jan 13, 1997).

Richter said: "Truly, religion is the blessedness arising from a knowledge of God. Without God we are lonely throughout eternity; but if we have God we are more warmly, more intimately, more steadfastly united than by friendship and love." Richter also quotes Sebastian Frank when he says: "God is an unutterable sigh lying in the depths of the soul." (Levana. Translated from the German. 1848)

Could there be a more stark contrast? On the one hand you have Gates dismissing human intelligence and reducing our emotions and perceptions to a binary code. His philosophy is cold, calculating and makes him the richest man on earth. On the other hand, Richter perceives in man a unique being capable of deep emotions and having a knowledge of God.

Which world do you want to live in; the silicon-based world of Bill Gates, or the warm compassionate world of Richter, based on the love of God?

Even is God is only an "unutterable sigh lying in the depths of the soul" you should choose carefully, because you may end up being "lonely throughout eternity".

Robert Holmes,

Thorganby,

York.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.