Tag: geek evangelism

The Church of Google

A while back I mindlessly speculated that Google was just like God. At least there were certain similarities. I was trying to find an appropriate analogy for talking to geeks. Who incidentally, in my latest piece of theorising, are probably statistically more likely to be atheists despite a love for science fiction*.

Anyway, it seems there’s actually an atheist movement running round calling themselves “the church of Google” suggesting that Google is indeed the closest thing to God (Note: google chrome reckons this site is dodgy, and has blocked it (and search results it appears in on my site) so I’ve killed what was a link, and you’ll have to google it for yourself),.

Sadly, there is a page dedicated to “hate mail” filled with irate Christians. Like this guy.

“I’m sorry, but I must not only completely disagree with your little Googlism idea, but i must also call it insanely retarded. For one large reason, it was man-made. Not to say than any other g0d is not man-made, but as much as we are sure google exists and g0d does not, we are also sure google is a search engine not only made by two guys, but there is no opposition to the thought that it wasnt, where as to g0ds of any nature, are not man-made, but more on control/lead man. Another reason, the only thing google is made for, is to give information. Google has not created the world, man created google. To say google is g0d not only does make sense, but it has to be one of the most retarded things i have ever heard.”

*Based solely on the number of pro-atheism articles submitted and voted for on geek cesspools like Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.

Is google like God

I’m trying to decided whether using google as an analogy for God is appropriate or not. There are certain similarities that would help make God more accessible to geeks.

First I considered the possibility of using an open source analogy… it all started when I was trying to explain that it’s not inconsistent for an omnipotent God to change his system of doing things…

“The logic is perfectly consistent. The OT is a precursor to the NT – and certain things from the Old system are replaced in the new. It’s like a software upgrade that makes that piece of technology so much more awesome. In fact – the OT is like a proprietary software system that only works for the original company that won the contract,and in the NT it’s open source. Available for all. For free. Actually, it’s more like shareware because you don’t get to hack the code to bits and make it do whatever you want…”

Here are five ways God is like Google…

  1. He knows everything
  2. His slogan is “don’t be evil”
  3. His products are free and good and available to anyone who wants to use them
  4. It’s best if you just take them as they naturally appear and don’t go around trying to outdo the core program with your own stupidity
  5. While everything comes free and easy, he’s actually keeping a record of everything you’ve ever done in order to target you better.

Yeah, so it’s not perfect. But help me refine it in the comments.