To my book club buddies...were we not sorta talking about this very thing last night?? This is from an interview with Mitch Albom about his new book. Q: This part of the book is difficult to talk about without creating a spoiler — heaven forbid — but we can say, generally, that even though we live in an age when most people probably dont believe in miracles per se, a lot of things that are being done with technology are pretty darn miraculous. A: Right. Here you have a small town that starts getting phone calls supposedly from heaven. And then what happens is that people start reading about it on the Internet — this amazing invention — and then they start calling other people about it on these 4G cell phones — this amazing invention — and reporters come with TV cameras — this amazing invention — and theres a broadcast thats going to be seen around the world, streamed live on computers and peoples phones, thats going to be the very first broadcast from heaven and the whole worlds going to hear it — an amazing invention. A lot of people say, The technology is going to prove that its a hoax. Its technology that we believe in, and technology thats doing it. But my question is: Who invented the technology? Human beings. Who gave human beings the ability to come up with the concepts for the technology, such as the telephone? Well, that depends on what you believe. If you say were going to disprove a miracle with technology, what about the miracle of technology itself? Technology is not just an independent entity that exists, and thats what we should believe in. Who gave us the ability to fire the synapses in our brains and come up with these ideas? Q: As Arthur C. Clarke said, Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Its a fine line between science and the supernatural, and the line is getting blurrier all the time. A: Absolutely. The miracle of being able to extend life, or to save life in its infant form, we credit that to technology, but there are many religious people who say it was God who gave you the ability to make that technology. But, you know, I dont have a dogma on this. I write my books to make people think, and its not that I necessarily want my viewpoint on it to be what everybody walks away with. I want people to wonder, I wonder what would happen if you really did meet five people in heaven? When I wrote that book, people wondered if Id had a near-death experience and was saying, This is how it works. And I say no. Its just my imagination, and my desire for you to think about it. And its the same thing with this book. You know, you say most people dont believe in miracles today, and that may be statistically true. And yet Im not sure that there are any fewer miracles happening today than supposedly happened in biblical times. To me, laser surgery is a miracle, and somebody had to invent that. As I write in the book, miracles happen every day, theyre just not reported. A stranger shows up suddenly at a roadside accident. Theres a near-miss of something that could have hurt you but didnt. Not every miracle looks like the Red Sea parting. There are all different kinds.
Posted on: Sat, 16 Nov 2013 18:44:46 +0000
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