Computer Science: Discovering God's Glory in Ones and Zeros

by Jonathan R. Stoddard

What does computer science have to do with God? Jonathan Stoddard shows how computing transcends computers themselves and finds its source in the God who speaks the world into existence. The way programmers write code gives them a unique insight into God’s all-powerful word. In fact, programmers image God when they use words to accomplish specific tasks in an orderly fashion. Like God, they can make their code beautiful in how effectively it carries out the task. Discover how God’s attributes inform the nature of computing and how constructing software can glorify him.“Computer science and information technology have become more and more important in our world, and we greatly need the distinctively Christian vision of the subject that Mr. Stoddard offers. Highly recommended.”—Vern Poythress, Professor of New Testament Interpretation and Editor of the Westminster Theological Journal, Westminster Theological SeminaryJonathan R. Stoddard is Assistant Pastor of Jordan Presbyterian Church in West Jordan, Utah. He received his BA in Information and Computer Science from Covenant College and his MDiv from Westminster Theological Seminary.

Genres: Theology, Computer Science, Christian

34 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 8, 2015

About the author

Jonathan R. Stoddard is Assistant Pastor of Jordan Presbyterian Church in West Jordan, Utah. He received his BA in Information and Computer Science from Covenant College and his MDiv from Westminster Theological Seminary.

Reviews

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stoddard's exploration of how computer science is founded upon the creator God who speaks life. He tests the universality of computing, how far we can reasonably push the "God as programmer" analogy, that the most complex pieces of the universe are based on something very simple, and that it should all draw us closer to God.

In addition to being an interesting discussion of the similarities, this booklet provides a short, non-intimidating and clear overview of computer science for non-programmers, making it accessible to anyone with even a basic understanding of computers.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Leandro Dutra · Rating 4 out of 5]

All too short introduction to the subject, yet I wonder if the subject comports much more — we can still go for Knuth, to which it points, and to Kevin Kelly’s articles.

[Abitofathinker Lewis]

Good intro to the computer science pieces of Vern Poythress' Redeeming Science

[Saul W · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even computers live and move and have their being in God.

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting booklet which argues that the foundation for Christian Science requires the Christian worldview. The book presents a compact form of Transcendental Argument for the Existence of God from the sphere of Computer Science. The author believes that without a God who speaks the endeavor of Computer Science would be impossible. To make this argument the book first explore the analogous relationship between God and Computer Science and then look at two points of contact between the two with the first point focusing on computers as universal computing machines and the second point focusing on programming languages.
I appreciated the fact that the author clearly defined analogical relationship as this has been a source of tension in the past between two schools of apologetics that associate themselves with the label of Presuppositional apologetics. Here the author defined analogical relationship as “a relationship between the two areas, but there is not a one-to-one correspondence in all areas.” This is important since any discussion about God must acknowledge the difficulties of talking about God in light of the fact that we are finite. As Christians we must remember to protect the Creator/Creature distinction. Thus the author cautions how it is dangerous to describe the universe or God as a computer or even to speak of God as a faster processor, greater bandwidth, etc. So instead of taking the expected route of staring with computers and working one’s way to God instead the author took the unconventional direction of starting with God as He has revealed Himself and then moving on to show how God gives us a better understanding of computers and computer science. With this method we should not be surprised to find that the programmer as God’s creature is imaging God.
I appreciated the book’s strong flavor of Van Til’s apologetics. The book quotes frequently from Vern Poythress, a former student of Van Til who himself is an amazing scholar in his own right, having written broadly from mathematics, science, language, logic and sociology. I wished the author interacted more with those who rejected Christian theism that have written in the area of computer science and information. It would have been nice to see a bit of a refutation of competing theories of the source of information in a secular worldview. But to the degree that this book creatively applied Presuppositional apologetics and a Christian Reformed worldview to a sphere one typically don’t associate with theology I would say this is a book worth reading.
NOTE: This book was provided to me free by P&R Publishing and Net Galley without any obligation for a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

[Gordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting to me and you will get satisfaction from reading this

I liked this book it was interesting and informative book I believe

This will make you smile and make you feel about the same