Todd Deshane (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} deshantm) wrote,@ 2009-11-01 18:56:00 |
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Free as in salvation
In the software world the word free is confusing. Free software doesn't mean the same thing to everybody. Let me give you an example to help you understand what I mean. There are lots of programs that are freely downloadable from the Internet with no strings attached. Now many of you may read that and consider those programs to be free software. And in one sense (in terms of cost) you would be correct. However, there is another definition of free software that doesn't count all of these programs, but only counts software that is not only free to download, but also free to modify. The free software foundation uses the word free to refer to freedom and not to cost. They believe that software should be distributable in such a way that the source code that makes the program work is also available for those that are able to make changes to it and then redistribute those changes. Making the source code available has others benefits. For example, if more people are able to see how something works, they might be able to find ways for it to work better or find flaws or security vulnerabilities etc. Some of the best examples of free (as in freedom) software are Mozilla's Firefox web browser and the Linux operating system, which was created by Linus Tovalds. There are countless other fee software projects that have had very good success as well.
Quite some time ago I came up with another interesting personal analogy. Free software has some interesting analogies to Christianity. I wondered if other people had had the same thought, so I searched on Google and one of the things I found was a site called Linux for Christians with a motto "Free as in salvation" referencing the bible verse Ephesians 2:8-9, which says "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast." I thought it was really neat that someone had seen the same the analogy that I had. Just recently I had a conversation with Pat about technology and Christianity and I promised to write up an blog post on this topic in hopes of being included on his new website. We both agree that there is a lot of possibilities when combining technology and Christianity. For instance, we have been discussing the concept of cloud Christianity, which could be understood simply as using the cloud to spread Christianity.
In conclusion, it is fun to apply different parts of your life together in order to find interesting analogies and you never know what you will come up with. You may also be surprised that others have had the same thought. In Ecclesiastes 1:9, it says "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." I think it is important not to take such statements out of context however. The author of Ecclesiastes is king Solomon (I wrote about this king before), who was given much wisdom from God and in this book he is trying to share some of those ideas. I don't think it should be read that you can't think of new ideas, but more in the sense that God already knows everything and we can't think up something new that he doesn't already know about. New to us, sure. That is my understanding anyway. Feel free to give your thoughts on it.
In the software world the word free is confusing. Free software doesn't mean the same thing to everybody. Let me give you an example to help you understand what I mean. There are lots of programs that are freely downloadable from the Internet with no strings attached. Now many of you may read that and consider those programs to be free software. And in one sense (in terms of cost) you would be correct. However, there is another definition of free software that doesn't count all of these programs, but only counts software that is not only free to download, but also free to modify. The free software foundation uses the word free to refer to freedom and not to cost. They believe that software should be distributable in such a way that the source code that makes the program work is also available for those that are able to make changes to it and then redistribute those changes. Making the source code available has others benefits. For example, if more people are able to see how something works, they might be able to find ways for it to work better or find flaws or security vulnerabilities etc. Some of the best examples of free (as in freedom) software are Mozilla's Firefox web browser and the Linux operating system, which was created by Linus Tovalds. There are countless other fee software projects that have had very good success as well.
Quite some time ago I came up with another interesting personal analogy. Free software has some interesting analogies to Christianity. I wondered if other people had had the same thought, so I searched on Google and one of the things I found was a site called Linux for Christians with a motto "Free as in salvation" referencing the bible verse Ephesians 2:8-9, which says "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast." I thought it was really neat that someone had seen the same the analogy that I had. Just recently I had a conversation with Pat about technology and Christianity and I promised to write up an blog post on this topic in hopes of being included on his new website. We both agree that there is a lot of possibilities when combining technology and Christianity. For instance, we have been discussing the concept of cloud Christianity, which could be understood simply as using the cloud to spread Christianity.
In conclusion, it is fun to apply different parts of your life together in order to find interesting analogies and you never know what you will come up with. You may also be surprised that others have had the same thought. In Ecclesiastes 1:9, it says "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." I think it is important not to take such statements out of context however. The author of Ecclesiastes is king Solomon (I wrote about this king before), who was given much wisdom from God and in this book he is trying to share some of those ideas. I don't think it should be read that you can't think of new ideas, but more in the sense that God already knows everything and we can't think up something new that he doesn't already know about. New to us, sure. That is my understanding anyway. Feel free to give your thoughts on it.
