Faith Awakened Review, Part Two

There are two main, related ideas here:

1. God designs our lives much as a programmer designs a complex program, and
2. God can control even virtual reality.

I don't disagree with either point. The problem for me is the nature of the interface. You see, God designed us to interact with him and with each other through this world and these bodies. So it seems reasonable to conclude that these interfaces (body and world) are the best--though they are certainly tainted by sin.

But the characters in FA who comment on the virtual experience find it paradisical: they don't want to leave it. Now, I can believe that, though for very different reasons than given in the story. Could God reach people through VR? Certainly. Would they be more reachable there? Certainly not.

You see, apart from the interface issue--God's preferred interface is surely out here--there is the nature of the virtual realm itself. Even in FA, there are doubts. The main character has a "dark night of the soul" experience in VR, which I would consider typical, and some computer-generated friends seem artificial: their behavior is mechanical. Again, no argument here.

The nature of VR is to turn away from the God-given interface to a man-made one: artificial worlds and bodies. Reality points to God; does artificial reality do so? Wouldn't it underscore our sinful tendency to turn away from God and others, accepting only imaginary versions of them all? For all our electronic connectedness, we are more lonely than ever.

This is the problem of all technological "improvements" to God's design. The transhumanists believe that we can become better by re-engineering ourselves--something C. S. Lewis addressed with horror in The Abolition of Man. But making ourselves stronger or faster or even more intelligent wouldn't actually make us better in spiritual terms, and by moving us away from our original design, it could actually make us harder for God to reach. Follow God's design. Accept no substitutes.

Faith Awakened Review, Part One

Faith Awakened is a science-fiction story by Grace Bridges. It involves an artificial plague unleashed in a future world dominated by a single, evil government. There's also a fair amount of virtual reality, too, which is one of my main quibbles.

As far as the writing goes, there is certainly no problem: the story flows well, and the characters are well-handled. On the whole, I had no major "Wait a minute..." reactions, except to the idea that a small Irish town would contain a top-secret device that gets the main plot rolling. (And even then, who knows what kind of odd tricks a secretive, paranoid one-world government might get up to? Hiding things in out-of-the-way places isn't that improbable.)

The writer is passionate about God and ministry, which is refreshing after a lot of "wink-wink, nudge-nudge" Christian fiction. Even non-Christians will probably appreciate something forthright. (And no, there isn't any "preaching" in the sense of protracted religious exposition.) It's a good read, four out of five, I'd say, and fairly quick. (It's also a free download if you don't mind e-books, so get off your duff, already!)

To sum up the kinds of things that some people always ask about: no profanity or violence, no drug use, a certain amount of gore (the plague's a modified ebola virus, so it isn't pretty), a brief, non-graphic reference to off-camera extra-marital sex (and its consequences), ditto for married sex. Not even a one on my personal kinkometer, though.

More positively, there are some good theological points here, but I'm not going to identify them because you need to read the book yourself.

Downsides? I suppose someone will grouch because her one-world government isn't properly apocalyptic, though I'm not sure that the Antichrist (yes, I do take him to be a literal, future person) will be the first to gain global control, though I doubt anyone will retain it for long. (Based on some passages in Daniel, I'm not sure the Antichrist has political control over everything anyway; he just manages to get his way in general.) So this seems to me relatively minor.

There is an important issue--again, not fatal, just annoying to me. I'll cover that next.