How Twitter is Like Prayer

The following is a re-post from about two years ago. I thought I'd re-post it after a discussion I had today with one of my intelligent friends, who mentioned that though the "like" button on Facebook doesn't create real community, it evidences the desire for true genuine human friendship. So, enjoy this re-post.

So I caved to the Twitter craze. I love the "connection" it brings to other people. I love the fact that I can sync it with my cell phone and with Facebook, and thus kill many birds with the one stone.

But Twitter can bring a false connection. If I spent all of my time on Twitter telling people what I'm doing, well then I wouldn't be doing anything, would I? And, if I spent all of my time on the internet, I wouldn't really have friends, would I? That's the irony of social networking: sometimes the more we're networked electronically, the less we are networked in real life. Real friendships suffer. But with that said, since being on Twitter for 2 days, I had an epiphany: Twitter is like prayer.

Think about it: I constantly hope for more people to follow me. Maybe they'll think I'm important. Maybe they'll actually care what I'm doing. I must admit that in the last few days I have tweeted in the hopes that somebody out there was seeing it. Maybe somebody out there cares. And that's the essence of Twitter, human beings want to be known. And not just known, but known deeply. We want to know that there is a place for us to be accepted, loved, and wanted. That's why we crave for relationship. And it's even why we crave for followers on Twitter and friends on Facebook.

That universal desire is a lot like prayer. Gallup and other poll organizations regularly report that around 90% of Americans pray. Forget that many of those people are not Christians and do not claim to believe in a personal God. People still pray.

Neither atheism, nor new age, nor Islam, nor many other religions believe in a personal God. People who subscribe to those worldviews may still maintain prayer in some fashion, but ultimately prayer cannot be interactive in those worldviews in the sense that a personal God will not interact back with the person who prays. And even still, peoply pray.

To be known deeply, to offer a picture into our lives, to have someone else listen in our despair-- these are universal human desires. The personal God that establishes Christianity does know, does pay attention, and does listen to us. Twitter is imperfect, but Jesus is perfect. Thank God!



Miracles and the Psychosomatic

One of my best friend's is my cousin who shares my name, David. He experienced a miracle recently, and I want to tell his story. But before I do, some introduction is in order.

There are ultimately only two views on miracles: either they happen or they don't. Those who think miracles cannot happen are typically atheistic in their theology, materialistic in their philosophy, and naturalistic in their view of the mind and body (as well as other biological processes). "Materialism" or "naturalism" is ultimately the view that claims that matter is all there is. It's a denial of anything supernatural at all.

And yet biological oddities happen all the time. Seeming "miracles" do happen in hospitals. And even still, people interpret the facts differently. Supernaturalists (admittedly a huge camp of people) say that miracles can happen and why be so surprised? Supernaturalists that are Christians actually pray for these things all the time. Naturalists, on the other hand, tell us that many diseases and biological issues are psycho-somatic (ie the mind can convince the body it's sick or that it's healed). If a person believes in miracles, his or her body can heal them, so they say. To the naturalist, a miracle is merely an unknown scientific explanation that is probably the result of somebody's body healing on it's own because they believed it would happen.

Counter-example to the naturalists: my cousin David's son. David's son was born last week. They didn't know it at the time, but this little boy had severe complications. He had severe lung fluid and other major issues. Doctors ran lots of tests. They found out that they boy had a major blood vessel pushing on his esophagus and other things in his throat. They also found out that the baby's heart was located severely to the right, an unnatural location. And even still, they had no idea why the lungs were being filled with fluid. The more they found out, the worse it got for this little boy. The more tests that were run, the scarier the surgery the boy was facing. In all, the baby saw 15 doctors, and one of the leading specialists in the country on internal baby surgery (forgive me, I don't know the term) who has been doing his job for 38 years.

My cousin David is a Christian. Our family is a Christian. I'm a Christian. We all believe that Jesus hears and answers prayer. Sometimes tragedy happens, but it's no reason to stop asking for a miracle.

And such a thing happened. A few days ago, the doctor was doing some re-evaluations just to make sure the baby was going to be ready for surgery. More tests were going to be run as well. Then the doctor realized something. That enlarged blood vessel was gone and in it's normal location. He did some other tests; the heart was back to normal. Some other tests; no fluid in the lungs and no more fluid coming into the lungs. The baby was completely healed, and was ready to go home the next day.

And everyone in the hospital was dumbfounded. Nurses started calling him the "miracle baby." 15 doctors, who were unsure of what was wrong but knew the symptoms were severe, had no explanation. The experienced doctor of 38 years? "I've never seen anything like this in my career." In case you are wondering, my cousin has the before and after pictures that prove the radical nature of this bodily miracle.

As I understand it, the medical complications were so extreme that a simple overnight fix is virtually impossible. And as I understand it, one-week-old's don't have developed critical thinking, capacity for understanding, ability to speak or comprehend, the ability to see very far, or most other normal human functions that develop later on. Remember the naturalistic explanation from earlier? A miracle is merely an unknown scientific explanation that is probably the result of somebody's body healing on it's own because they believed it would happen. In this case, that possibility is ruled out. Here was no psycho-somatic healing. Here was no possible known explanation for something being radically fixed overnight.

Here was a miracle.

And Jesus answered them, 'I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me...'

To Facebook or not to Facebook

Facebook has become quite the topic of controversy as of late. It's continuing assault on user privacy even made the cover story at Time magazine this week. Some highlights from that article:

• "[T]he site is premised on a contradiction: Facebook is rich in intimate opportunities — you can celebrate your niece's first steps there and mourn the death of a close friend — but the company is making money because you are, on some level, broadcasting those moments online."
• "...Facebook keeps finding itself in the crosshairs of intense debates about privacy. It happened in 2007, when the default settings in an initiative called Facebook Beacon sent all your Facebook friends updates about purchases you made on certain third-party sites. Beacon caused an uproar among users — who were automatically enrolled — and occasioned a public apology from Zuckerberg."
• "And it is happening again. To quell the latest concerns of users — and of elected officials in the U.S. and abroad — Facebook is getting ready to unveil enhanced privacy controls. The changes are coming on the heels of a complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on May 5 by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which takes issue with Facebook's frequent policy changes and tendency to design privacy controls that are, if not deceptive, less than intuitive...  The 38-page complaint asks the FTC to compel Facebook to clarify the privacy settings attached to each piece of information we post as well as what happens to that data after we share it.
• "In April, the site started giving third-party applications more access to user data. Apps like my beloved Mob Wars used to be allowed to keep your data for only 24 hours; now they can store your info indefinitely — unless you uninstall them. This spring, Facebook also launched something called Instant Personalization, which lets a few sites piggyback onto Facebook user data to create recommendation engines. Once again, as with Beacon, users were automatically enrolled."

I'm assuming that if you're reading this post, then you probably have facebook. Does this alarm you?

If not, then this should. You have almost no private information on facebook anymore. If people want access to your info, then they have it so long as they pay facebook enough for it. It doesn't matter if you only allow friends to see everything and not anyone else, facebook can sell your content. Why? Because they own it, and not you.

For more interesting reading, take a look at the top 10 reasons to delete facebook.

So where does that leave us? Is privacy a virtue in and of itself? Not necessarily. True communion with others is a much higher virtue. Isolation is not a virtue. But facebook provides a false community.

But that desire for community isn't entirely bad. See my post from a year ago about how Twitter is like prayer. We want to be known. We want to know that someone out there really cares. They really care if we stubbed our toe and we posted it on facebook. They really care that our favorite movie is To Kill a Mockingbird. But though the desire is real and good, it is also taken too far. The desire for intimacy with others becomes narcissism on facebook, a perpetual "look at me" game. And you know what? Those third-party companies co-opting facebook's info do care. They care about making money off of you, and they know your favorite books and that you stubbed your toe too.

And this makes facebook a far-from-perfect model of real community. Can it be wielded properly? I still think so. But is my identity and personal knowledge perpetually compromised? I think so. Buyer beware.