Steve Jobs’ biography reveals faith struggles

Steve Job’s Biographer Walter Isaacson told CBS' "60 Minutes" in an interview on Sunday that the Apple CEO struggled with his beliefs about God in the time leading up to his death.

Isaacson related how Jobs, a self-proclaimed Buddhist, began to question God, the afterlife, and his personal purpose and meaning in the months before his death.

"I remember sitting in his backyard in his garden one day and he started talking about God," reminsced Isaacson. "He said, 'Sometimes I believe in God, sometimes I don't. I think it's 50-50 maybe. But ever since I've had cancer, I've been thinking about it more. And I find myself believing a bit more. I kind of – maybe it's cause I want to believe in an afterlife. That when you die, it doesn't just all disappear. The wisdom you've accumulated. Somehow it lives on.'"

Isaacson added: "Then he paused for a second and he said, 'Yeah, but sometimes I think it's just like an on-off switch. Click and you're gone.' He paused again, and he said, 'And that's why I don't like putting on-off switches on Apple devices.'"

In a recording aired on the show, Jobs also questioned the meaning of his own existence.

"I saw my life as an arc," Jobs said. "And that it would end and compared to that nothing mattered. You're born alone, you're gonna die alone. And does anything else really matter? I mean what is it exactly, is it that you have to lose Steve? You know? There's nothing."

Jobs revolutionised the digital world with his Apple products before he passed away on Oct. 5 after a long illness. Jobs was aged only 56 when he died.

Call to pray for earthquake-struck Turkey

The international Christian aid agency, World Vision, has urged people to pray for Turkey after a devastating earthquake struck the country. World Vision added that it will be closely monitoring the situation there as it looks to send aid.

The latest news from the country is that the death toll is climbing rapidly towards 300 after the 7.2 magnitude earthquake rocked eastern Turkey, collapsing buildings and destroying infrastructure.

Monday saw hundreds of rescuers using the bare hands to pull survivors out of the debris in freezing cold conditions.

Authorities fear the death toll could increase further as the search for survivors continues, reports The Associated Press.

Thousands of people were injured while thousands more were forced to spend the night on streets or in tents in the extremely cold conditions.

The US President Barack Obama has announced that America would assist in Turkey’s recovery, saying: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the brave men and women who are working to bring assistance to this stricken region,” he said in a statement.

“We stand shoulder to shoulder with our Turkish ally in this difficult time, and are ready to assist the Turkish authorities.”

Pop star Rihanna has also sent a good will message out to Turkey via her twitter account, writing: “Turkey, we're praying for all of you #Pray4Turkey”.

Camping’s second Judgement Day prediction also incorrect

After being denounced as a fraud after his first Judgement Day prediction failed five months ago, Harold Camping predicted a second date for the event for Oct. 21. However, with that date now coming and going, Camping and his ministry Family Radio finds themselves under heavy criticism for preying on those who took his predictions seriously.

Camping had claimed he had discovered the key to a numerical dating code contained in the Bible, which enabled him to work out the date for the end of the world. Thousands of people believed him and many gave up work and cashed in their savings in preparation. Camping has generally been denounced as a false prophet by other Christian leaders, with many calling for him to be “muzzled” before he does further damage.

Camping has refused to speak to the press after the latest failed prediction, while Family Radio also would not respond to questions.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but we at Family Radio have been directed to not talk to the media or the press," Camping's daughter said in response to an email inquiry sent by The Christian Science Monitor.

Israeli scholars build Bible decoding alogrithm

A group of Israeli scholars have designed a computer algorithm to decode the Bible.

The Bar-Ilan University team have already used the program to examine what style parts of the Pentateuch, were written in.

The program picks up different styles of writing in minutes - work that can take scholars painstaking hours of effort.

The algorithm compares sets of synonyms (called synsets) in blocks of text, along with "function" words (such as prepositions). It then assesses the distribution of the most common words in the Bible, and links different blocks together according to the style they are written in.

To test their algorithm, the scholars cut up Jeremiah and Ezekiel and then mixed them together. The algorithm managed to separate the two books with 99% accuracy.

The hope is that the algorithm method will great speed up scholarly research and increase understanding.

University of Pennsylvania professor of linguistics Dr Mark Liberman, was not involved in the research but was impressed with the methods and results.

"The key to making such methods work is to hit on features (words or constructions or word-senses or whatever) that genuinely differentiate the authors," he said. "In their experiment on un-munging Jeremiah and Ezekiel, they found that word distributions did not work well; but synonym choice (as estimated in a clever way) did work."

Religion needs to challenge science, says Professor

One of Europe’s leading neonatologists, Professor John Wyatt, has urged Christians to vigilantly challenge science on important ethical issues.

The Professor of Ethics & Perinatology at UCL insists that Christians should assist in ensuring that science and technology are used in ways that truly benefit people, and don’t just offer quick fixes.

In a speech sponsored by CARE this week, Professor Wyatt said science is on the verge of doing previously unthinkable things, such as providing ‘cures’ for ageing, drugs to suppress unpleasant memories, and all sorts of ‘human enhancements’ that need more careful thought before implementation.

The Professor insisted that if ethical lines are blurred then the “potential for evil is obvious.” He cited trends such as the selective killing of female foetuses and infants in parts of the world, and ‘reproductive tourism’, by which wealthy women use the poor as surrogate mothers, a practice he described as “rent a womb”.

“Whenever you hear people talking about the control of nature just beware of it turning out to be the strong abusing the weak,” said Wyatt.

The Professor cited the change in the debate around euthanasia and assisted suicide as a case in point, arguing that the human body is being increasingly seen as nothing more than a machine, and so euthanasia is adopted as the answer to a “body that is a failed machine”.

“When this was being debated 15 years ago, the arguments were about pain and diseases like cancer. Now the arguments are not about pain but about control and autonomy,” he said.

“[It is] machine thinking coupled with the centrality of autonomy.”

“We need to look for creation order and we especially need to look for the moral order because God has not just created atoms - a physical reality - but God has created a moral order that penetrates through every aspect of reality,” added the Professor.

Professor Wyatt also said that Christians need to challenge “materialistic, impoverished and reductionist conceptions” of humanity and reveal their “hidden link” to contemporary social problems.

“The threat to human identity from biomedical technology is less obvious and more subtle than that which comes from obvious threats like terrorism or totalitarianism or global warming but I believe it is more dangerous because it strikes at the heart of what it means to be human.

“With the façade of doing good, it is much more dangerous.”

Protests fail to get Facebook to close 'Rape’ pages

Protesters have failed so far in their approached to Facebook to shut down several Facebook pages allegedly supporting rape.

“You know she’s playing hard to get when your chasing her down an alleyway” and “Raping your mates girlfriend to see if she can put up a fight” are examples of some of the explicit pages that have caused outrage. The concern is that violence against women will be encouraged by these sites.

Campaigners have cited Facebook’s own Terms of Service, which prohibits content that is “hateful, threatening” or contains “graphic or gratuitous violence.”

“Facebook could and should do more to stop [the pages] from popping up in the first place and to swiftly remove those that do exist,” reads a petition listed on change.org. “Facebook needs to clarify that pages that encourage or condone rape ... are in violation of their existing standards.”

Despite this pressure and the fact advertisers have pulled out of their site, the social networking agency has refused to censor these pages.

According to the BBC, a Facebook spokesman said, “Groups or pages that express an opinion on a state, institution, or set of beliefs – even if that opinion is outrageous or offensive to some – do not by themselves violate our policies.”

“These online discussions are a reflection of those happening offline, where conversations happen freely in people’s homes, in cafes and on the telephone.”

The page administrators of “You know she’s playing hard to get when your chasing her down an alleyway” argue the site is nothing more than “a joke between...friends” and is not in anyway condoning rape.

One of the administrators wrote: “You people think that this is about rape do not get this joke because they are small minded people. one again for those feminists...this group is not about rape! no were in this have I ever said one thing about rape. so please those feminist who have nothing better to do with there lives but to post anti rape photos on this groups wall...[expletive]!”

John Raines’ petition “Demand Facebook Remove Pages That Promote Sexual Violence” has received 180,875 signatures so far.

Angi Becker Stevens wrote a letter entitled “Dear Facebook: Rape Is No Joke,” on Ms Magazine Blog, saying, “It would be absurd, of course, to suggest that anyone goes out and commits assault as a direct reaction to a Facebok page. But in reducing sexual violence to nothing more than a joke, they reflect and perpetuate the idea that women are objects to be used for the sexual satisfaction of men. Countless seemingly small things work together to uphold that kind of pervasive misogyny.”

“It would be naïve to imagine that the removal of these pages will in and of itself end rape culture. But that doesn’t mean the appropriate response is to simply accept them,” she added.

“Facebook is certainly not responsible for the prevalence of sexual assault in our society,” Stevens said. “But those in a position of power at Facebook are responsible for the choice they make to either condone or condemn the use of sexual assault as humor. Silence, as the saying goes, is acceptance. And Facebook’s refusal to take sexual violence seriously is exactly the kind of complicit silence that rape culture thrives on.”

USA Today names Bible app as No. 1 'Coolest Book App'

The media-rich interactive digital Bible, Glo Bible App, has been named by USA Today as the No. 1 Coolest Book App.

Glo Bible App was described by the publication as “one of the most impressive book apps available.” The app brings Scripture alive through HD video, high-res images, zoomable maps, 360-degree virtual tours, customizable Bible reading plans, and a natural user interface for fast, easy, visual navigation on the Mac, PC, iPad and iPhone.

The latest addition to the app was the Glo Atlas lens, which links geographic locations directly to Bible verses, articles and Glo media over a zoomable atlas, giving context to Bible stories or time periods. The app is a result of a partnership between Zondervan and Immersion Digital.

“Our team is honored to receive this endorsement by USA Today and is thrilled to have been selected as the top pick on the list,” said Nelson Saba, CEO of Immersion Digital.

“It reaffirms our belief that rich media integrated with text enhances the understanding and engagement of the reader by combining the more analytical reading process with related immersive media experiences.

“Two entire generations have been born in a digital world and favor digital media over any other,” Saba stated, according to their website. “We really felt that the time was right to create a digital Bible such as Glo, designed for them, that would connect with this generation as an alternative to paper, because they don’t use it.

“We’re not really just digitizing the Bible. We are creating a product with layers and functionality that will help make the Bible relevant and engaging to this generation.

“Zondervan has been a great partner of ours and we believe the fact that Glo features the bestselling NIV translation, which is the dominant preferred translation choice of consumers, has contributes to its success,” Saba added.

Chip Brown, senior vice president of Zondervan, was also pleased with the award stating: “Consumer reaction to both the packaged product and the App has been phenomenal and helps Zondervan advance our mission to increase Bible engagement.”

You can sample the app for free at www.globible.com.