Night class that changed me

A Christian YouTuber posted a clip from this week's Will Cain Show on Fox News in which Cain interviewed Augustus Doricko, CEO of a startup company in Southern California called Rainmaker that is “using drone-based cloud-seeding technology to artificially increase rainfall over drought-stricken farmland.”

Will Cain: I want you to please address a larger question which is one that is somewhat broad and perhaps even religious but, are you playing God? Are you messing with things that you shouldn’t be messing with when it comes to the weather?

Doricko: I get this question all the time and totally think it makes sense to ask. My intention is to serve God. I think in Genesis 1:26 or 28 and then throughout the Psalms and the rest of the Bible, God tells us to take dominion over and steward creation both for our sake, creation’s itself and then to honor Him.

So if there are droughts and we have the tools to mitigate the damage done by them, for our sake and for nature itself, then we should deploy those for the sake of tending to and stewarding the world and if we weren’t to do that and we were to ban cloud-seeding wholesale, despite knowing it’s safe, despite knowing it could help alleviate these problems, we’d be abdicating our value and responsibility to be stewards of the world.

From another post on YouTube by a Believer:

“All-encompassing AI is the power that is conquering the entirety of the world. AI is literally on the verge of running every aspect of the world and they intend it that way, but only the very few at the top fully understand that they’re dealing with fallen entities.

“The rest of the world believes that we’re just that smart, you know, and we’ve created this ultra-smart AI and it’s going to take care of us, you know, like a new daddy. ‘We just have to give it the tools that it needs to care for us and love us and hug us and pet us,’ when it’s absolutely, 100 percent the inversion of that and this is proof right here.

This is a simple article that you can find many like: ‘Investigations and concerns over the use of Israel’s AI in choosing targets.’ This AI system is literally called ‘The Gospel.’ This is an Israel Jewish thing where they think a certain way and they reject the New Testament, the Gospel, but yet they choose that name. That should speak VOLUMES to people.

“It’s called Habsora, which is the Hebrew word for gospel. I mean, it’s so in your face, what more do people need? Apparently they need more and unfortunately they’re going to get it when this is unleashed, because the AI Gospels intend its target is the gospel of Jesus Christ and to eliminate/destroy the gospel's impact. 

“It’s coming; it’s barreling down the tracks, man. It is right in front of us. The AI Gospels’ impact is determined by an AI system that is fed gobbles and gobbles of big data. The big data is the new gold; it’s beyond gold to these people.”

Here are the words of Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking last winter at an Adelson School of Entrepreneurship meeting given the title “Securing Our Interest”:

“What it is basically is the meeting ground between big data, IT and connectivity. Everything is being driven from this nexus. Everything. Everything. The future belongs to those who can seize this change. It is giving us powers and prowess that we NEVER had before. But we’re in a position now to compensate beyond anything we dreamed of. And cyber is the real domain of power.”

 ******

Testimony continuation: In addition to my journalism professor, Henry H. Schulte, a native of Winter Garden, FL, I had two other professors who made a huge impact on me. There was John Clarke, a native of Scranton, PA, who had a Pulitzer from his work at the Providence Journal, and Paul Underwood, once a London bureau chief for the New York Times.

Underwood’s class was specifically on writing editorials and I was the only one from my previous journalism classes who enrolled in the course, which was held in the evening.

I was already at work inside the Lantern (Ohio State’s storied student newspaper) as a reporter, but writing editorials was a whole different animal. It required giving intelligent opinions with well thought-out arguments. The writing itself had to be very tight since space on any editorial page for editorials is limited.

Underwood, in his 70s at the time, was a softspoken (even though he had "smoker's voice"), genteel man who always dressed very well. I would most often be the only one who would want to stay after class and go over different things he marked up on my papers, which consisted almost completely of editorials on political issues and important problems in our country.

I just remember so clearly how patient Underwood was with me (spending sometimes 30 minutes or more) and how he would criticize my work very judiciously, always seeming to want to get the best out of me. The task of writing for him was very difficult at first, but I remember getting the hang of it more and more as the quarter went on. What drove me was wanting Underwood’s approval.

So, here’s the thing. I applied for Editorial Editor of the Lantern and got the position set for the winter quarter following Underwood’s class. I came back from Christmas break and learned Underwood had died in a house fire in New Jersey along with his wife. Supposedly the fire started when one of them fell asleep in bed smoking a cigarette.

Unbelievably, the first editorial I wrote for the paper (and this was a decision I made as the editor) was on Underwood, detailing his career, weaving in things I had come to admire about him as a teacher.

While there was no byline for my editorial, my professors immediately knew I had written it and were quick to tell me how much they appreciated what I had done. The biggest thing, though, is that they told me how well I had captured him.

This, I have to say, was the true starting point for me, giving me the confidence that I had a real ability. What followed was amazing—by the time I left Ohio State in 1987 I was somewhat of "a name," at least for those who regularly read the Lantern, which was not only delivered all across campus (including businesses, hospitals, groceries, bars, restaurants, etc.) but was widely available each weekday in downtown Columbus (the capital of Ohio).

To be continued tomorrow