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Hacking Catholicism Part 4: Demon Crackers And Their Exploits

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This is Part 4 of a 7 part series called “Hacking Catholicism”.

Prior articles on Hacking Catholicism:
Hacking Catholicism: Part 1 – Introduction
Hacking Catholicism Part 2 – God Is A Programmer And A Lover
Hacking Catholicism Part 3: The Catholic Church As A Code Library

Hacking Catholicism Part 4: Demon Crackers And Their Exploits
By Marcus Guevara

In the beginning…

In the beginning of this series I talked about the difference between Hackers and Crackers. Hackers are the good guys. Crackers are the bad guys.

I’ve always been interested in demonology (the study of demons) from the Catholic perspective. There’s nothing wrong with having a curiosity in the dark side of the supernatural world. I actually believe it’s important for all Catholic’s to be aware of what the Catholic Church teaches about demons and the devil.

For all those who don’t know the story about Lucifer and how he became to be “the” devil I will give a very short account. The devil, was once a beautiful angel. In fact, the Church teaches that he was the most beautiful angel and the closest to God before his fall. His name, Lucifer, means “light bearer”. He became prideful and decided to lead a rebellion against God. His rebellion resulted in his eternal separation from God. Since God is love, goodness, joy and beauty, the devil and his fellow demons were then separated from enjoying those gifts. They are now bitter, hateful, and ugly.

Demons are bad angels but they are still angels. They still retain their nature. This means that demons are vastly more intelligent than human beings on Earth and they have a far more powerful nature.
Since Angels do not have bodies the battle that demons waged against God and his faithful angels was an intellectual battle. They were wrong and thus they lost but they continue to do damage to us here on Earth. But how? They exploit our weakness in the same way that crackers exploit the weaknesses of their targets. It’s still an intellectual battle.

Ethical Hacking

Hacking is an art that requires understanding an manipulating a target in an intelligent way. People who try to launch random cyber attacks without any knowledge of the target are likely to not be successful. However, people who spend time understanding the target, exploring weaknesses, and launching strategic attacks are likely to be successful. As an ethical hacker I spend time learning how criminal hackers work. I try to understand the way that they think and I learn the tools and methods that they use. This approach can be very beneficial from a spiritual standpoint as well. Learning more about how demons work can help us to be ready for their attacks to protect ourselves.

C.S. Lewis’s book, The Screwtape Letters is a fictional account of a series of letters from a senior demon to his nephew, Wormwood, who is a junior demon. The senior demon’s letters mentor his nephew on how to tempt humans into sin. This book is like ethical hacker training for spiritual warfare. It gives a great glimpse into how demon crackers exploit human weakness.

Demons are very smart criminal hackers. They attack us indirectly. They don’t kill us – they get us to kill ourselves. They exploit our tendencies to be prideful, selfish, fearful and stubborn. They confuse and disorient us. They get us to believe in an idea and we act on it. It then becomes our sin. It’s like Inception. The most effective way to get us to sin is to make us believe their influence is our own idea. If we believe it is our own idea – we trust it.

Inception

Inception is possible. The movie was a little fantastical but the underlying concept of the movie isn’t so far fetched. We don’t need to put someone to sleep, hook them up to a machine, and enter their dream to perform inception. Modern day music does a great job of performing inception on massive amounts of people. If you want to create an army of people enslaved to their lustful desires you simply need to play Lady Gaga’s “Do What You Want With My Body” or Miley Cyrus’s “We Won’t Stop” on radio stations all over the world, on television, YouTube, at house parties and concerts. Give them millions of dollars for flaunting their bodies on television and you’ll have an army of young girls believing the idea that success comes from taking off your clothes and being willing to hand over the most sacred parts of their bodies to boys. When those girls start getting pregnant at a young age or after sleeping with a guy they don’t know then demons would simply need to convince the girl that the baby is nothing more than tissue. If that doesn’t work they can start a campaign that the choice to kill the baby is up to the woman since it is “her body”. They exploit us when we are self conscious, wanting to be loved and desired even in the wrong ways, and take advantage of our willingness to experience sexual intimacy and pleasure at the expense of others. They make us believe things like “it’s not that bad”, “there are worse things”, or “that might be true for others but it’s not true for me”. That is inception at it’s greatest.

The way we can fight the demons is to learn more about how they work and prepare ourselves to be ready for their attacks. If we can recognize their attacks we can turn our focus on the real war. The inception and criminal hacking of demons cause division and fighting among people. We begin to fight each other instead of the enemy that is responsible for the damage. Thankfully, God has not left us to fight this war on our own. We have the support of the Priests and Saints – our certified ethical hackers.

* For more information about demons and hell read Fr. Fortea’s book Interview With an Exorcist. I HIGHLY recommend this book. It is in question and answer format and is extremely informative and interesting.



Disclaimer about the books and movies talked about in this article.
I like to inform my readers that I do make a small commission off of the Amazon links in these articles (if you purchase the product). However, any time I link to a book or movie it is because I HIGHLY recommend it. If you purchase the material elsewhere that’s okay because I simply want you have the information. If you want to support my ministry you can purchase it from one of my links. It’s up to you.

Hacking Catholicism: Part 1 – Introduction
Hacking Catholicism Part 2 – God Is A Programmer And A Lover
Hacking Catholicism Part 3: The Catholic Church As A Code Library
Hacking Catholicism Part 4: Demon Crackers And Their Exploits [You Are Here]
Hacking Catholicism Part 5: Saints and Priests – Certified Ethical Hackers
Hacking Catholicism Part 6: Gaining Root Access To The Faith
Hacking Catholicism Part 7: Where To Go From Root

(If the article is not a link yet it is not yet completed. Check back for updates)

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Why I Gave Up Dining Out For 365 Days

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That Smells Expensive: Why I Gave Up Dining Out For 365 Days
By Marcus Guevara

The Horror Story

January $268.82
February $383.26
March $344.62
April $372.07
May $355.53
June $234.48
July $249.50
August $318.85
September $275.95
October $300.97
November $315.75
December $167.57

Grand Total $3,587.37

That is what we spent last year eating out.

What were we thinking????

I’m not against dining out. Obviously. In fact, I love it. I’m not against fast food, birthday lunches, dinner dates and pizza parties. However, those aren’t the occasions on which most of this money was spent. Most was spent due to laziness and habitual eating-out.

“I’m tired. Let’s not make anything tonight. Let’s just get pizza instead”

“You know what sounds good right now? Thai food”

“Where’s everyone going for lunch? Let’s hit the Indian buffet”

And BAM! Just like that. Three thousand, five hundred, eighty seven dollars and thirty seven cents were spent.

Bad Habits Kill Good Goals

Around July of last year I started bringing my lunch to work so that I could save the money I usually spend eating out. That was six months ago! I shudder to think what that number would have been if I had kept my expensive “eating out with the guys” lunch habit.

My bride and I are trying to radically change our spending habits. She has a goal of being a stay-at-home mom and I have goals of writing books, having a successful blog and a full time ministry. We spent a few years of financial irresponsibility and racked up some credit card debt along with our student loans. We do just fine. Thanks to God we both have great careers. I work in the field of cyber security. I am a pentester. My sweet bride is a middle school teacher. We have never been without.

I do love what I do but I would love, even more, to be able to devote all my time to writing, speaking, evangelizing and doing cool tech stuff. Dianne (the sweet bride) loves teaching but she would much rather home school our children. That stuff may not be possible right now but we can make it possible. We sat down one day and wrote down all our goals and then asked ourselves:

“What is sitting in the way?”

“What is preventing us from making this a reality?”

It’s not just eating out. There are other things but we are starting with this resolve for the following reasons.

  • It’s going to save us money
  • It’s going to force us to eat healthier
  • It’s going to force us to plan ahead for meals
  • It will help us have a more clear and strict budget for grocery shopping
  • We have to plan to bring snacks and sandwiches if we know we won’t be home for a few hours (otherwise we can make a good case for grabbing some fast food so as not to starve)
  • It’s going to make it easier to sacrifice spending money on other stuff

Those are awesome habits and they will help us get at least $3,587.37 closer to our goals. I’m not saying you have to do the same thing. This is what we believe is best for us. I want to obliterate my debt and start saving at a more rapid pace. I want to start working toward accomplishing my goals and helping my bride accomplish hers. A meal doesn’t seem like much but in the grand scheme of things it’s huge because ten years from now I might be able to stop working and do full time ministry because I will have ZERO debt. That’s my goal. Ten Years. Zero Debt and Large Savings. This is my first step to accomplishing that goal.

Sacrificial Krispies

We went out for pizza with some family members yesterday. The pizza smelled amazing but we were adamant about not eating out. As we mingled we watched everyone around us stuff a delicious combination of bread, cheese and pizza sauce into their mouths. Dianne was dying a slow and hungry death. When we got home we didn’t have anything prepared and were low on groceries so we ate some Rice Krispies cereal. I asked Dianne if she wanted sugar in hers. She said no. I poured myself some and then took a bite. Our conversation went like this:

Marcus: “Oh my God, this tastes so much better!”
Dianne: [Looks into Marcus’ bowl]… “What’s in yours?”
Marcus: Sacrifice.

I suspect life is about to get a lot better for us.

EDIT: We do have exceptions like kids birthdays, family lunches or dinners, anniversary dinner… etc. However, where it is appropriate we will be either eating before-hand and enjoying company or bringing food to the place to eat there. Yes, seriously. We’re gonna do that.

More articles on this subject soon… subscribe below to be notified.

You May Also Like…

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If you are on a similar journey let me know what you are doing in the comments section.

Hacking Catholicism Part 3: The Catholic Church As A Code Library

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This is Part 3 of a 7 part series called “Hacking Catholicism”.

Prior articles in the Hacking Catholicism series:
Hacking Catholicism: Part 1 – Introduction
Hacking Catholicism Part 2 – God Is A Programmer And A Lover

 

Don’t Do It All On Your Own

Before I started working in the field of Cyber Security I was a Software Developer. One of the first things you learn in software development is to utilize code libraries. For example, in most Java programs you have something like this at the top of your code:

import java.io*;
import java.util.*;

These are libraries of code that are being imported into your code so that you don’t have to rebuild functions that already exist. For example, if you want to read a file you can’t just tell Java to “read this file please”. You have to tell it exactly how to read a file. However, if you import a library that already has a function that reads files for you than you can simply reuse that function. Programming would be long, tedious, inefficient and ineffective without using libraries.

WordPress is a code library for websites and it is AMAZING. It allows people who normally would be unable to design, create and maintain a website to do so with ease and for FREE. You don’t have to be an expert web designer to use WordPress. You just have to:

  • Know where to go to get it
  • Figure out how to apply it for your needs
  • Put some work into maintaining it

Related: Get WordPress

The Catholic Church is very much like a code library.

Know Where To Go To Get It

God instituted a Church that would be visible (Luke 11:33) so that people didn’t have to figure everything out on their own. The Catholic Church has two thousand years of experience in delivering Christ to the people of the world. There are churches all over the world who are under the leadership of the Catholic Church. These churches have the same Scripture readings (there are some exceptions) everyday at Mass. They say the same prayers and share in the same Eucharist. The leadership of the Church is highly visible and the Church is well known for things like The Sign of the Cross, Priest’s collars and robes, Nun’s habits and beautiful church buildings. This is all makes it easier to know where one can go to “get Christ”.

Figure Out How To Apply It For Your Needs

It’s not enough to just have the information. That information needs to be applied correctly. When programming, functions need to be invoked according to their requirements. For example, anyone can purchase a copy of the Bible and read it. The Bible is the inspired word of God and it is a very important part of spiritual development. However, there are millions of people who read the Bible and disagree about what it means. This is why we have different sects of Christianity (Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant) and many different sects of Protestantism (Methodist, Lutheran… etc). This means some people are applying Scripture incorrectly.

It takes some time to figure out how all the pieces fit together. The Catholic Church serves this function through its leadership and through authoritative teachings like the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The catechism explains the Church’s teachings and explains the meaning of certain Scripture passages and their implications. Think about the Bible as the US Constitution and the Church as the Supreme Court. You wouldn’t want laws without a court to interpret and apply them. I realize this may not be the best example since the Supreme Court makes crazy decisions sometimes but the Church is protected from error by God (Matthew 16:18).

Put Some Work Into Maintaining It

Putting the pieces together doesn’t solve all your problems for the rest of your life. The Catholic Church doesn’t live out your faith life for you and WordPress doesn’t update your blog every day to make sure your readers have fresh content. You have to work to maintain your website and you have to work to maintain your faith. This means going to Mass service each Sunday (at least), praying, reading, learning, and giving of yourself to your neighbor (service).

A Long History Of Code

Since the Catholic Church has been around for two thousand years you can imagine that it has been building its library for a while. There are tons of Saints in Church history with amazing stories of love and sacrifice. These stories serve as a model and witness for us. They give us hope and inspire us to be greater servants of God. Many brilliant people have written beautiful poems and tackled the toughest questions. We don’t have to come up with all the answers ourselves and we don’t have to reinvent Christianity. The Church, like a code library, is a resource for us. Here are some of my favorite resources:

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body
[Great for questions and issues regarding sexuality, marriage, lust, pornography, contraception…etc]

What is the Theology of the BodyChristopher West – Renowned Theology of the Body Author and SpeakerTheTheologyOfTheBody.com

EWTN – Eternal Word Television Network

Catholic Answers

Catholic Answers Radio Show

New Advents List of Early Church Fathers Writings

St. Augustine’s ConfessionsIgnatius of AntiochPolycarpHistorical Church Councils

And, of course, ThirstingforTruth.com.

This is just a tiny sample of what is available for those wanting to learn more about the Catholic faith. There is an ocean of material on virtually any subject or question of faith. However, there is also a great deal of misinformation and confusing material that can lead others astray. This is where demons and their exploits come into play…

Hacking Catholicism: Part 1 – Introduction
Hacking Catholicism Part 2 – God Is A Programmer And A Lover
Hacking Catholicism Part 3: The Catholic Church As A Code Library [You Are Here]
Hacking Catholicism Part 4: Demon Crackers And Their Exploits
Hacking Catholicism Part 5: Saints and Priests – Certified Ethical Hackers
Hacking Catholicism Part 6: Gaining Root Access To The Faith
Hacking Catholicism Part 7: Where To Go From Root

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Hacking Catholicism Part 2 – God Is A Programmer And A Lover

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This is Part 2 of a 7 part series called “Hacking Catholicism”.

Prior articles in the Hacking Catholicism series:
Hacking Catholicism: Part 1 – Introduction

Hacking Catholicism Part 2 – God Is A Programmer And A Lover
by Marcus Guevara

God is a Programmer

I believe God is a programmer and nature is His code. Nature, or creation, has rules and laws. Modern science attempts to observe and understand those laws. Nature’s laws are like the code of a computer program. They are a part of the design of creation and we interact with them as though they were computer code. Nature’s laws aren’t just firing off all the time and producing the same results. At times they work like methods that need to be invoked. Sometimes they require input, or variables, and they then produce results, or output, based on the input. Each person will experience the laws differently depending on the type of invocation and the variables provided. For example, we are all experiencing gravity at all times. However, someone who is sky diving is experiencing gravity in a very different way than someone who is sitting in a chair.

If we were to look at nature as computer code than we can predict what might happen when we introduce certain variables to certain methods. For example, what do you think would happen if someone were to jump off a fifty foot cliff? Do you think they would fall down at a very high speed and probably die when they hit the ground? If that’s what you believe – why are you so sure that will happen? We assume and expect that the laws of nature will be consistent and always act according to how they act right now. We believe that because we have spent a great deal of time studying how the “code” of nature works. Isn’t that what science is?

Are we not all hackers trying to study the code that is already in place? Our current generation has a great deal of confidence in modern material science and believes it can answer some of life’s most important questions. There’s a belief that if we simply studied nature’s code enough to understand it than we will find the answers to those burning questions:

“Where do we come from?”

“Why are we here?”

“What is our purpose?”

I believe our confidence in material science comes from it’s predictability. It allows us to maintain a feeling of control over our lives. This is why, I believe, some people will refuse to believe in anything unless it is “proven” by science.



Human Computers

God built us in a way that is very similar to how a computer works. Computers came way after humans so, really, computers are designed after humans and nature.

A computer is very complex but if we were to break down the important components of a computer we would have memory, a central processing unit, and input and output devices. A computer receives input through some peripheral device, like a keyboard, and sends an electrical signal to the processor in order to process the data received. The data is put into memory, either short-term or long-term memory, and then it usually is translated back into a form which can be sent to an external device, or output, like speakers.

The human body works in a very similar manner. Humans consist of memory, a brain which processes all information, and input and output “devices”. We receive input through devices like our eyes and ears and an electrical signal is sent to our brains in order to process the “data” we have received. That data is put into memory, either short-term memory or long-term memory, and then it can be translated back into a form which is sent to an external device like our mouth.

When we speak we are resonating sound at a particular frequency and mimicking a common, or standard, set of sounds that everyone else subscribes to. Language is nothing more than a group of people agreeing to certain sounds being ascribed to certain concepts. Computer speakers can vibrate at the same (or extremely close) frequency as a persons voice. If we reflect on that we realize something fascinating. Our voice can be reproduced by a computer. Even more than that our image can be reproduced by a computer. In fact, video of us can be reproduced by a computer. That means that your physical features – your face, hair, and body – and your sound – voice, laugh, and cry – can be reduced to a string of 1’s and 0’s (or at least the representation of those things). Isn’t that amazing?

However, a human person can’t be reduced to a logical concept.



Faith and Reason

Faith without reason can lead to an unreasonable person. Anyone can have faith in anything but without the use of reason, or logic, they might end up putting faith into some very illogical concepts. However, reason without faith can lead to insanity.

Think about that for a second.

How confident can you be in your ability to reason unless you first have faith that your method of reasoning is correct? Human reason is flawed and must be formed. People don’t just “know” the truth. We do have the ability to reason but logic and reasoning can only get us so far. Faith takes us where reason cannot go.

Here’s a practical example of what I am talking about. Each morning when I leave for work I use the key to turn the engine over and I start driving. I assume that the vehicle is going to work according to it’s design and the laws, or code, of nature. I never wonder if the car is going to just start accelerating out of control or falling up into the sky. I don’t know that those things couldn’t ever happen but I have good reason to have faith that they won’t. I don’t need to pop the hood of the car and check that the engine and electrical components are working properly before I drive to work each day. I don’t know the first thing about building or fixing the mechanics of a car so I have to make an act of faith each time I drive because I don’t know how it is going to behave.

A relationship, or marriage, would probably make a more clear example of what I’m trying to say.

There is no amount of logical data that any person can obtain about another that would ensure they would never have to face divorce. We have to put faith in the other person that they will hold true to the promises they make at the altar.

This helps bring me to my next point.


God is a Lover

We cannot simply study Catholicism from a logical perspective and expect to understand and relate to other believers. If we only view God and the Catholic faith from a logical perspective we are going to miss out on a huge part of Catholicism: romance. God is not just a programmer. He is a lover. He is romantic. Understanding the romance of the Catholic faith is important to making sense of the logic. It’s like looking at marriage and saying “Why would two people commit themselves to each other forever?” or “Why would he give up the job he’s always dreamed of for her?”

Why would two people commit themselves to each other forever?
From a purely logical perspective (ignoring romance) one might say there is no good reason to make a forever commitment to someone because you don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. It would be more logical to make a short term commitment and review that commitment every year. This seems logical but a relationship, more importantly a marriage, requires romance. If a couple refuses to make a long lasting commitment their romance will be stunted. A marriage is not a contract – it’s the framework for society. Marriages beget children and the commitment to children cannot be reviewed each year.

Why would he give up the job he’s always dreamed of for her?
If a man lands his dream job in a different city and his wife gets an offer in their current city logical analysis might look at things like higher pay as a deciding factor for where they should live. However, romance might cause the man to willingly sacrifice his dream for the sake of his bride’s happiness.

These examples don’t ignore logic. They just also don’t ignore romance.

Reason and logic are like the 1’s and 0’s of a computer’s binary code. Binary code is not good for anything unless it is interpreted and then re-presents something that we can interact with like movies, music or information. Reason and logic are meaningless unless they are viewed with the light of romance. Romance gives meaning to reason and makes sense of it. I think of romance like a computer monitor. A computer can be processing all sorts of intelligent information but without a computer monitor how will anyone make sense of what is going on?

Catholicism is really about having an intimate relationship with God – the designer and lover of your soul.

That relationship has a certain design – an order. It has to be under the terms which God has set forth. If God is the designer and creator than our pursuit to understand nature, or his code, is a pursuit to understand God and how we can get closer to him.

Do we have to figure it out on our own or is there somewhere we can turn for answers? Read the next article to find out.

 

 


Hacking Catholicism: Part 1 – Introduction
Hacking Catholicism Part 2 – God Is A Programmer And A Lover [You are Here]
Hacking Catholicism Part 3: The Catholic Church As A Code Library
Hacking Catholicism Part 4: Demon Crackers And Their Exploits
Hacking Catholicism Part 5: Saints and Priests – Certified Ethical Hackers
Hacking Catholicism Part 6: Gaining Root Access To The Faith
Hacking Catholicism Part 7: Where To Go From Root

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Hacking Catholicism Part 1 – Introduction

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Hacking Catholicism: Part 1 – Introduction
by Marcus Guevara



Before I first experienced my conversion and encountered the person of Christ I had a few questions about God and the Catholic faith.

Questions like:

Who or what is God?
Where is he exactly?
Why does God want us to worship Him? Isn’t that sort of arrogant?
Why does he allow evil?

I think those are questions many people have from time to time. I wasn’t a very religious person growing up but every once in a blue moon I would become curious about these sort of things.

After I had a personal encounter with God and really “felt” his presence for the first time I began seeking answers. Instead of all my questions being definitively resolved I began to grow more questions and became more interested in understanding the Catholic faith. My questions also became more intense and more intelligent. I started wondering things like:

If “something” cannot come from “nothing” and everything has a beginning then where did God come from?

If he created time along with the universe then what was he doing “before” he created time?

If there is a God… How do I know that the Catholic faith has the correct understanding of God? How do I know it is the true Church?


Thirsting for Truth

As I began researching and finding the answers to my questions more, and more, questions began compiling in my head. The truth’s about the Catholic faith were so amazing and exciting that I developed this great Thirst for Truth. I couldn’t get enough. I devoured book after book. I listened only to debates, talks, or Catholic radio while driving in my car. I attended any and every conference in town and I had long and exciting conversations with others about matters of faith and reason and the Catholic Church. After my conversion I still had an intellectual journey to the faith. I came to believe but then I wanted to understand. I wanted to really understand. I wanted to “hack” Catholicism.

Related: The Conversion Story of Marcus Guevara – Founder of ThirstingforTruth.com

As a computer scientist and an ethical hacker, or penetration tester, by profession I have a great desire to take things apart and see how it all works. To explain what I mean it’s important to define the term “hacker”. Thanks to Hollywood movies and news reports on television the term “hacker” has unfortunately become synonymous with “computer criminal”. However, we already had a perfectly good term to describe a computer criminal and that is a cracker (criminal hacker). Due to the continuous misuse of the word hacker most people outside the hacker community have accepted the incorrect definition and so all hackers are thought to be bad guys. This is unfortunate because the original meaning of the word hacker is something anyone would be proud to be associated with.


Hackers vs Crackers

A hacker is simply someone who has a deep understanding of something (usually technology) as well as a passion for learning more. Hacker’s take things apart and put them back together. They don’t stop at the basic understanding of how things work. They go deeper and ask more questions and try new things. They use their knowledge to manipulate technologies and tools to build and improve upon things. Criminal hackers, or crackers, can be hackers who have a very solid understanding of some technology but use their abilities for evil purposes like stealing money, stealing identities and taking revenge. They don’t build or improve. They destroy. I may have the same knowledge of vulnerabilities and hacking methods as a criminal hacker but I use that sort of knowledge to help people improve their security against criminals. I have found that my understanding of technology and computer security has actually supplemented my understanding of the Catholic faith. In the same way, the more I study about the Catholic faith the better I am able to understand the world around me – including technology.


Binary and Catholicism

The Catholic faith is simple yet complex. The greatest truths of the faith, the very core of Catholic teaching, is simple. Very simple, in fact. However, there are extremely complex teachings based off of those simple truths. Computers are also simple and complex at the same time. The foundation of computers is comprised of two numbers: one and zero. It’s a difficult concept but it’s true. Even though at it’s lowest level a computer only understands ones and zeros it can build extremely complex and amazing things off of just ones and zeros. Colors and images displayed on your monitor, movies and games, programs, and websites can all be reduced to a sequence of ones and zeros. Now, I don’t expect to write a short article that answers every question about computers and how they work. I also don’t expect to answer every question about God and the Catholic faith. My intention is to show from a very high level how one can approach a greater understanding of the Catholic faith using science and technology. In the process, however, I think it will be shown that faith and theology will give greater context and meaning to science and technology.

I’m not trying to make the case for God’s existence. I am going to write with the presumption that God exists and show how, from my perspective, science and technology make more sense in light of theology. However, my opinion is that this will unintentionally serve as more than just a “proof” for God’s existence. I can’t prove that God exists. However, I can demonstrate that learning more about science and technology does not have to lead to atheism. In fact, with a truly open mind, science and technology can lead a person to greater intimacy with God.

The Catholic Church teaches that God created the world and mankind. He is a designer. His design is artistic and intelligent. It is artistic because it is beautiful. Looking at the beauty of mountains, clouds, the ocean, land and outer space can be breathtaking. However, God is not just a painter. Paintings are not intelligent. They look nice and they can inspire emotion and possibly even action in the viewer but they are inanimate. God is like a programmer, or an engineer, and the world he created is extremely intelligent.



Oops! Did I Just Create A Universe?

Many claim that the world and humanity came about through a series of coincidental accidents. This is an illogical concept when we compare it to computers. We know that computers were designed and built by humans because history tells us so but we also can see the evidence of design. Everyone knows that computers were designed by intelligent humans because they are made up of many different complex parts that all work together as if there were designed with a purpose. It would be illogical to believe that a computer happened to come together over time through a series of coincidences or accidents. Their design becomes evident through simple observation and interaction. In the same way, the human person with all his or her complex parts can evidence a design and a designer. I didn’t major in biology in college so I’m not looking to make this a discussion about biology.

What I would rather do is show how human logic and computer logic are very similar. In fact, I think that computers and technology can be shown to be a direct reflection of the same sort of logic that is taught in the Catholic faith. Jesus very often used analogies of the physical world to help people understand the spiritual world because the physical world was designed in such a way as to teach us the truth’s of the spiritual world. It’s kind of like flight simulation for a pilot. The laws of flying and the control instruments are built into the flight simulator. This way when the pilot gets into an actual plane they already have a foundation of knowledge of how to fly a real plane. Our life on earth is like simulation for Heaven. As we better understand the material world we come to understand more about the mysteries of the spiritual world which can help us improve our relationship with God.


So, understanding computer science and cyber security can give us a better understanding of the physical world and understanding more about the physical world then provides us with a framework for which we can understand the Catholic faith.


Thus, Hacking Catholicism.


It would take many, many, articles to explain this concept in depth. In fact, this started off as a short article that is now growing so lengthy that I have decided to break it up into parts and continue adding to as I flesh out certain concepts. You will see that each of the below articles will become a link once they are completed. You can subscribe to ThirstingforTruth.com if you would like to be notified once a new article is released. On the top right hand side of the site you should see a place to enter your e-mail for subscriptions. You will be notified by e-mail once new articles are released.


For those who would like to dig deeper into this concept see the following articles:

Hacking Catholicism Part 1: Introduction [You Are Here]
Hacking Catholicism Part 2: God Is A Programmer And A Lover
Hacking Catholicism Part 3: The Catholic Church As A Code Library
Hacking Catholicism Part 4: Demon Crackers And Their Exploits
Hacking Catholicism Part 5: Saints and Priests – Certified Ethical Hackers
Hacking Catholicism Part 6: Gaining Root Access To The Faith
Hacking Catholicism Part 7: Where To Go From Root

(If the article is not a link yet it is not yet completed. Check back for updates)



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