

How developing changed my life - dewbot
http://dewbot.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-developing-changed-my-life.html

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zdw
_after learning C Programming and Algorithms (which I had in Semester II) I
realized 'Why should I believe in God?'_

That's one heck of a jump there...

~~~
m0nastic
Maybe he figured that no universe presided over by an omnipotent being would
have made it so that Malloc was necessary.

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zdw
I see you didn't go for the:

    
    
       JMP
    

joke there...

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m0nastic
I debated making a joke at all, but figured "What the hell, it's Saturday
night".

I also figured Malloc was sufficiently "diety-sounding"

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Mz
_I also figured Malloc was sufficiently "diety-sounding"_

I couldn't figure out what calorie-counting had to do with this. Then I
realized you probably meant deity....

:-/ My brain is like that.

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jacquesm
Hey Dewbot,

Without trying to hurt your feelings, it comes across as though beginner level
'C' code will turn a deist in to an atheist and I find that hard to believe.

Of course it would be convenient if this were the reason but I know plenty of
programmers that are deeply religious and that know how to use their C
compilers with considerable skill, possibly even more skill than you.

Programming and religion are as far as I can see not related in any way, even
though the polls suggest that programmers tend to be 'more atheist' than the
population at large the existence of so many counterexamples is strong proof
that there is no direct link between the two.

Your passage reads "and after learning C Programming and Algorithms (which I
had in Semester II) I realized 'Why should I believe in God?' 'Why people need
this God?' and that time I got strong reason not to believe in God.", and even
though in my view you may have gone for the right answer (die hard atheist
here) you seem to have reached that answer through a chain of reasoning that
is very tenuous at best.

Typically people that change their belief system do not do that because of a
particular programming language, consider the possibility that the
inconsistencies present in many religions may be more visible to you after
spending a year or two on 'hard' problems, it still makes me wonder how
strongly held your beliefs were before you entered programming and I can't
help but think that you would have parted with your religion regardless of
learning how to program (or not).

If you feel like expanding on exactly how programming caused you to fall out
of your former belief then I would be most grateful.

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laurasbadideas
I don't think he's saying that learning to program in C caused him to become
an atheist. I think that he's saying that learning to program led to an
outlook on life that caused him to question his previous beliefs (and then,
eventually, to become an atheist).

The difference between programming (and math) and just about everything else
that he's probably experienced at this point in his academic career is that
when he writes a program, he can test it himself; he doesn't have to ask a
professor to verify that it works or look up the answer in a book. That's
different from humanities subjects and even most science classes, and it
probably led him to realize that he can figure things out for himself and to
start questioning things that he'd previously taken for granted.

~~~
dewbot
It shows how a single thought can be manipulated in different way (function
overloading :p). The reason to write this blog was not at all religious or to
make ppl agnostic. What 'laurasbadideas' said is right! God n all the thng was
jus an example to tell y'all that I started to think on such issues just
because Programming taught me 'How to solve the problems' or 'always ask
question like WHY' there are more issues whose answers i got too wich goes to
my personal life, God was jus an example m not here to tell Fuck it, God sucks
n all that its ur own opinion. It was jus an example to tell how programming
influences my decisions

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dewbot
Looks like there is alot of confusion, I wrote this blog not to equate b/w
Religious Affairs and Programming. (I knw its delicate issue) My main point
over here is 'how programming influences my personal and social decisions'. I
take this as my failure of writing skills cuz almost everyone treated this
article in wrong way :P again m sayin its nothing abt religious but its about
'Finding answers' and that attitude programming gave me

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hacker-gene
A bit unusual to equate C and religious belief there, but as one poster
suggested, you were probably at the point where you've internalized what these
religious means to you and learning C (or any subject that deals with
logic/mathematics) was simply a tipping point for you.

