Is this so much different than with people and the [belief] systems they operate in? I think not.

Carol, do you believe once we are indoctrinated into a given faith (TCP), our notion of Divinity and reality (the illusory endpoints we erroneously view as being separate from ourselves) begins to break down and experience “packet loss”? Is it then our challenge to restore blissful, smooth-flowing connection to Source, whereby we may receive and send with clarity in the Divine?

Fault tolerance or “graceful degradation” is the property that enables a system (think computer systems) to continue operating properly in the event of the failure of (or one or more faults within) some of its components. If its operating quality decreases at all, the decrease is proportional to the severity of the failure, as compared to a naïvely-designed system in which even a small failure can cause total breakdown. Fault-tolerance is particularly sought-after in high-availability or life-critical systems.

Fault-tolerance is not just a property of individual machines; it may also characterize the rules by which they interact. For example, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is designed to allow reliable two-way communication in a packet-switched network, even in the presence of communications links which are imperfect or overloaded. It does this by requiring the endpoints of the communication to expect packet loss, duplication, reordering and corruption, so that these conditions do not damage data integrity, and only reduce throughput by a proportional amount.

Is this so much different than with people and the systems they operate in? I think not.

Love the point about being closer to Divinity without the conflict of having the church as a mediator. It’s how I’ve come to feel as well. And that’s not to say that I don’t have a love or appreciation of the church. I simply recognize its man made limitations and biases. My heart and mind can’t buy into any suggestion my soul is eternally saved with intolerance and exclusion.

Amen to your insight into Christ’s tolerance. When my paternal grandmother died, I attended her funeral in Detroit. The young Catholic priest who presided over Mass easily identified my cousins, sisters and myself as being irregular church-goer’s when we made the mistake of sitting in the first pew (which short-circuited our ability to take stand-sit-kneel cues from those around us.)

When it came time to receive Communion, the priest first stated that non-Catholics and those who had committed any sin since their last Confession refrain from joining in the Eucharist. Then he added, “And by the way, not going to Mass every Sunday is considered a mortal sin.” My sisters looked at me, to which I replied, “I’m going up.” My brassy cousins agreed, and up we went.

When I returned to the pew (after receiving a mild look of disdain from the priest,) I discovered one of my cousins sitting behind us had been reduced to tears. When we asked her what was wrong, she stated her family had converted to Protestant years ago. We tried to convince her to go, but she wouldn’t move past the priest’s words.

After the service, I stopped the priest on his way to the rectory. I reminded him that even Judas was allowed to sit with Christ at the Last Supper. I reminded him that Christ broke bread with sinners more than he dined with the spiritual or financial “elites.” I told him that my grandmother would have never turned the people in that church away from her table. How could he or the church feel this exclusive policy was in line with Christ’s teachings? He stammered at this last and essentially, his response was, “I don’t make the rules, I just do what I’m told.” I said, “You’re a leader of a congregation! You’re in a position of authority and influence!” He repeated that he didn’t make up the rules and that he was just doing what he was told. At this point, I realized our conversation was over.

Suffice it to say, this was one of the experiences that eventually led to my disenchantment with religion as an institution. Through this disenchantment, however, I have come to strengthen my relationship with God through the more direct and personal approach. This approach has made it easier to experience Divinity and its daily evidence without the conflict that was often present when I held the church as mediator and spiritual landlord.

34 But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.

40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

(Source: The King James Bible, Book of Matthew, Chapter 22, retrieved from http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_%28King_James%29/Matthew#22:39 on March 25, 2010.)