June 20, 2026
… always learning but never able to come to a knowledge
of the truth (1 Timothy 3:7).
Interesting books one comes across these days. Just
yesterday, in conversation with a good friend beside his hospital bed, he
points to his latest acquisition, a book written by “someone he knows.” He says
he could not help but think of me as he was reading. Humanity’s
Departure from the Creator and the Return to Truth is the ponderous
title which takes up full space on front cover.[i] Now I’m reading, not only because of
the title but also my dated memories of this my long-time friend. We met
as long-distance truckers once upon a time, each of us intrigued by the
circumstances that had brought us in among the trucker buddies; he was a
registered nurse and me an ordained preacher. During those years we talked
very little about faith and religion; mostly participants in tall tales and
lies, the regular fare of drivers’ lounges and truck stops. It was he, however,
who provided the CB Handle which became my calling card for those twenty years,
“Preacher Man.” This my friend is now hospitalized, fighting for his life, and
wanting to talk mostly about religion, Christian commitment, baptism, etc. –
and yes, still the occasional tall tale!
The title of this book is indeed strange, kind of an old-new
multi-disciplinary assertion. Being in this latest chapter of our longtime
friendship, it is a must read. My thinker and I already hard at it, wondering
whether this will be a fundamentalist document or maybe another treatise from the other end of spectrum (the liberal left, as they
say in the USA). Published 2026, anything is possible!
Humanity very ancient, is the opening assumption like most
other tomes I have come across in the last while, [ii] definitely older than
the 4000 years still alleged by a portion of my relatives and other friends!
Humans came along about a billion years after the big bang 4.54 billion
years ago.[iii] I need only look West from my home
in Calgary, or listen to a few indigenous elders, and I know millions and
billions are tenable. Something about those snowcapped mountains and our
neighbors at Stoney Nakoda or Tsuu T‘ina suggests a long long time before us
colonialists entered these foothills. So, I have no argument with the opening
assertion, even while wondering about the further espoused theology.
The authority of this book seems to reside in AI (ChatGPT). Opening Acknowledgements and Preface present a conceptual pyramid which
places a certain Mr. James Stephens as a rarity at the top, one in 10,000
persons who operate with a level of clarity beyond distortions.[iv] That is an interesting way to prove
credibility. Rereading that introduction several times, it becomes almost obvious. AI must be the actual author! Gulp! Maybe that explains why no story line, only pronouncements
and motherhood and apple pie questions like, “Who Are We? Where did we come
from? Our purpose, and what after we leave this world?” These questions have
shaped entire civilizations, obviously inspired art, religion(s) from cave
paintings to great pyramids and temples, and always an originator,
one who gives order, namely a Creator. These info bits are what
bring on my opinion that this is AI logic. I do not know why the focus on James Stephens.
Alongside my sort-of agreement with the large topic at hand, there is skepticism, and of course this in context of my friend Tom's thinking of me as he had been reading! Does this AI author know what s/he is writing about? Creator is a term which may well serve an intellectual thinker, an agnostic or even a reluctant atheist. Then the author sleuths in to what seems to be uncharted territory. Now we read about truth.
Truth is of a
very different ilk, kind of old hat to many but sort of strange here. Recently I
heard it used jokingly by Steve Bell, a Christian singer songwriter talking about
challenges he encounters especially in different variations of Christian
audiences looking for Truth. There is a deep search which includes both
old time religion and a whole lot of present challenges. Tom and I are agreed we both have found it so in the last while. He lost his wife half a year ago, and
my daughter’s funeral was at beginning of this month.[v]
So good, so ideal, but what is to grab hold of? My scrappy notebook with this old man’s handwriting says it this way, “Good book, but kind of scary, boring actually. Only statements. No plot. No story. Where is the personal?” Given all the complexity and the vastness of Creator’s creation, it is my conviction (and experience) that, even with awesome logic and clarity, there is need for ... more.
That also has been availed to us! This Creator's
Son, became flesh and made his dwelling among us (John
1:14). How can one speak Creator and Truth with inter-galactic, historical, scientific and
geographic AI confirmed accuracy without attention to the personal? John 14:6 offers that essential perspective
for all thinkers (actually all of us), Jesus answered,
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except
through me.” And it even comes with a personal invitation, “Come
to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take
my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and
you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:28-29).
These gospel passages are the Truth alluded in the
epigraph above. I would love to have Mr. Stephens wade in on this.
_______________________
[i] James Stephens, Humanity’s Departure from the Creator and the
Return to Truth: Restoring the Truth That Was Lost (Los Angeles, CA:
James Stephens, 2026).
[ii] E.g. Richard Penner, Life as I Know it: A Biologist's View of the World (Altona, MB: Friesen Press, 2023).
[iii] As per Google, James Stephens fact checked by AI.
[iv] Op.cit, p.9.
[v] “After a While”, https://www.jcfroomthoughts.blogspot.com, June 13, 2026.
[vi] Op.cit, p.79.
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