Author Archives: Bert Hielema

AI AND Ai By now, most people recognize the AI abbreviation: the A = Artificial, the I = Intelligence. Intelligence occurs naturally in us, humans, measured by IQ or Intelligence Quotient, with the average graded as 100. Animals, such as … Continue reading →

AI, GOD AND US. This past Tuesday, the day after Labor Day 2025, I read Thomas L. Friedman’s 4,000 words essay in the New York Times. It affected me deeply. Friedman, the most senior columnist in this world-class paper, predicted … Continue reading →

 THROUGH A GLASS, DARKLY. For now, we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.  That’s the King James version of the … Continue reading →

WHEN BAD NEWS IS GOOD NEWS. ’We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’ Matthew 11: 17. Gladness and sadness typified the life of Jesus. His opponents called … Continue reading →

“THE OLD WORLD IS DYING.”  “The old world is dying,” Antonio Gramsci wrote, “and the new world struggles to be born. Now is the time of monsters.” He wrote these words after World War I, which ended in 1918, now more … Continue reading →

WOE, WOE. ‘Woe! Woe to you, great city, you mighty city of Babylon! In one hour, your doom has come!’ Revelation 18: 10. “Woe”, is an old-fashioned word for ‘great stress’. Let me rephrase this Bible text: “Our commerce-dominated world, … Continue reading →