When Steve Jobs Left His Faith

Pretty hard to paint Jobs as a theist in any typical sense. As a [western] Buddhist, belief in a god was certainly not an emphasized by that practice. As far as I know (and I haven’t read the book), none of us really know to what extent he was a religious man, beyond the fact that he and his wife were married by a Buddhist monk.

“I want to believe that something endures, that your wisdom that you
accumulate, that the knowledge that you have somehow is able to endure
after you die.” Heck, I do too! And that’s why I’m working on this robot… seriously, it’s perfectly natural for a human to want to believe this, even if they *don’t* actually believe it. I want to believe that, in spite of everything, humankind is, as a whole, good at heart. But while I WANT to believe that, I’m not sure I do…

What makes him “despicable”?

His business practices. His stealing ideas, but not being able to handle people doing it to him. His use of cheap chinese labor. His shutting down of Apple’s philanthropy programs the instant he starts back as Apple’s CEO. I’m sure there is more.

He must have been religious.  Editorial cartoonists portrayed him in heaven with atheists and free thinkers.

Here he is with Franklin and Edison: http://designcrave.com/2011-10-12/top-ten-steve-jobs-cartoon-tributes-from-around-the-world/dc101111-08/ 

Here is a collection: http://blog.cagle.com/2011/10/christian-heaven-for-buddhist-steve-jobs/

Now that you mention it, this does kind of explain Siri.

It can be a very disappointing to think that our own personal knowledge, gathered at such laborious effort, will simply disintegrate on our death.  I understand that, but that’s the reality.  That’s why it is important to do something with your knowledge so that it will live on after your death.  Build a fantastic company that makes fantastic devices.  Or even more directly, teach other people what you know. 

I think it’s one of the most beautiful things about humanity that we have a finite life-span.  It requires that we constantly teach another generation what we know, just as they will have to do the same, generation after generation.  We are a species that must teach in order to preserve knowledge.

The text of the image:

Even though they were not fervent about their faith, Jobs’s parents wanted him to have a religious upbringing, so they took him to the Lutheran church most Sundays.  That came to an end when he was thirteen.  In July 1968 “Life” magazine published a shocking cover showing a pair of starving children in Biafra.  Jobs took it to Sunday school and confronted the church’s pastor.  “If I raise my finger, will God know which one I’m going to raise even before I do it?

The pastor answered, “Yes, God knows everything.”

Jobs then pulled out the “Life” cover and asked, “Well, does God know about this and what’s going to happen to those children?”

“Steve, I know you don’t understand, but yes, God knows about that.”

Jobs announced that he didn’t want to have anything to do with worshipping such a God, and he never went back to church.

In what world are design and marketing skill considered the traits that make one righteous?

Declaring one doesn’t want anything to do with worshipping a God that allows starving children is much different than disbelief.   Recently I have had conversation with a couple people who indicate they are “atheist” when in actuality they very much believe there is a God, they are just angry at Him and “feel” they can punish Him by declaring disbelief.

Interesting. That makes a lot of sense. And I can understand wanting to believe. It does make death easier to comprehend. 

Sigh.  Yes, Steve, our wisdom and knowledge does endure after we die.  It remains right here on Earth, in the memories of those who knew us, in the records of what we’ve accomplished, and in the ways that we’ve changed the world and what we’ve passed on to others.  The greater an impact a person had, then the longer their impact will endure.  Even if there were some kind of an afterlife, there isn’t any reason to believe that ghosts or spirits need to retain their knowledge of how to ride a bike or program a computer.

In a world where these things have value and use? Where his design and marketing skills helped to create products which actually improve people’s lives?

“Angry Birds” improves your life? No, Steve Jobs mass-marketed tools that can be better used to help people’s lives.

Hell, Microsoft’s “Kinect” has more potential application than any Apple touch-screen.

Steve Jobs was all flash, and not the Adobe kind.

Jobs was a Buddhist and chose to waste time treating his cancer via a vegan diet, acupuncture, high colonic “cleansing”, and consultation with a psychic. Don’t paint this man as some kind of rational hero. Jobs may not have been a theist but he certainly had a taste for New Age bullshit.

Why does the man have to be made out to be a role model? He was usually a jerk. He was superbly talented at editing ideas that others created for him. He wasn’t an inventor as such, he was a master marketer and perfectionist with pretty good taste. Apple’s products don’t embody great product design, they embody great marketing design. There are hundreds if not thousands of aftermarket products that make iPhones and iPads more rugged and easier to use because Apple’s main consideration is making them pretty and desirable. Jobs insistence on a “walled garden” makes the Apple world relatively safe, but functionally castrated.

Oh, whatever.

it is beyond one reason that to see injustices in the world one should shunt his faith rather it enhances ones faith that varieties as well as disparities are en reaching the some super natural power 

Always atheist Rich Wilson says it takes believing in something for which there is no evidence to be a theist.  How stressful it must be to have to convince yourself that something exists when there’s no evidence for it.  But it’s never too late for those of you who are reading this post to look at it rationally.  Once you view religion as the work of man, it all makes sense.

The reality is that none of us has a clue. If you think you do, that’s your need to know the answers.