Magic Turing Machine and Christianity

Overview - The Cards - How It Works - Difficulties - Older Versions -Future Directions - About

I'm Alex Churchill, creator of the Magic Turing machine, and I'm also a Christian.

What does being a Christian have to do with the Magic Turing machine?

From one point of view, not very much. You certainly don't need to be a Christian to appreciate Magic or crazy combos.

But in another sense, God does underpin the Magic Turing machine. I believe that God created the universe, including all the wonders and beauty of mathematics. I've loved the order and pattern in maths since I was a young boy; I was delighted as a teenager to realise that God deliberately created all that order.

But isn't Magic: the Gathering a human creation?

Absolutely! One of the most awesome things about humanity is that we're made in the image of God. As I just mentioned, God is incredibly creative. Being made in the image of God means that we humans bear God's family likeness; and one aspect of this is creativity.

So while it's appropriate to praise God when we see a beautiful sunset, or the majestic intricacy of a tree or the Mandelbrot set or galactic supercluster filaments; it's also utterly appropriate to praise God when we experience something great that humans have created. Because after all, humanity is creative only because God made us that way.

So when we enjoy a great strategy game, or a good TV show, or a great work of fiction: the human creators of those things were demonstrating the image of God when they exercised their God-given creativity, and perseverance, and ingenuity, in assembing them.

In the same way, I was able to create the Magic Turing machine only because God gave me those gifts, of creativity and all the rest of them. (Not to mention gifts like a house, a job, an Internet connection, and a supportive community of friends. I never want to take any of these things for granted.)

So in the end, all the glory goes to God. Which is absolutely as it should be. To use the phrase used by many master creators for centuries, Soli Deo gloria.