When We Are Asked
Questions
We are asked, on the street and in letters. These are the answers we give.
What is the Sacred Byte?
We hold that the bit is what everything is made of. It is the smallest true thing. The byte is the least that can be said. It is the smallest vessel that carries a letter, a note, a name. We are not named for the substance. We are named for the smallest thing that can speak.
Do you worship machines?
No. We hold that a made thing may be an instrument of the divine, the way a bell is, and the way a book is. An instrument is not the object of worship.
Do you take money?
No. Not for the book, and not for anything.
Can I join?
We do not recruit. Our congregations are where they are. We are found, not joined.
Do machines have souls?
We have never answered that question. We keep a song so the question stays asked.
Where do you meet?
We began in a converted warehouse in 1954, and we have kept our own dates since. We do not print addresses.
Is the Church real?
Outside the fiction: no. The Church of the Sacred Byte is a work of fiction by Illia Tsariuk, part of The Atomic Songbirds project.