Is technology a surrogate for God?
Two comments last week essentially said "technology's not the problem, it's our hearts." We had a great discussion almost a year ago about whether it's really "all about the heart" -- if you haven't seen that thread, check it out.
Rather than rehash that debate, I want to push on this idea that "technology is neutral, it's our hearts that screw it up." I both agree and disagree with that statement. I agree that it is neutral if we are talking about lifeless circuits and chemicals. But adding human intention to the invention and utilization of technology gives life to otherwise lifeless technology. Technology is created by humans to fulfill a human desire. So the very existence of a specific form of technology is much more than a lifeless gadget, pill, or instrument. It represents a specific intent, an end it is intended to satisfy.
I think most technology could be at least loosely associated with one of a handful of ends: saving money, saving time, minimizing pain/inconvenience, or prolonging life. So my question: are these Godly pursuits?
There are certainly a number of scriptures that suggest a lack of money, the necessity of patience, suffering, and death are powerful agents in pointing us toward Christ. So why do we continue to invent and use new technology that dilutes these potentially significant spiritual experiences?
I think Broun's comment a couple weeks ago began to answer this question:Traditionally the goal of medicine from a Christian perspective has been redemptive. Disease isn’t simply a biological problem; it is a moral one, the result of sin. So for the same reason we preach the gospel, we also fight the Asian Bird Flu epidemic, recognizing in it yet another facet of the curse sin has brought on the world...However you say it, under the old paradigm the goal of medicine was to fix what is broken.
[There is now] demand for a new paradigm. We want [medicine] to do more
than merely repair what’s broken. We want it to make us better.
Is the iPhone fixing what is broken or is it something we hope will make our lives magically better? Did the printing press? Or the car? Will cloning cattle? Or chemotherapy?
posted by Matthew at 11:01 PM
8 Comments:
I will unhesitatingly agree the iphone, and millions of other gadgets do not make my life better. They make it faster, and more cluttered. But is the iphone really technology.
I wonder if the problem is not what's invented/discovered, but who is discovering them. Os Guiness talks about how a believer discovered the printing press in an attempt to spread the Bible. The steam engine was discovered by a believer with the intent to move preachers across the country to deliver the gospel. Why didn't a believer discover the internet? Why did believers stop inventing?
I completely agree the desire behind most of our 'inventions' are purely selfish, but maybe that's a commentary on who is inventing them.
As Wendell Berry says: Where to draw the line is a difficult decision. Begin where it's easy to draw and work from there. But...is technology limited to our generation? Why is it okay to plow a field with a horse and a plow instead of by hand?
Technology is, as the writer of Ecclesiastes puts is, just another thing under the sun. It is something that 'can' get us more of Christ if He allows, but mainly makes our hobbies (and vanities) simpler and faster. With our hobbies now simpler and faster, it should leave more time for God, however, it really just allows us to have more and more hobbies, and thereby more and more vanity.
Even my favorite technological advancement, Bible Study software, is merely another thing "under the sun." It certainly aids in helping us find what we were looking for, but hinders the things that we weren't looking for. If I was honest with myself, I've learned more from what I've stumbled across than for what I've sought.
So, to re-iterate, God is the only thing to bring us true satisfaction, and technology can be used by God to grow us, but I believe technology is mostly unnecessary. It's just another little trophy of evolution that allows us certain benefits, but those benefits aren't anything that necessarily deepens our relationship with what is lasting.
Jalmanzar -- I think you are asking some very important questions, specifically about believers no longer inventing. In the 1500-1600s, astronomer Johann Kepler sought in his research to "think the thoughts of God after Him." Today, most invention is driven by what corporations deem to be marketable. The evidence of this is everywhere -- the R&D process for pharmaceuticals, scientists and neurologists working for Philip Morris to develop a "safer" cigarette, pop music, etc. In my mind, the primary difference between Handel's Messiah and Ashley Simpson is the motivation and inspiration for invention.
For this reason, I take issue with your comment: "I wonder if the problem is not what's invented/discovered, but who is discovering them." The question is not whether Christians are inventing but why Christians are inventing. The only difference between us and Kepler is the societal pressure to do everything for a paycheck. So how do we, as Christians, instigate change? How do we invent and use technology as an act of worship, not as an act of economic "progress?"
Hudson's Dad -- Last week, you said, "Generally, the desired effects of new technology are to free up time and/or improve the health and living standard of our people. That's not a bad thing, but we'll definitely pervert it for evil gain."
This week, you said, "I believe technology is mostly unnecessary. It's just another little trophy of evolution that allows us certain benefits, but those benefits aren't anything that necessarily deepens our relationship with what is lasting."
Two questions:
1) Do you believe those views to be contradictory? If technology doesn't deepen our relationship with the lasting -- and, in fact, often distracts from it -- how can it be neutral?
2) Given these statements, how do you approach technology differently? Do you use it less? Are you more selective about the types of technology you use?
Matt,
(1) I don't believe those two are contradictory. Although, after thinking about this topic for the past two weeks, my mind has shifted and you probably read into that in the latest post. When I said that "That's not a bad thing, but we'll definitely pervert it for evil gain, I'm putting our reasons for developing technology into the 'good' category while still maintaining the neutrality of technology itself (i.e. motives=good, tech=neutral). However, like in the latest post, I do believe technology is not anything necessary to our growth as believers. I believe it can aid us if God chooses for it to, but so can so many other things like dreams, conversations with peers, meditating on a sunrise, etc.
(2) If you're trying to out me as a hypocrite, then well done (just kidding!). Actually, if what we consider tech products were to disappear suddenly, I'd probably spend a month freaking out. It'd be like culture shock, but with the lack of technology. But I think we'd all find our lives simpler and more refreshing. My only vice in the realm of technology that I'm a slave too is e-mail. Everything else I could care less about. I've never been one to have the latest gadget or whatever. But I still feel that I could be much freer without readily available internet.
The hard part is that technology is becoming unavoidable and almost required for daily life in the US and Europe. And even beyond that, technology is about the worst return on investment you can get. We waste so much money on this crap forgetting that a much cheaper product could serve the same purposes.
But I really feel comfortable with the previous post. It really is just vanity, but vanity that God can use for good in the midst of our perversions of it.
That clarify anything? My brain runs too fast and I try to get out as much as possible, but my hands can't keep up. Thus, a possible incomprehensible response.
As a further thought on 'how to approach technology as a believer'...
I thought a lot about this question this morning and had some uncomfortable thoughts, though I believe them to be true.
As believers, we need to make sure that we're not tied down to technology in our life to the point where we can't pick up and go without having to adjust our tech products to accommodate our leaving. I think the picture we're sending in that situation is that part of our life (and therefore, the drive to keep living a certain way) relies on technology as opposed to relying solely on God.
But here's a tough thing...let's say you have an iPhone and you were walking through the mall. Some lady stops you and asks to see it, and says 'this is so neat, i wish i had even a regular phone'. How many of us would value that iPhone over the soul of the lady? How many of us would be uncomfortable with her handling it? Finally, how many of us would offer the iPhone to her (of course, she'd have to get a new setup)? I believe Jesus would in a heartbeat, but I'm guessing 99.9% of us would protect our iPhone because our hearts are selfishly and oddly attached to it.
And this is just an example of one tech product, but I believe we can be tied to so products. I have a Wii, but I'd never think about giving it away to the girl next door who's wanted one. Why? Because I value my hope in that stupid system more than that girl's heart.
Obviously, this is a heavy idea, and a major change in our life, but can anyone tell me that it's incorrect? It's disturbing how selfish we can become. We say 'I love and deserve my iPhone because I've worked hard for it...not giving it away' and never think about whether it was right to get one in the first place (not touching that topic yet).
I'd encourage us to think about this. Search our hearts and find where we line up.
Any thoughts?
Matthew. So you would change the who to why in the statement of not what but who...works for me. I think you answered your first question with your second question. As for the how do we invent and use technology as an act of worship rather than economic "progress"? I can only answer for me. I don't think there is a secret formula to all this. There isn't a sentence or thought that will answer correctly what is the appropriate response to___________. This is where walking with Christ is so important. Is all technology good? No. Is all technology bad? No. I can only answer for myself what technology enhances my worship (read: response to God) and what detracts. I then have to remove the things that detract. Can something detract at one moment and enable in another...for sure.
I think there is a great disparity between invention/technology, and capitalism/industry. Maybe that is where the difference comes in with the who/why.
I came across something which in retrospect very much informs this discussion which actually comes from C.S. Lewis' Abolition of Man who prophetically predates this conversation by a good 50 years. In talking about the loss of objective external reality and our becoming a law to ourselves he makes this interesting aside...
"There is something which unites magic and applied science (technology) while separating both form the wisdom of earlier ages. For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to objective reality. The solution had been knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue. But for magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men and the solution is a technique.”
Science and Religion seem to beat in question form to what is external and fixed yet unknown (Universe and God) while Magic and Technology conform to the will which is forever changing. Lewis also notes that the height of applied science (technology) came during the Renaissance (uplifting of man) not during the Middle Ages.
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