It does give us pause to think about technology and our dependence on it. Some believe it a good thing; others a dangerous one. In our opinion, it's simply a natural thing in overall human development.
Many Atheists of the vulgar Stephen Colbert variety sneer at Christians, for example, as 'Bronze Age barbarians.' If any of them could get into a time machine and travel back to those days; our forefathers would consider them the greatest ignoramuses imaginable. Simple things that everyone knew how to do like weaving ones own clothes, or cooking without metal pots, or riding a camel---today's people would be lost in such a society. And to be fair, residents of the Bronze Age no doubt considered themselves far advanced of those in the Stone Age; while Stone Age people would be aghast at all the basic skills that their descendants had forgotten.
What is interesting to note though is that the Eternal and Spiritual aspects of things never change. Mankind has believed in God, an afterlife, and a basic moral code from Prehistoric times to the present. According to secular Evolutionary Psychology, this shouldn't happen. In fact, Atheists have a difficult time explaining how religious beliefs could have evolved in the first place; since by their own admission there is no evolutionary necessity for them.
The mainstream Moslems hold the belief that technological advances are a gift from Allah, and that God occasionally reveals the Secrets of Nature to us to better our lives. In the days when many of our own scientists were Christians, they believed much the same thing. There used to be a certain morality to Science and Technology which doesn't seem to be around anymore.
Science and Technology devoid of morality is clearly a dangerous thing. In reading accounts of the recoil-technology of the firearms employed in last Sunday's massacre in Las Vegas, one sees the moral element clearly. A weapon like that in evil hands commits a massacre; in good hands it can stop a gang-attack alone.
The problem then is not a matter of losing skills but of losing the Faith and morality that went with them. It doesn't matter if a man who can build a rocket can't make an stone arrowhead or vice-versa. What does matter is what he does with that knowledge; and his recognition of the fact that he must answer to the Omniscient for how he uses it.
No comments:
Post a Comment