How should Christians respond to the technological revolution occurring around us? How should a Christian view this?
Technology is the study of the use of tools. Man has always used tools, as Genesis 4 describes. Neil Postman, in his book Technopoly describes three stages a society may go though:
- A tool-using society. Here the society is still governed by religion, art, politics or culture, but it uses tools to meet the ends. The development of the wheel, mills, weaving, tools to manufacture.
- Technocracy. Here the tools become central to the society, and the culture is now driven by an impulse to invent. Other concerns become subordinated to the idea of progress for its own sake. If something can be invented, it should be invented.
- Technopoly. A “Technopoly” is a society that believes that “the primary, if not the only, goal of human labor and thought is efficiency”. The devices shape what human life is to be and so. If something can be invented, it must be invented. All life is submitted to the tools and the spread of information. Information is valued for its own sake, and is not filtered, weighed and judged.
Christians can only view technology rightly when they recognise the great end of life is not efficiency or entertainment, but love for God and neighbour. If a tool enables us to each these ends, then it can be a great good. If the technology only draws us deeper into mindless dependence on it, it becomes a great evil. In short, do we own our technologies, or do they own us? Do we use technology or does it use us? We must be aware of six dangers.
Six Dangers of Technology
- It enables idolatry. Idols that technology enables:
a) The idol of sexual lust.
Unfortunately, the Internet all too easily services men’s (and occasionally women’s) temptation to look at pornography, offering them the opportunity to do so in anonymity and with a relatively small chance of being caught.
b) The idol of neophilia—the love of the new. Technology fuels some men’s relentless urge to own the newest gadget, whether they really need it or not.
c) The idols of entertainment and procrastination. [By 2009] the average adult was found to be spending nearly nine hours per day in front of some type of screen (or, more accurately, a near-endless succession of screens). About a quarter of his time was spent in the presence of at least two screens, and sometimes three or more. After all, why waste time watching television when you can waste time watching television, surfing the web, and sending text messages—all at once! (Challies, 53).
d) The idol of ungodly curiosity and gossip. Challies observation: Most of our digital technologies are created to enhance our ability to communicate (41). Much of this communication, however, is little more than gossip or is motivated by an idolatrous lust for more and more information about people, however trivial that information might be. Gossip:
Social media appears to sanitise the sin of gossip by digitalising it, but gossip is still gossip even if it is done on Facebook. Proverbs 18:8 – “The words of a whisperer are like dainty morsels, and they go down into the innermost parts of the body”. More information: Os Guinness: The outcome of instant, total information is inflation—when more and more of anything is available, less and less is valuable (Prophetic Untimeliness, 17). Illustration: With a few notable exceptions, most Christian blogs are not worth the time taken to write them nor the time taken to read them. Shallow, trivial, unmeditated, unresearched, and unedited thoughts are of little help to Christians—especially when they could be reading significant books instead.
e) The idol of productivity.
Technology helps us do more things, more quickly. However, those who idolise the sense of accomplishment and productivity this brings often find that the electronic tools that are supposed to save time and effort actually tempt them to work longer hours. Perhaps they are bowing to the god of Productivity.
f) The idol of significance. I must be somebody because I have 1,000 Facebook friends and receive 800 emails a day. An event hasn’t happened unless I’ve tweeted, posted, or uploaded the video. Point: Posting the trivial might simply be feeding your vanity and sense of self-importance.
Summary: Technology doesn’t have to feed the idols of our hearts, but it often does. We like the sins it allows us to do: lust, neophilia, endless entertainment, ungodly curiosity, and the idolatrous pursuit of productivity and feelings of significance.
– David De Bruyn, Professor of Church History, Shepherds’ Seminary Africa