Thoughts on Technology

I’m home from church researching chicken pox. Go to Owen’s blog if you would like to know why.

I’ve been through more medical education in the past 9 months than ever before. Owen is healthy, but has gone through a lot in that time. I am glad nothing has been too severe and so glad we have found a doctor we like and glad too for the time in which I live. Technology has it’s pros and cons but I am one who believes the pros outweigh the cons. I can sit down in my bedroom with a computer and find out more about one disease than I could were I to get up and go visit the library. There is so much information and if you are careful to check that information against known reputable sources it is a wonderful blessing.

Yesterday a thought came to me regarding technology and all the advancements we have come to in this world to make our lives easier, healthier, longer, more efficient, etc. I have often argued against many of these things and truly there are many “advances” that are setbacks to society in the long run and as a whole. The foods we eat are over processed the medicines we take are overprescribed and tend to kill everything in their path, good and bad alike. We are frail in many ways because of our lack of discipline and dependence on what is easily available and seemingly easy on our pockets. It is a net that few escape and those who try are pulled in many directions on their way out. However, I can see a spiritual side to technology, information, efficiency, mass production, lazy boys and pain free childbirth that you may or may not agree with, but it really doesn’t matter because it’s just a thought I’m tossing out there for your enjoyment.

I believe that we are creatures born in sin due to the fall of man long ago, that we are spiritual, soulful beings whose flesh is only somewhat fulfilled by earthly things and whose spirit’s are only fulfilled by gaining new life in Christ and who long for something in the deepest realms of our souls that cannot be explained or achieved as long as we live in a world under a curse. I call it homesickness, and I think it is felt in men and women all over the world. We are not meant to live with disease, discomfort, pain, toil, sweat, fear, shame or want. We are designed by a creator to walk in peace, in relationship with Him, with all that He created as our comfort within arms reach. This was the paradise He first placed mankind and has become what each one of us strives to gain back in some form or fashion. We have built bridges, spun webs and danced around fires to try to come to a place that is not available in this time. I would say much of the technology we see today is like the tower of Babel in the Old Testament…our tower of pride as we strive to make gods of ourselves. So is it evil? Not necessarily, only if it is conceived in pride. I believe that God has unlocked doors of opportunity for many men and women who have sought Him in their quest for a better world. As if He gave them the insight to hack into the corrupt system and make it work for the good of themselves and many others a way to return to some of the benefits of our paradise lost. Even the technology conceived in pride can be beneficial to us…remember…all things work for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose. If we take the “tower of Babel” and make it a haven for abused women, a clinic for those who are sick, a place of worship, a place of learning we can take what was meant for evil and use it for good. Maybe it’s not so terrible to create hybrids and redirect rivers, as long as we are mindful of who gets the honor…and maybe it’s not always a sign of our dissatisfaction with God that causes us to reach for more convenience on earth, maybe it is simply our dissatisfaction with a cursed world. What greater sign of our need for God is there than our constant desire for a better life? God told us to inhabit the earth…that means fill it up, use it. He wants us to LIVE. Our souls are fulfilled and content with His presence, but our beings are still flesh on the outside and we will always itch for something more comfortable as long as we are inhabiting this place.

On that note, I’m thinking of making a grocery list on my computer and e-mailing it to my husband’s blackberry so he can stop at the store to buy things that will make my son’s skin feel better. That’s what I call advancement.