A Christian Field Guide to Technology for Engineers and Designers by Ethan J. Brue & Derek C. Schuurman & Steven H. VanderLeest

Author:Ethan J. Brue & Derek C. Schuurman & Steven H. VanderLeest
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Faith and work;technology;faith and tech;Christian engineer;ethics;ethics of technology;ethics of tech;Christian ethics of technology;Christian computer scientist;Christian design;Christian architecture;science;engineering;design;digital;digital design;programming;Christian programmer;technology and virtue;vocation;Christian vocation;autonomy;optimism;dystopian;transhumanism;can I be a Christian in technology;how do I use techonolgy as a Christian;ethics of technology
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2022-01-24T13:04:02+00:00

TECHNICISM is the trust in the progress of technology to solve all our problems and to bring health and material prosperity.

A “Christian coloring” can also be applied to a technological worldview. Trusting in God alongside technology is, in essence, idolatry.19 As John Calvin put it, “Man’s nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols,” and technology, like anything else in creation, can be made into an idol.20 Oftentimes technology is a “surface idol,” something we use to pursue deeper idols such as power, control, or autonomy.21 Idolizing technology in this way is sometimes referred to as technicism. Technicism is the trust in the progress of technology to solve all our problems and to bring health and material prosperity. Some even look to technology as a solution to the problem of death (this will be discussed in chapter eight).

It may be helpful to note here that idolatry is not simply a set of ideas or practices; idolatry profoundly misshapes us. As image bearers, we were made to image and reflect our Creator. By trusting something other than God, we begin to resemble the thing we trust. In Psalm 115, we read about idols and how “those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.” In his book We Become What We Worship, theologian G. K. Beale puts it this way: “What you revere you will resemble, either for ruin or for restoration.”22 C. S. Lewis offers us a helpful illustration in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, in which Eustace, a selfish young boy, stumbles across a cave with a large treasure belonging to a dragon. Eustace falls asleep on the treasure and dreams of power and riches and awakes to find he has turned into a dragon! Lewis writes, “Sleeping on a dragon’s hoard with greedy, dragonish thoughts in his heart, he had become a dragon himself.”23 Likewise, if one reveres technology, one will begin to resemble it, becoming more cold, calculating, efficient, and pragmatic. For example, consider a computer scientist who is so enchanted by algorithmic thinking that he begins to apply it in many other areas of life, such as relationships and career decisions.24 When technology is revered at a societal level, it can lead to “the submission of all forms of cultural life to the sovereignty of technique and technology,” something Neil Postman referred to as technopoly.25

How does technology actually (mis)shape us? Technology shapes our experiences and how we see the world, whether we are aware of it or not.26 Recall from chapter three that technological design is not neutral, and built-in biases and preferences make some things easier and other things more difficult. Our everyday technological habits and rituals are like “liturgies” that shape our hearts and lives over time. A “liturgical audit” of our technology usage can help to ensure we are cultivating healthy rituals and rhythms.27

Technology often nudges users to establish particular practices and habits, impacting behavior by making some things easier and other things more difficult.

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