What Does Technology Teach Us About Morality?

From i-gadgets to toasters, car stereos to sprinkler systems the world is obsessed with technology. We put our trust in it, we think that having the most advanced weapons makes our countries immune to attack, we think the latest safety features in our cars will keep us from ever getting killed or paralized in a car accident. We trust in our scientists and engineers to keep cranking out devices to make our lives easier, our commutes faster and brains smarter. But even with all these microscopic connections in use we have missed the connection between technology and morality.

God built all the order into creation which allows us to make these devices. God made the rules of electro-magnetism and quantum mechanics that our computer engineers have taken full advantage of. But we have missed what these things point to. The people of Jeremiah's day had done the same thing, they saw God's order in creation and were being blessed by it, but refused to fear God and respect the moral order He hard-wired into His creation.

"'Should you not fear me?' declares the LORD.
'Should you not tremble in my presence?
I made the sand a boundary for the sea,
an everlasting barrier it cannot cross.
The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail;
they may roar, but they cannot cross it.
But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts;
they have turned aside and gone away.
They do not say to themselves,
‘Let us fear the LORD our God,
gives autumn and spring rains in season,
who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest.’
Your wrongdoings have kept these away;
your sins have deprived you of good."
-Jeremiah 5:22-25

Western culture is the first culture the world has ever seen that does not make the link between creation order and moral order. Buddhists believe in the Tao, Muslims believe in Sharia Law, and many different animistic cultures believe their morality is tied directly to the order of nature. Although these systems confuse morality and approve of evil things, they at least make the connection between moral order and natural order. In his book Peculiar Speech: Preaching to the Baptized William Willimon quotes a section of a speech given by Yale President Benno Schmidt to an incoming freshman class at Yale. This speech demonstrates how far out to sea our society is when it comes to values and morality:

"The traditions and values of liberal education call upon each of you to accept the responsibility of defining for yourself the aims of learning... But we cannot supply you with a philosophy of education any more than we can supply you with a philosophy of life. This must come from your own active learning, sparked by your own imagination... Yale expects you to take yourself seriously."

Willimon then goes on to to critique this message by President Schmidt as a promotion of "normlessness," which exalts moral disintegration and "a rigid conformity to its ideal of life without family, norms, tradition, stories, or community" (pg. 42).

Our culture readily accepts the order of nature. If a student at Yale suggested that 2 + 2 = 15, he would be told that he was wrong (at least in a Math class), but when someone suggests that there are consequences for immorality, like STD's, emotional baggage and hurt relationships (not to mention the wrath of Almighty God!) - they are laughed at or persecuted.

There is an order to nature that we can't out vote with our politics and we can't out smart with our technology. The 10 commandments are not a 10 step program to a happier life, they are the core of the moral order of the universe. If you break them, they will break you. The Creator God set up this world with both a natural order and a moral order and He cares about it. If you realize you have broken His order, turn to Him and He will forgive you on the basis of the Lord Jesus' death for your sin and His resurrection.

For more on how to be right with God, go to GoodNewsNow.info

Special thanks to Dr. Daniel Kroeze, one of my Bible professors who I got most of the material in this post. As he likes to say "all truth is God's truth."