Reflection After Reading Neil Postman’s Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology?
Can there be a compromise? Where do we draw the lines between God, science, technology, etc? Before I ever reflect here, I want to make it perfectly clear that I am a Bible believer and see Jesus as the ultimate authority on right and wrong. As, I’ve learned about the Industrial Revolution and the Rise of Technopoly in our nation, what I really see is a money hungry nation who is searching for ways to solve problems without having to think or do any sort of work to get there. Yeah, there are a few who started this trend and put the man hours in, but as the rest of the world has now been able to set back and benefit from these efforts, our nation does little “true work,” we simply supervise and manage the ongoing happenings…always trying to improve and make everything more efficient. I see a sort of utopian environment on the rise. Man wants a perfect world; much like one would imagine Adam and Eve’s Garden of Eden. The truth is that, that world is lost. Sin separated us from that world, and as such we must “work by the sweat of our brow.” What is puzzling to me is that we had that perfect life and had the opportunity to walk with God in the cool of the day. Now man, seems to think that by creating all of these machines and technology that we will have more time with God, family, and friends, when in reality, people end up on the sofa watching tv or surfing the net. Man’s own creations or work has become our own gods.
Much like the movie Time Changers depict, tv has slowly desensitized our morals and has taken Jesus as the authority of right and wrong out of the equations. Yes, our nation has learned a lot of new and exciting things through history, but HOW have we used this information. Have we given God the glory?
Sadly, I even find myself feeling like I am doing the same thing in my own life. I’m constantly looking for ways to be more efficient, to get tasks done easier with minimal thinking involved. I myself often search for a peace of mind in the duties of everyday life, when in actuality; it is our duty to WORK. When we actually engage in REAL WORK, we find that we spend a lot less time thinking about things that really don’t matter. We find ourselves engaging in sinful activities. We put God last in almost everything. We can spend hours watching television, but verily find time to crack our Bibles open. This is ridiculous.
There is nothing wrong with making one’s self better if the principles that we apply are scripturally based, and are applied with the motive of living a godly life that is pleasing to the Lord. We should not attempt to do things to make life easier for the sake of being able to relax and be lazy, we should only attempt to make ourselves better by allowing God to change us through His Word, and through time spent with Him. When we do this, He will show us how to conduct our lives in conjunction with His Word.
So can there be compromise? What does it mean to compromise? The answer is that in terms of God’s Word there can be no compromise. Does that mean we ban television, automobiles, machines that make our life easier? I think the answer is no, but we must be cautious of how and how much we use these tools in our lives. These are tools, not gods. If we allow tv to dominate our thought life, then we need to eliminate it from our viewing, or choose more carefully the programs we watch. If automobiles are used to engage in criminal acts or take us to places we have no business being, then we need to start walking (that might make us think twice about whether we want to go or not-LOL!) or choose our choices more carefully.
My thoughts have been about the change in our world. Where we are truly headed? As technology and thinkers of our times guide our society subtly, do we notice the changes that are taking place? Do we notice what is happening to us on the inside? Will these changes be acceptable when we have to face God and account for our actions? If man truly wants a utopian environment, we must begin by living according to God’s word so that when God pronounces judgment on sin in our world, that we can be one of the faithful few who can enter Heaven: the only true Utopia.
