Technology vs. Humanity

Welcome to Family Policy Matters, an engaging and informative weekly radio show and podcast produced by the North Carolina Family Policy Council. Hi, this is John Rustin, president of NC Family, and we're grateful to have you with us for this week's program. It's our prayer that you will be informed, encouraged, and inspired by what you hear on Family Policy Matters, and that you will feel better equipped to be a voice of persuasion for family values in your community, state, and nation. And now here is our host of Family Policy Matters, Tracey Devette Griggs.

Thanks for joining us this week for Family Policy Matters. Technology becomes ever more ingrained in our lives with each passing year, and most of us recognize the tug between both the good it does and some pretty serious pitfalls. So, are there some guiding principles that we as Christians should consider regarding how we incorporate technologies into our lives and our families' lives? Our guest today has done some deep thinking and extensive research on this topic. Dr. Craig Gay is professor at Regent College in Vancouver, Canada, where he lectures and writes on Christianity, society, and culture. Well, he's written a new book entitled Modern Technology and the Human Future, a Christian Appraisal. Dr. Craig Gay, welcome to Family Policy Matters. Thank you so much, Tracey.

Glad to be here. All right. Well, you open your book by pointing out the important and longstanding role of all sorts of technology in the human experience. So, what's different about modern technology compared to the technology of generations past? That's a big question, but let me just start with a basic definition of technology. The one I work with is, I say that technology is just the development of practical tools and processes for the sake of improving the quality of our lives. Technology lifts us out of the immediacy and, really, tyranny of natural existence, and it enables us to gain a kind of distance from nature. So, for example, it's more human to live in a house than a cave, or to eat cooked food, cooked and prepared food rather than raw, to wear clothing, to communicate in words rather than simply in gestures, to create and value artistic expression, and the list could go on and on. Technology is, in many ways, what has made us human. It's what has enabled us to know the natural world, to think about it, to rearrange and cultivate it, to use it. And our technologies should, and very often have, enabled us to become more of ourselves, more conscious, more deeply reflective, more present to each other and more engaged with our natural world. Now, here's where we get into this modern technology question.

Now, I define modern technology, and this is a basic definition, as the systematic application of scientific knowledge to practical tasks. And although I think we ought to be deeply grateful for modern technological development, I mean very deeply grateful for it, my concern is that modern technology, and specifically automatic machine technology, is not making us more human. It's not enabling us to be more reflective, more present to each other, and more engaged with the world. It's doing a lot of things for us, providing us with a lot of stuff, but it also seems to be leaving us diminished in the process.

And we're surrounded by examples of this today, the harried pace of modern life as we're, in a sense, forced to adapt to machine systems and rhythms, the elimination of place for the sake of commercialized space, the dizzying pace of technological change. I mean, open up any newspaper today and you'll read about these sorts of concerns. And for some reason, it seems as if we're allowing our technologies to either pose themselves between us and reality in such a way as to break or disrupt our relations with each other, with created nature, even between ourselves and our own bodies. And why, you know, why are we allowing this to happen? Why aren't we more concerned about it? And once we do become concerned, what can we do?

Well, these are the kinds of questions I try to, I ask and then I try to answer in the book. Okay, so clearly you have concerns and we don't need to run into new technologies without evaluating and critiquing their impact on our lives. So what sort of biblical principles are there that you can help us with so that we can do that?

The key thing to keep in mind when we ask questions like, should we use this or that technology is simply what kinds of people are we wanting to become? And the Bible obviously offers us all kinds of help with this. As Christians, I mean, in short, we are wanting to become more and more like Christ. And there's, you know, of course, a lot we could say about that. But once we have our end goal clearly in view, then questions about this or that technology become much easier to answer. Because the question then is simply, does this or that technology stand a good chance of helping us to become the kinds of people we're desiring to become or not? They're just, you know, all kinds of biblical resources for helping us to decide where it is we're trying to go and who we are trying to become. You know, I mean, I think evangelical Christians have, you know, we have a reputation for being good at programs, good at systems, good at organization. But I think we ought maybe to strive to embellish our reputation for being personal.

Great point. You're listening to Family Policy Matters, a weekly radio show and podcast of the North Carolina Family Policy Council. This is just one of the many ways NC Family works to educate and inform citizens across North Carolina about policy issues that impact North Carolina families. Our vision is to create a state and nation where God is honored, religious freedom flourishes, families thrive and life is cherished. For more information about NC Family and how you can help us to achieve this incredible vision for our state and nation, visit our website at ncfamily.org. Again, that's ncfamily.org.

And be sure to sign up to receive our email updates, action alerts, and of course, our flagship publication, Family North Carolina Magazine. We'd also love for you to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. So let's talk about in light of what you just said about being deeply personal and present, let's talk about social media. How does this affect how we as Christians should think about and use social media? First thing I'll say is, I don't use it for a variety of reasons.

I mean, it's partly out of principle, but partly just because I'm, I'm sort of too old for it. But there's a lot to be said here. I recommend the recent Netflix documentary called The Social Dilemma, for starters. Take a look at that. It's very interesting.

These are interviews with all of various engineers and people who designed these platforms. And these are people who are now very concerned about it. And it's a sobering watch. There's also a mountain of social scientific evidence piling up, indicating that social media is not actually helping us to become more genuinely social. Instead, it seems to be implicated in a host of social and psychological disorders, ranging from loneliness and anxiety, to very serious sociopathology. I mean, I'm sure there are good things to be said about it. But I don't think we're going to look back on this era of social media as a particularly positive time. So I am concerned about it.

And I think, you know, my advice to people is to get off the screens as much as you possibly can. So talk about the technology. You've mentioned this some before, but talk a little bit more about how it impacts our relationships with others, and even our perspective of humanity. It's a big question. It's probably too big to answer briefly. But our technologies, and especially communications technologies, always have vast personal, social, and political implications.

And they always have, they always do. Now, my concern at the moment is that for all of our enthusiasm for the things that technology is going to do for us, and you know, all of this enthusiasm for what's next, and more and bigger and better and faster and all of this, we seem to have lost sight of our humanity. Or worse, that we're actually re envisioning ourselves in technical technological terms. And and understanding humanity in terms of machine value.

Let me leave it at that. I think the problem today is that we're, we're not spending enough time thinking about what it means to be genuinely human. And a part of that is because we've just become entranced by all of the possibilities, or the seeming possibilities of technological development. Let's talk about virtual reality churches.

I think that it's how you describe them and you and you, you're not a fan. And most of us have had to do a lot of that this year. Talk about why you see that as a problem. What concerns me are comments that, you know, you hear occasionally that the church's future lies in an increasingly virtual environment. Yeah, this last year has, I mean, I'm grateful for, for zoom and other digital platforms that have enabled us to keep doing many things. I mean, our, our church has been meeting on zoom now for, since March, our college, all of our classes are now online. And, you know, I'm grateful for that. I mean, if it weren't for zoom, we wouldn't be able to do anything.

So I don't want to be too critical about it. But again, for those suggestions that you know, maybe this is the future, the future of the church will be just online or, you know, in this virtual space. It seems to me that very core Christian convictions about the importance of human embodiment, and these are convictions that stem from basic doctrines, doctrine of creation, the proclamation of the incarnation and resurrection.

All of these things suggest that this, this simply cannot and will not be true for the church, but the church's future lies in more embodiment, not less. In fact, we look forward to our glorious embodiment in a fully redeemed and fully actualized created order. And I think this is the kind of thing we want to bear witness to and also to celebrate now and anticipate by striving to be as actually present to each other as possible. And you know, this includes gathering together and being with each other being present to each other in real time, real real space.

So yeah, that's what I was. That's why I'm not a big fan of the virtual thing, even though as a stopgap, you know, I'm grateful for it. But I'm certainly looking forward to getting back together with my brothers and sisters in a real place in real time. All right, well, we're just about out of time for this week.

But before we go, Dr. Gay, where can our listeners go to get a copy of your book, Modern Technology and the Human Future? A Christian Appraisal? Let me just say that the book is published by InterVarsity Press. And it is it's available, gosh, I think anywhere.

InterVarsity Press books are sold, which is basically everywhere. Dr. Craig Gay, thank you so much for being with us on Family Policy Matters. You've been listening to Family Policy Matters. We hope you enjoyed the program and plan to tune in again next week to listen to the show online and to learn more about NC Families work to inform, encourage and inspire families across North Carolina. Go to our website at ncfamily.org. That's ncfamily.org. Thanks again for listening and may God bless you and your family.