Peter,
Good to hear from you again...
Guag Meister wrote:
> [...] So many times with technology we find that the last condition is worse
> than the first. Extrapolating this out to its logical conclusion, we find
> that all technology advances are bad. Could this be the reason that almost
> all religious leaders (and by that I mean Jesus, Mohammad, Bhuddha, etc) shun
> technology. Anyone that proposes technological fixes will find themselves at
> odds with Jesus. Um, who do you think is right?
>
> Sure technology has given us open heart surgery and moonflight, but 500 years
> from now, if planet earth is burnt and lifeless due to our actions (air and
> water pollution, nuclear exchange, global warming, infectious disease,
> extinctions, etc.), then what can we say about technology? The last
> condition is much worse than the first, even if the first is a caveman
> existance and even including leprosy and black plague etc.
I'm not aware that any of the great Teachers shunned technology. Could
you offer any quotes or evidence in that regard? In part I question this
because it seems to me that the whole thrust of those Teachers is to
foster an ever-advancing civilization.
Technology as part of that evolution has a far larger share than you
have indicated-- as witnessed by this conversation, where you in
Thailand and me in Oregon (US) are able to share thoughts, and educate
one another, even though we are rather beyond shouting distance. (In
fact, do forgive me for pointing out that these are odd statements to
make, given the means used to make them. As might be evident, if you
practice what you preach, no one will hear you.)
But beyond that, the ability to create a "simple" hammer depends on
advances in the technology of steel alloys. Building the factory and and
engaging in distribution depend on advances in a bewildering slew of
technologies, including the magic of compounding interest and the
invention of modern transport. You grow things, to take another example.
Agriculture, however practiced, is larded with technology and
technological advances: understanding of the seasons; calendars; plows
or no-till, take your pick; understanding of biology and ecology;
advances in the understanding of weather and its prediction; even the
invention of language and math.
But ultimately, even given the large share that technology has in
civilization, the problem is not technology and the Teachers have never
particularly emphasized it, because what takes a larger share in Their
thinking (at least as I read those various scriptures), is advances in
ethics and virtue. Technology, after all, is merely a tool. A lab coat,
by itself, has no power to do anything. A test tube cannot act to harm
anyone. A computer, absent instructions otherwise, will simply be a
device for converting electricity into heat. The point, obviously, is
that any of these things require human intention to either help or harm,
create or destroy. It's not all that hard to use a convenient rock to
kill someone, and technology need have no part in that.
Granted, where the means have been developed, Predator drones, atomic
weapons, weaponized small pox, tanks, missiles and guns will allow
someone with bad intentions to more efficiently act on those intentions.
But those Teachers were nothing if not practical (again, at least as I
see it). And for anyone, anywhere, at any time, to say "Stop! Don't use
technology! Forget what you know!" would be silly, foolish, senseless,
and without any effect. There are probably tens if not hundreds of
thousands of people in the world who, with fairly simple tools and
modest resources, could build a Kalashnikov rifle, and any reasonable
analysis of the real problems of war in the world today would have to
admit that small arms cause far more devastation than any battleship or
atom bomb.
So. We cannot go backwards. And we cannot stay here. The only reasonable
action is to move forward, and that direction is defined by improvements
in the peace and well being of every human being, man, woman and child,
in the world. Further, the only possible way to achieve such ends is to
change the hearts. This clearly follows from Einstein's maxim that we
have become technological giants while remaining moral midgets. From my
point of view, then, the question which should underlie every effort we
make in our lives is: how can be be of benefit to others? How can I
improve my armamentarium of virtues, the fundamental tools required for
me to be truly human?
d.
--
David William House
"The Complete Biogas Handbook" |www.completebiogas.com|
"No matter how far the material world advances, it cannot
establish the happiness of mankind. Only when material and
spiritual civilization are linked and coordinated will
happiness be assured. Then material civilization will not
contribute its energies to the forces of evil in destroying
the oneness of humanity, for in material civilization good
and evil advance together and maintain the same pace."
'Abdu'l-Baha, /The Promulgation of Universal Peace/, p. 109
|http://bahai.us|
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