When I was a little younger, I was a devoted fan of the movie Jurassic Park. I still like it, although I do not petition my family to watch it nearly so often as I once did. Although neither the movie nor the book on which it was based are exceptionally good art, the story's creator, Michael Crichton, spoke and still speaks on subjects like global warming, genetic research, and other aspects of technology with sanity and intelligence. In the movie version of Jurassic Park, the character Ian Malcolm says a line something like (I paraphrase): "Your scientists were so taken with pursuing what they could do that never stopped to wonder if they should." He is speaking to the creator of a biological park that has learned how to genetically create dinosaurs from DNA left over in the blood of prehistoric mosquitos. The result, as many who read this may know, is disaster: human corruption and ignorance of the real magnitude of the undertaking (not to mention of the behavioral patterns of the dinosaurs themselves) take several lives and lead to the destruction of the park.
I have found Ian Malcolm's statement a peculiarly succinct expression of my concerns over modern technology and economics, concerns that I know many share. Those who invent and use modern technology have the ability, divine Providence allowing, to push the levels of innovation, production, and consumption to the limit. In the foreseeable future, our economies will simply continue to grow. The question is, do we want this?
I am the first to admit that technology has done many wonders for the world. I was born just on the cusp of the cellular phone technology, and have been able to access the internet since I was probably 6 or 7. Doubtless it was around earlier than that, since Al Gore is sufficiently older than I am to have invented it before my birth. ;-) And, although I often envision and write about societies in which none of these technologies exist, I am sure that it would be a strange, inconvenient, sometimes difficult adjustment to be suddenly deprived of them. They have enabled earth's largest populations to enjoy the largest over-all wealth and prosperity, and given us unprecedented means to save time and exploit the world's resources.
Despite this, however, many men and women seem to have failed to realize an important truth: every coin has two sides. Every human advancement is laden with consequences, usually unintended, that can mitigate some (or all) of its benefits. Although I am no extremist when it comes to global warming, it is certainly true that technological advancements like cars, airplanes, and trains have the consequence of consuming fossil fuels and emitting carbon monoxide. I don't think that this will lead to Armageddon in the next four minutes, or kill all the polar bears, but I am sure that it has some kind of harmful impact. It's certainly made us tied to the apron-strings (or AK-47 barrels) of the Middle East.
It isn't only cars and trucks and things that go, either: the use of chemicals on crops have prevented some harmful diseases and the ravages of insects, but I think (I have no solid proof on hand to back this up, so correct me if I am wrong) that there are mitigating circumstances attendant on this practice as well. We have also poured billions of dollars into satellites searching for extra-terrestrial signals, manned missions to the moon, and probes sent to photograph stars and planets. Although these are interesting exhibitions of economic and technological power, and perhaps fascinate some people, I at least find them ultimately useless, particularly when 1) I doubt we will find little green men or cures of cancer one some distant planet--the Bible tells us to consider the heavens, but not that God has peopled (martianed?) them--and 2) there are so many more important things on our own planet that NASA's prodigious talent and budget could probably better serve.
How do we reconcile these two sides of the coin? In the same way, I think, that we ought to reconcile anything else: by following God's will and changing the hearts of men. We are still supposed to be good stewards of the earth, whether we are using plows or combines, chariots or Mercedes, and the very fact that our capacity for destruction has increased many times ought to increase our caution and our respect for what we are tinkering with even more. Dangerous tools require careful handling. We can fly probes to Mars, invent birth control pills, build 4,000 Wal-Marts, and probe and poke about the limits of human capacity in a myriad of different ways.
But should we?
Friday, March 23, 2007
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Why I Do Not Believe in Free Will
Romans 9
I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son. And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God. Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth. And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.
What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son. And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God. Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth. And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.
What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
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