{"id":134,"date":"2023-12-15T09:11:07","date_gmt":"2023-12-15T14:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/?p=134"},"modified":"2023-12-15T09:12:12","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T14:12:12","slug":"not-anti-technology-but-anti-antichrist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/2023\/12\/15\/not-anti-technology-but-anti-antichrist\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Anti-Technology, but Anti-Antichrist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not Anti-Technology, but Anti-Antichrist<\/strong><\/p>\n

S. M. Gollmer<\/strong><\/p>\n

In my previous post I may be misconstrued as being anti-technology.\u00a0 On the contrary, given my profession, hobbies, and interests, I am heavily involved in technology.\u00a0 To provide clarity I am not anti-technology. \u00a0I am anti-antichrist.<\/p>\n

We think of antichrist as a person.\u00a0 In fact, there will be many antichrists as well as one in particular according to I John 2:18.\u00a0 The Greek word for Christ means \u201canointed one\u201d and from the equivalent Hebrew word we get \u201cmessiah.\u201d\u00a0 To the Jewish nation, Messiah is the promised son of David who will deliver them politically.\u00a0 For Christians, Jesus Christ is the Messiah who delivers us from our sins.\u00a0 An antichrist, therefore, serves as a substitute for the true deliverer.<\/p>\n

When I use antichrist in the context of technology, I mean a worldview that sees scientific and technological development as the deliverer of humanity from the problems and evils of the world.\u00a0 Although few would proclaim technology as their messiah, many of us anticipate new treatments to cure cancer, green technologies to address climate change, and electronic devices to provide connectedness.\u00a0 Technology has mitigated the pain and suffering of living in a broken world; however, this is not without consequences.<\/p>\n

Living under the rule of a sovereign king places an obligation on the subject.\u00a0 Outright rebellion is dealt with.\u00a0 Living peaceably within the kingdom requires some level of conformity.\u00a0 Even those furthest from the reach of the king are not unaffected.\u00a0 They must still show fealty through lawful commerce and taxes, or risk being cut off from the protection and benefits derived from the relationship.<\/p>\n

This is true of technology.\u00a0 Like a sovereign, it establishes rules and regulations necessary for lawful activity within the realm.\u00a0 Luddites can sabotage the machine or attempt to withdraw from its reach, but only at great price.\u00a0 Many are quite comfortable with it and avidly proclaim the advancement of the kingdom.\u00a0 Extreme survivalists living in the most primitive conditions can\u2019t help but yield to the benefit of lightweight, durable fabrics to protect them from the elements.<\/p>\n

But this is done at a cost.\u00a0 Technology builds upon itself.\u00a0 If advancement in medicine, transportation, and communication is to continue, there must be a deeper and broader foundation of scientific and technological capabilities.\u00a0 To achieve this, humanity needs to expand its investment in it and\/or restructure society to take advantage of its efficiencies.\u00a0 How do we do this without compromising how God intended us to live?\u00a0 This is the challenge of our century as we look to the next.\u00a0 Can we avoid being anti-technology without technology becoming our antichrist?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not Anti-Technology, but Anti-Antichrist S. M. Gollmer In my previous post I may be misconstrued as being anti-technology.\u00a0 On the contrary, given my profession, hobbies, and interests, I am heavily involved in technology.\u00a0 To provide clarity I am not anti-technology. \u00a0I am anti-antichrist. We think of antichrist as a person.\u00a0 In fact, there will be… View Article<\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions\/136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cedarville.edu\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}