Thesis: “Theology and Technology: Humanity in Process.”
Engaging the intersection of science and faith has been my personal passion for 30 years. Many Christians struggle with the cultural conflict between “scientism” or “evolutionism” and their adult faith in Jesus Christ and their legacy childhood Sunday School concepts of creationism. After struggling myself 30 years ago with my love of science and my reinvigorated Christian faith through the expositions of Intelligent Design theorists and the explanations of Old Earth Creationists, I found a theological home in a “partnership” understanding of science and faith, what Dr. Francis Collins called “biologos” and what BioLogos as an organization now calls “Evolutionary Creation.”
Using broad historical themes such as the Enlightenment’s focus on reason, individual autonomy, harmony, nature as mechanism, and the concept of historical progress, I argue that anthropological dualism is responsible for both the West’s embrace of “human” progress, namely “technological” progress, and absolutist fears of such progress, concluding that technology is the physical manifestation of the supervenience of top-down (i.e. mental, divine) purposeful causation on otherwise purposeless processes in nature to re-create nature according to an ever-emerging vision of “how things should be.”
I also examine two movies as cultural reflections on human nature and the delusion or promise, as the case may be, of technological advancement: The Matrix and A.I. Artificial Intelligence. In conclusion, I suggest that one role of humans in the grand evolutionary epic of the universe may be to “give birth” to or to “replicate” the image of God within truly selfless / righteous / Christ-like beings–whether they are the continuation of humans fused with technology or “new” creatures altogether.
