April 5, 2004
Technology driven by Faith in God *
10,000 - 500 B.C. [Early Infanticidal (Schizoid)]
Book of Revelation:
Millen.** AAnd God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death.@ Worldwide conversion is a necessary precondition for, and unmistakable indication of, the coming of the millennium (pp. 11 and 29).
John of Patmos :
Millen. ABlessed
and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection... They shall be priests of God and of Christ,
and shall reign with him a thousand years.@ Thus describing his vision in the Apocalypse
of St. John, the last book of the Bible, John foretells a reign of a
thousand years on earth by the returned Messiah, Christ, together with an elite
corps of the saintly elect. The curse of
the Fall is lifted and mankind, now
redeemed, returns to paradise, eats from the tree of life, and regains Adam=s original perfection, immortality and
godliness (pp. 22-23).
Millenarianism is, in essence, the
expectation that the end of the world is near and that, accordingly, a new
earthly paradise is at hand (p. 23).
500 B.C. - 0 A.D.[Late
Infanticidal (Narcissistic)]
0 A.D. [Early
Abandoning (Masochistic)
Jesus Christ (1st century):
Jesus Christ, a Jewish teacher and
prophet, has traditionally been regarded by Christians as the Messiah.
0 - 400 A.D.[Abandoning (Masochistic)]
Saint Gregory of Nyssa (d. 394?):
Millen. AThe
promise of Christianity is that man will be brought back to his original
happiness,@ taught
this Cappadocian theologian@
(p. 11).
St. Augustine (354-430):
Creation For Augustine, the original Adam, having been created in God=s image, was immortal, a distinctly divine characteristic forfeited with the Fall (p. 10).
Tech. ARemember,
all these favors [provided by the useful arts] taken together are but the
fragmentary solace allowed us in a life condemned to misery.@
Thus, while useful in easing the plight of fallen mankind, arts and
skills had no value as a means of redemption B
which only grace could provide (pp. 11-12).
Time For Augustine, historical time, the tiresome and tearful tenure of fallen man, was homogeneous and unchanging. The resurrection of Christ was a sign of promise but history offered no other indication of movement toward a restoration of perfection. God=s agenda was hidden from man (pp. 21-22).
400 - 1100 [Late
Abandoning (Masochistic)]
Saint Benedict of Nursia (c. 547):
Tech. To help in the pursuit of
spiritual perfection, this Italian monk and founder of the religious order of the Benedictines, made the
practical arts vital elements of monastic devotion (p. 13).
800 [During the reign of Charlemagne (742?-814), Carolingian King of the Franks (768-814) and Emperor of the West (800-814)]:
Tech. The introduction of the heavy plow in the Frankish Empire radically reversed the relation between man and nature by making the capacity of a machine rather than human need the standard of land division. Formerly, man had been a part of nature. Now he became master of nature, an exploiter of nature (p. 12).
God=s will At the same time, and as the Benedictines were becoming hegemonic in Western Europe, there appeared the earliest indication that men were beginning to think of advancing technology as an aspect of Christian virtue B God=s will (p. 12-13).
John Scotus Erigena (c.810-c.877):
Salvation AThe arts are man=s links with the Divine, their cultivation a means to salvation.@ This Irish scholastic philosopher, perhaps the most learned man of his time, first articulated this view of the useful arts, defining them as distinct, dignified, divinely inspired, and of value for salvation. Departing from the Augustinian view that the Amechanical arts@ were only a necessary product of man=s fallen state, Erigena argued that they were part of mankind=s original endowment, his God-like image, and thus affirmed the connection between the mundane and the celestial, between technology and transcendence (pp. 15-16).
Erigena first philosophized about technology while serving as court philosopher to the Carolingian monarch, Charles the Bald [Charles II (823-877), Emperor of the West (875-877), grandson of Charlemagne] who was almost continuously at war with his brothers and their sons, with the Norsemen (Normans), and with rebellious subjects (p. 202).
1100 - 1500 [Ambivalent
(Borderline)]
Hugh of St. Victor (1096-1141):
Salvation AThis, then, is what the arts are
concerned with, this is what they intend B
to restore within us the divine likeness,@
wrote this French or German Augustinian canon, philosopher and theologian
(pp. 19-20).
Theophilus (c.1125):
Tech. This German Benedictine monk was the first man in history to record in words the details of a technique based on his own experience (p. 18).
Joachim of Fiore (c.1132-1202):
Millen. For this Italian Cistercian monk, Antichrist was Saladin who conquered Jerusalem in 1187, signifying that the millennium was at hand. Joachim taught that history had momentum, direction, and meaning, based upon the final events toward which it moved B the millennial reunification of man with God (p. 24).
Time Thus, beginning in the middle of the twelfth century, there emerged from within the monastic world a radically renewed millenarian conception of Christian history, based upon a dynamic and teleological sense of time. This new conception redefined the process of recovery of mankind=s divine likeness as an active and conscious pursuit rather than a merely passive and blind expectation. The recovery, that is, the transcendent trajectory of Christianity, became also an immanent historical project. Technology was also eschatology (pp. 21-22).
The millenarianism which Fiore inspired, was as often a rallying cry for the defense of the established order as it was a form of revolutionary ideology (pp. 202-203).
Michael Scot (c.1175-c.1234):
Salvation AThe primary purpose of the human sciences is to restore fallen man to his pre-lapsarian position,@ wrote this Scottish medieval scholar, reaffirming Hugh of St. Victor=s re-conception of the useful arts as a means of reunion with God (p. 20).
Saint Bonaventura (1221-1274):
Salvation Agreeing with Hugh of St. Victor
and Michael Scot, this Italian scholastic theologian and Franciscan friar also
sanctified the mechanical arts, placing them in the context of knowledge
whose source and goal is the light of God
In Europe, there was now a unique emotional commitment to machinery which was grounded upon its acceptance as an aid to spiritual life (p. 20).
Roger Bacon (c.1214-1294?):
This English scholastic philosopher and scientist, a Franciscan friar:
1. Followed Erigena and Hugh of St. Victor, in perceiving the arts as the birthright of the Asons of Adam,@ and advance in the arts as a means of restoring humanity=s lost divinity.
2. Followed Joachim of Fiore, in seeing advance in the arts as a means of anticipating and preparing for the kingdom to come, and as a sure sign in and of itself that the kingdom was at hand (p 26).
The friars were monks who had abandoned the cloister in order to evangelize the world. As academic scholars, they laid the intellectual foundation not only for science but also for papal authority. As missionaries, they lent religious sanction and support to papal, and later imperial, expansion. In the process, they warned against the myriad menaces to established power B the imagined army of Antichrist. Thus, Roger Bacon proposed his prescient project of invention to popes, urging that Athe church should consider the employment of these inventions against unbelievers and rebels...@ (p. 203).
Cornelius Agrippa (c.1300) (Beginning of the Renaissance):
Salvation AOnce the soul has attained illumination, it returns to something like the condition before the Fall of Adam, when the seal of God was upon it and all creatures feared and revered man,@ taught Agrippa, a Renaissance alchemist and illuminatus, echoing the now conventional medieval monastic themes about Adam=s divine endowment and the possibility of restoring mankind to its original and rightful dominion @ (pp. 35-36).
Christopher Columbus (1451-1506):
Salvation Columbus believed himself
divinely sent to open up a new way for the friars to fulfill the prophecies of
the apocalypse and by converting the heathen, hasten the millennium. After the final conversion of the Jews, the
Moslems and the Gentiles B
an event which would foreshadow the end of the world B
the Spanish monarchs would lead the righteous into the millennium. The 1492 defeat of the Moors in Granada and
the forced conversion or expulsion of the Jews that same year, were perceived
in this light (pp. 30-31).
Columbus pursued perfection with the support of, and in fealty to, the Spanish Monarchs, for whom he plundered the promised land (p. 203).
1500 - 1600 [Early Intrusive (Depressive)]
(Beginning of the Reformation)
Philippus Paracelsus (1493?-1541):
Salvation AWhen
the end of the world draws near, all things will be revealed. From the lowest to the highest, from the
first to the last B
what each thing is, and why it existed and passed away, from what causes, and
what its meaning was. And everything
that is in the world will be disclosed and come to light,@ wrote the Swiss physician and
alchemist, founder of pharmacology (p. 37).
Giordano Bruno (1548-1600):
God-like AThe gods have given man intelligence
and hands, and have made him in their image, endowing him with a capacity
superior to other animals,@
declared this Italian philosopher. ABy fashioning other natures, other
courses, other orders by means of his intelligence B and with that freedom without which
his resemblance to the deity would not exist B
[man] might in the end make himself god of the earth... [Thus] separating
himself more and more from his animal nature, [man thus] climbs nearer to the
divine being@ (p. 39).
1600 -1700 [Late Intrusive (Depressive)]
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) (Beginning of Puritanism):
English philosopher, essayist and statesman, Bacon re-asserted the tradition begun by Erigena, Hugh of St. Victor, and Roger Bacon, and later sustained by Paracelsus, Bruno and the Rosicrucians (the latter, a group of societies dealing with occult symbols, among which were the swastika).
Largely through Bacon=s enormous and enduring influence, the medieval identification of technology and transcendence now informed the emergent mentality of modernity. His utilitarian outlook and millenarian thinking gave formative shape to the milieu of modern science.
Salvation AThe
entrance into the kingdom of man, founded on the sciences [is] not much other
than the entrance into the kingdom of heaven.@
Salvation AIt
is not the pleasure of curiosity, nor the quiet of resolution, nor the raising
of the spirit, nor victory of wit, nor faculty of speech, nor lucre of
profession, nor ambition of honor or fame, nor enablement of business, that are
the true ends of knowledge... It is a
restitution and the reinvesting (in great part) of man to the sovereignty and
power... which he had in his first state of creation.
God-like AMan
by the Fall fell at the same time from his state of innocence and from his
dominion over creation [but] both these losses... can even in this life be in
some parts repaired B
the former by religion and faith, the latter by arts and sciences.@
God-like AMan, if we look to final causes, may be regarded as the center of the world inasmuch that if man were taken away from the world, the rest would seem to be all astray, without aim or purpose@ (pp. 50-53 and 57).
The
Rosicrucians, first members of a self-designated scientific sainthood, bound
their terrestrial fortunes to the ill-fated monarchy of Bohemia (p. 203).
Francis Bacon devoted his life=s energies to the enrichment of the royal court. In his vision of the millennium, he located control of the millennial paradise leadership firmly in elite hands. Likewise, in worldly affairs, he sought to preserve the established order while enlarging human dominion over nature (pp. 203-204).
In an age of incessant social instability, science became another means B along with work discipline and the reformation of manners B by which European elites who were distant from the people, nevertheless sought to control them and subject them to authority (p. 204).
Bacon disdained what he called the Ainnate depravity and malignant disposition of the common people.@ He believed that science would teach Athe peoples [to] take upon them the yoke of laws, submit to authority, and forget their ungovernable appetites...@ (p. 204).
Galileo (1564-1642):
God-like Bacon=s elitist outlook was shared by Galileo, the great Italian astronomer, mathematician and physicist.
Galileo disdained Awomen and ordinary folk B the shallow minds of common people.@ He urged the church to hide from the people scientific truth about the heavens, lest they become confused and troublesome (p. 204).
John Milton (1608-1674):
God-like Milton insisted that in the course of millennial advance, nature would not merely become known to man, but Awould surrender to man as its appointed governor, and his rule would extend from command of the earth and seas to dominion over the stars@ (p. 48).
Robert Boyle (1627-1691):
Salvation AIn the great renovation of the world and the future state of things, these corporeal creatures that will then be knowable, shall probably be known best by those that have made the best use of their former knowledge... And then, the attainment to a high degree of knowledge, which here was so difficult, may, to the enlightened and enlarged mind, become as easy as it will be satisfactory.@ Thus was the teaching of this Anglo-Irish physicist and chemist, father of both experimental science and modern chemistry (p. 60).
Godly AAnd sure it is a great honor that the indulgent Creator vouchsafes to naturalists B that though he gives them not the power to produce one atom of matter, yet he allows them the power to introduce so many forms... and work such changes among the creatures that if Adam were now alive, and should survey that great variety of man=s productions that is to be found in the shops of artificers, the laboratories of chymists and other well-furnished magazines of art, he would admire to see what a new world, as it were, or set of things has been added to the primitive creatures by the industry of his posterity@ (p. 67).
Godly Beginning somewhat with
Galileo, and most evidently with Boyle and Newton, nature was to be
understood by the way it was made B
and thus required of the scientist a God-like posture and perspective. Modern scientists began to seek, not merely
to know creation as it was made, but to make it themselves B actually participate in creation. Whereas in the 16th century,
inventors and mechanics saw themselves as imitating God, in the 17th
century, they began to see an identity between themselves and God, their useful
designs and devices being extensions or augmentation of, and even improvements
on, the original creation B
the human (divinely directed) complement to creation (pp. 65-66).
Being God Henceforth, increasingly, man=s contribution to creation loomed ever larger in the scheme of things. Scientists subtly but steadily began to assume the mantle of creator in their own right, as gods themselves. Through his exertions, fallen man had begun not merely to recover what had been lost but to actually supersede Adam=s original endowment B indeed, perhaps even attain the divine power that had been denied Adam (pp. 66-67).
Joseph Glanvill (1636-1680):
Creation AWhile man knew no sin, he was ignorant of nothing else,@ said this English clergyman, philosopher and founding fellow of the Royal Society, as he articulated the formative millenarian mentality of modern science (p. 61).
The Royal Society pooled talents and interests in order to benefit the elite, not the people B in order indeed to contain and exploit the people by drawing upon their knowledge and skills while at the same time deflecting them from political and religious courses threatening to constituted authority (p. 204).
Isaac Newton (1642-1727):
Millen. Like almost every important 17th century English scientist, this English mathematician, natural philosopher and physicist believed in the approaching millennium. An Anglican with Unitarian tendencies, and a celibate, Newton steadfastly avoided any contact with women as he strove to become Aa son of the Resurrection,@ through the study of nature and prophecy (pp. 59, 145 and 220-221).
The mechanical, Newtonian system served both church and state by providing what looked like a buttress from nature to the inviolability of the established order (p. 205).
1700 - 1800 [Early Socializing (Neurotic)]
James Burnett (Lord Monboddo) (1714-1799):
Millen. AThe species is to end in not many generations. There will be a >convulsion= of Nature, which is to produce a new Heaven and another Earth, to be inhabited by a new race of men, more righteous and pious than the former, and who are therefore called saints,@ declared this English writer and pioneer in anthropology, a decade before the French Revolution (p. 69).
Salvation AOur future happiness must be purely
intellectual, produced by the contemplation of the wisdom, the goodness, and
the beauty of the works of God@
(p. 69).
Salvation AIn order to enjoy this highest pleasure in a future life, a man must be prepared for it in this life. It is not sufficient that he be not vicious or wicked. He must have cultivated his understanding by arts and sciences, and so have prepared his mind for the more perfect knowledge which he will have in a future state@ (p. 69).
Joseph Priestley (1733-1804):
Salvation AThe great, though probably calamitous events that are before us, [will ultimately bring about] a state of great knowledge, virtue and happiness, [culminating in the Kingdom of God and the ascension of the saints] who will live with Christ for a thousand years,@ wrote the great English theologian, scientist, and Freemason, four years after the French Revolution (p. 70).
The Freemasons were science-minded aristocrats who combined mysticism and magic with a dedication to order, hierarchy and perfectibility (p. 205).
Charles Babbage (1792-1871):
Salvation AWhen in a future state,... with increased powers, [we can] apply our minds to the discovery of nature=s laws and the invention of new methods by which our faculties might be aided,... pleasure the most unalloyed [will] await us at every stage of our progress... [This future state will be] unclogged by the dull corporeal load of matter which tyrannizes even our most intellectual moments and claims the ardent spirit to its unkindred clay...,@ wrote the English mathematician, inventor, father of the computer and pioneer of industrial automation (pp. 72 and 171).
1800 - 1950 [Late Socializing (Neurotic)]
Auguste Comte (1798-1857):
Salvation A[Science restores man to his place as] chief of the economy of nature... at the head of the living hierarchy,@ wrote the French philosopher and founder of positivism. (Positivism denies any validity to speculation or metaphysics, maintaining that the only true knowledge is scientific knowledge) (p. 84).
Salvation A[Positivism
is aimed at] awakening in all the noble desire of honorable incorporation with
the supreme existence [and thereby attaining] a perfect unity [with the Great
Being which will bring about mankind=s]
ultimate regeneration B
the reconstruction of his whole nature... the ultimate condition... the
definitive form of his existence... the normal state@ (p. 84).
Millen. A[All of history reveals] the tendency
toward regeneration, [an inescapable movement toward] the kingdom of the Great
Being@ (pp.
84-85).
AThe motto that I have put forward as descriptive of the new political philosophy is, Order and Progress, [and] in all cases, consideration of Progress are subordinate to those of Order,@ wrote Comte.
Comte=s engineering approach to society was deliberately designed to counter the Acrisis@ of the French Revolution. His new system was aimed at the permanent re-establishment of social order in accordance with ineluctable natural laws (pp. 83 and 205).
James Maxwell (1831-1879):
Salvation AAlmighty God who hast created man in thine own image and made him a living soul that he might seek after Thee and have dominion over Thy creatures, teach us to study the works of Thy hands that we may subdue the earth to our use, and strengthen our reason for Thy service, and so receive the blessed Word, that we may believe on Him whom Thou hast sent to give us the knowledge of salvation,@ wrote the Scottish physicist and mathematician, as one of his own daily prayers, in 1865 (pp. 71-72).
1950 - 2000 [Helping (Individuated)]
Technologies of
Transcendence
Atomic Weapons
Leo Szilar (1898-1964):
Being
God AIf
I wanted to contribute something to save mankind, then I would probably go into
nuclear physics because only through the liberation of atomic energy could we
obtain the means which would enable man not only to leave the earth but to
leave the solar system,@
wrote the Hungarian-American nuclear physicist and biophysicist who initially
conceived of the possibility of a nuclear chain reaction (p. 105).
Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967):
Being God AI am become death, destroyer of worlds,@ exclaimed the American physicist, on July 16, 1945, quoting the Bhagavad Gita upon seeing the first atomic explosion, in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Oppenheimer was director of the Los Alamos laboratory and the man immediately responsible for the success of the atomic bomb project. He had given this first test its code name B ATrinity@ (pp. 106-107).
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965):
Salvation AThis atomic bomb is the Second Coming in Wrath,@ exclaimed the British statesman, soldier and author (p. 108).
Robert Hutchins (1899-1977):
Salvation AThe atomic bomb is the good news of damnation,@ declared the American educator (p. 108).
Billy Graham (1918- ):
Salvation. AThe world is moving now very rapidly toward its Armageddon,@ declared the American evangelist (p. 109).
Jerry Falwell (1933- ):
Salvation AI believe there will be some nuclear holocaust on this earth... There will be one last skirmish and then God will dispose of this Cosmos,@ said the American fundamentalist Baptist pastor (p. 109).
The engineers of nuclear weapons, endowed from the outset with the authority and limitless largesse of the state, have devoted their energy and imagination to an enlargement of state power (p. 205).
Space exploration
Long-range Weapons-delivery Systems:
Wernher von Braun (1912-1977):
God=s will AIt was God=s purpose to send his Son to the other worlds to bring the gospel to them,@ wrote the German-American rocket expert who viewed spaceflight as a millennial Anew beginning@ for mankind (p. 126).
God=s will AIf man is Alpha and Omega, then it is profoundly important for religious reasons that he travel to other worlds, other galaxies; for it may be Man=s destiny to assure immortality, not only of his race but even of the life spark itself... By the grace of God, we shall in this century successfully send man through space to the Moon and to other planets on the first leg of his last and greatest journey...@ (p. 126).
God-like A[Space-based warfare] would offer the satellites= builders the most important tactical and strategic advantage in military history,@ declared von Braun whose Redstone rocket was the first medium-range nuclear weapon and the first rocket to detonate an atomic weapon in the atmosphere (pp. 126-127).
Like his colleagues in nuclear weapons development, von Braun showed an elite obeisance and service to established power. von Braun devoted his energy and imagination to the enlargement of the power of the state. In Germany, while claiming to aim for the stars, he made it possible for the Third Reich to hit London and Antwerp. In the United States, while claiming to assure man=s immortality, he helped prepare the country for space-based nuclear warfare (p. 205).
Manned Space Flights:
Pope Paul VI (1897-1978), (Pope 1963-1978):
Millen. AIt is a millennial event,@ declared the Italian pope, in 1968, after astrunauts left the vicinity of the earth the first time B on the Apollo 8, Moon-orbiting mission (p. 138).
On that Christmas Eve, the astronauts broadcast a reading of the first ten lines of the Book of Genesis back to earth. Sued for lack of separation between church and state, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court which, in 1971, declined to hear the case (pp. 134-138).
President Richard Nixon (1913-1994), (President 1969-1974) :
Creation AThis is the greatest week since the beginning of the world, the Creation,@ proclaimed the 37th President of the United States, in 1969, after the flight of Apollo 11, the first landing mission on the Moon (p. 140).
George Mueller, in 1969:
Millen. AShould we hesitate to exploit the first step? Should we withdraw in fear from the next step? Should we substitute temporary material welfare for spiritual adventure...? Then will Man fall back from his destiny, the mighty surge of his achievement be lost, and the confines of this planet destroy him,@ declared the director of NASA=s manned spaceflight program, after the first landing on the Moon (p. 136).
The NASA Headquarters Weekly Bulletin, 1974:
Millen. A[The dean of the Cathedral] will preach on the spiritual significance and the religious implications... of the first journey from the planet Earth,@ predicted the Bulletin, on the occasion of the five-year anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, as it reported that a stained-glass window containing a two-inch lunar rock brought back by the astronauts, had been officially installed in the Washington Cathedral (p. 136).
The men who built the U.S. (and Soviet) space programs have served military ends. In their quest for space travel, they have brought the world minutes away from mutually assured destruction. Under the nominally civilian auspices of NASA, they have contributed to the militarization of space, both in terms of the capability for surveillance and the capacity for weapons deployment (p. 205).
Artificial Intelligence
Alan Turing (1912-1954):
Techn. AWe may hope that machines will eventually compete with men in all purely intellectual fields,@ concluded the British mathematician and computer theorist who, with Claude Shannon, developed the theoretical basis for both the design of electronic computers and the development of artificial intelligence (pp. 150-151).
Being God AOne may hope that this process [of learning new tricks] will be more expeditious than evolution. The survival of the fittest is a slow method of measuring advantages. The experimenter, by the exercise of [machine design] intelligence, should be able to speed it up@ (p. 151).
Artificial Life
The First Conference on Artificial Life, Los Alamos, NM, 1987:
Being God AArtificial life is the study of artificial systems that exhibit behavior characteristic of natural living systems... Microelectronic technology and genetic engineering will soon give us the capability to create new life forms in silico as well as in vitro@ (p. 167).
Being God John von Neumann (1903-1957):
American mathematician, Von Neumann is generally recognized as the father of Aartificial life,@ for his crucial contributions to computer-system design and software programming. He developed the theory of self-reproducing cellular automata upon which Aartificial life@ came to be based.
Von
Neumann was perhaps the main scientific voice in the country=s nuclear weapons establishment. Toward the end of his life, he fully devoted
himself to weapons development, advocating the use of nuclear weapons and
favoring a preventive nuclear war (pp. 153, 165-167 and 173).
In
quest of the immortal mind, the pioneers of Aartificial intelligence,@ Aartificial life,@ cyberspace and
virtual reality, have been sustained by the U.S. military. While training their minds for transcendence,
they have contributed enormously to the world arsenal for warfare, surveillance
and control.
These
pioneers have also placed their technology at the disposal of manufacturing,
financial, and service corporations which in turn, have deployed them the world
over, disciplining, de-skilling and displacing millions while contributing to
the concentration of global wealth and power into ever fewer hands
(pp. 205-206).
Genetic Engineering
Robert Sinsheimer:
Modifying Life:
Better
than God AThe old eugenics was limited to a
numerical enhancement of the best of our existing gene pool. The new eugenics would permit, in principle,
the conversion of all the unfit to the highest genetic level,@ explained this molecular
geneticist, in 1969 (p. 187).
Better
than God A It is a new horizon in the history of
man... Some may smile and may feel that
this is but a new version of the old dream, of the perfection of man. It is that, but it is something more... To foster his better traits and to curb his
worse by cultural means alone has always been, while clearly not impossible, in
many instances, most difficult... We now
glimpse another route B
the chance to ease the internal strains and heal the internal flaws directly,
to carry on and consciously perfect far beyond our present vision this
remarkable product of two billion years of evolution@ (pp. 187-188).
Mapping the Human Genome:
Being
God AFor the first time in all time, a
living creature understands its origin and can undertake to design its future,@ explained Sinshimer, in 1985, when, as
president of the University of California at Santa Cruz, he presided over an
initial conference on the human genome (p. 189).
Millen. AThroughout history, some have sought to
live in contact with the eternal... In
an earlier era, they sought such through religion and lived as monks and nuns
in continual contemplation of a stagnant divinity. Today, they see such a contact through
science, through the search for understanding of the laws and structure of the
universe and the long quest back through time and evolution for our own origins@ (p. 189).
Being God APerhaps this urge [to have contact with the eternal] is a riposte to fate, a nay to human mortality... I am a scientist, a member of a most fortunate species. The lives of most people are filled with ephemera... But a happy few of us have the privilege to live with and explore the eternal@ (p. 189).
Being God AWhen Galileo discovered that he could describe the motions of objects with simple mathematical formulas, he felt that he had discovered the language in which God created the universe. Today, we might say that we have discovered the language in which God created life... After three billion years, in our time we have come to this understanding, and all the future will be different@ (pp. 189-190).
V. Elving Anderson:
Better than God AThe earth does not need more humans but perhaps it needs better humans, humans more disease-resistant, genetically superior, more intelligent, sympathetic, moral and spiritual, better adjusted to and able to cope with their environment. With our rapidly increasing knowledge about the human microsphere and our developing technology, we stand in a position to improve our progeny,@ wrote this emeritus professor of genetics at the University of Minnesota, in 1994 (pp. 196-197).
Better than God AIn the past, we have focused on changing the environment for human betterment. Now, we have enormous powers to begin to redesign the kinds of human being we want on earth@ (p. 197).
Lee Silver:
Being God AIn most instances, I attribute opposition [to the use of reprogenetics to assume control over the destiny of humankind] to conscious or subconscious fears of treading in >God=s domain,= wrote this professor in the Departments of Molecular Biology, Ecology and Evolutional Biology, at Princeton University, in 1997 (Silver p. 13).
Being God AThe power of reprogenetics is so great that if left to the market, those families and groups not able to afford it, could become severely disadvantaged. Will a global market place based on individual freedom and competition among people and countries, reign supreme in the centuries and millennia to come? If so, a severed humanity may very well be the ultimate legacy [of this technology]@ (Silver, p. 13).
Better
than God. AIt is difficult to find the words to
describe the enhanced attributes of [the GenRich (genetically enhanced)]
people. >Intelligence= does not do justice to their cognitive
abilities. >Knowledge= does not explain the depth of their
understanding of both the universe and their own consciousness. >Power= is not strong enough to describe the
control they have over technologies that can be used to shape the universe in
which they live... (Silver p. 293).
Salvation [The GenRich people will] find themselves coming to face to face with their creator... Or is it simply their own image in the mirror, as they reflect themselves back to the beginning of time...?@ (Silver p. 293).
Richard Seed:
Being God AGod intended for man to become one with God. We are going to have almost as much knowledge and almost as much power as God. Cloning and the re-programming of DNA is the first serious step in becoming >one with God,=@ declared this physicist, in 1998, as he announced that he would proceed with human cloning experiments despite widespread public concern about the human and social implications of such research (p. vii).
The
genetic engineers, supported by the state, have :
Laid
the technological foundations for an Orwellian future.
Turned
their technical prowess to profitable advantage B becoming consultants, shareholders, and directors of
entrepreneurial biotechnology and multinational pharmaceutical firms involved
in the wholesale patenting and monopolization of plant, animal, and even
human Alife-forms.@
Considered
health, safety, ecological integrity, and biological diversity as mere
secondary considerations to the potential profits to be made by genetic experimentation.
By their routine, unregulated production and utilization of human genetic information, added yet a new means to the arsenal for social discrimination. Viewed in the light of twentieth-century experience, the long-range eugenic implications of this knowledge and technology, are neither obscure nor unimaginable (p. 206).
The Environment B Paying for the Technologies of Transcendence
James Watt:
Millen. AYou know, I just can=t be too bothered to spend too much time thinking about the environment or certainly not spend too much money on it because I am not convinced that the earth is going to be around all that much longer,@ responded President=s Reagan=s Secretary of the Interior, to journalists, as he was confronted with his rampage against the environment (Jeffrey St. Clair).
Conclusions
Belief in the Millennium: History reveals a deep and pervasive belief in the creation of man by God, man=s fall from grace, and man=s eventual salvation in the Millennium.
A Male Millennium: Just as the Judeo-Christian story of the creation and Fall betrays a masculine bias, so the recovery of mankind=s image-likeness to God is understood to be restricted to males. God is the male Father of the universe, who creates a son in his image, and it is this masculine divine image which is lost and restored.
Eve did not share in the original divine likeness. Indeed, she was the proximate cause of the fall of Adam and his loss of divine likeness B the loss of his original perfection, immortality, share in divine knowledge and divinely ordained dominion over nature. Restoration of perfection is a project for men only (pp. 212-214).
Changes in Attitude towards Technology: History shows that men have viewed technology, in sequence, as:
a. A God-permitted means to salvation.
b. A means by which man can be like God or in God=s image
c. A means by which man can be a co-creator with God, that is, godly.
d. A means of being God.
e. A means to be better than God.
A Symbiotic Relationship: History illustrates a symbiotic relationship between on the one hand, scientists and engineers who develop means to increase man=s power and control, and on the other hand, established power which, in return for supporting these scientists and engineers, has access to these new means and uses them to increase its power and control.
Divine Pretensions of the Few: The mantle of religion in which scientists and engineers wrap themselves, shields them from the criticism that their prowess is not directed at meeting the basic human needs of the many, but rather at increasing the power of an elite few, among which they themselves figure prominently.
Society participates: Common people abet the increasing hubris of scientists and engineers, in the vain hope that the new technology will benefit everyone, even perhaps bring salvation to all, not just the powerful elite. But technology has never been primarily about meeting human needs. On the contrary, it has been aimed at transcending mortal concerns.
New Child-rearing Methods still Impotent: Modern, more humane child-rearing methods are too recent and as yet not sufficiently widespread to counteract very deeply rooted Christian beliefs.
Notes
* Titles which appear in small capital letters, after historic period dates, refer to the predominant European child-rearing mode of the time, and (in parenthesis, in italics) the typical personality to which it gave rise.
** Titles in superscript at the left margin summarize the statement appearing in the text, and in their sequence, illustrate the increasing hubris of scientists and engineers. These titles are:
Creation
Techn. (Technology)
Time
God=s Will (Sanctioned, permitted by God)
Salvation
God-like (Like God or in the image of God)
Godly (A god similar to God)
Being God
Better than God
References
All page numbers refer to:
Noble, David, The Religion of Technology B The Divinity of Man and the Spirit of Invention, Penguin, New York. N.Y.), 1997/1999.
Except for the following:
Lee Silver
Silver, Lee, Remaking Eden B How Genetic Engineering and Cloning will Transform the American Family (Avon, New York), 1997, pp. 13 and 293.
James Watt
St. Clair, Jeffrey, Presentation on his book, Been Brown so long, it looked like Green to me B The Politics of Nature (Common Courage, Monroe, ME), 2004, at City Light Books, San Francisco, February 2004.
***