Technology

Throughout church history, Christians have used the new technologies of the time to further God’s kingdom. The Internet has been no exception. In this video, blogger and author, Tim Challies, talks about how Christians have used technologies including the Internet and blogs and how they have had both benefits and drawbacks.

If you go back and look at the long history of the Christian faith in this world, you’ll see that Christians have always been very adept at taking hold of new technologies and using them for the good of others and the glory of God.

Go all the way back to the early church who used a great new technology. It was in some ways a communications technology and it was the Roman roads. This road system that spread all through the world. It had been invented for a very different purpose, to carry trade, to carry soldiers from place to place. The Christians saw it as an opportunity to take missionaries from place to place to communicate the gospel across these roads.

Then, go into the 1400’s and you have the printing press. What happens is Christians take hold of the printing press. And really, through the printing press, this new communications medium, they usher in this Reformation that forever changed the world, and introduced far more people than every before to sound, biblical doctrine.

All through history, Christians have found ways to use new communication, new media, in order to carry out the Great Commission. And that’s exactly what we’re seeing with the Internet. When the Internet came along, Christians were very quick on the scene to say, “How can we use this to serve the Lord? How can we use this to carry out our mission?”

Using Technology when studing the Bible

Reading Online vs Offline

Two Kinds of Reading

There are two main kinds of reading: linear and non-linear reading.

Linear reading: the reader reads the text from the left to the right start to finish. Also known as slow reading or deep reading.

Non-linear reading: the reader skims material jumping to different sections. Also known as scattered reading.

Reading on Screens

When it comes to choosing to read online vs offline, online reading may seem like the easy choice. However, online reading can be very distracting. While it is easy to get information from online sources, the brain processes digital reading differently than it does when reading offline from paper.

Shallower Processing. Online means constant exposure to fast-paced, and rapidly changing information. Digital media trains the brain to process information more rapidly and less thoroughly leading to what is known as the shallowing hypothesis. Shallow processing retains fewer details.

Hard On The Eyes. Constantly looking at the blue light from screens can be hard on the eyes over time.  While it is not often perceptible, most screens flicker at a high rate which can cause visual and sensory fatigue. Some e-readers use different light forms than computers in order to reduce eye strain.

Less structured. For both school and for pleasure,  online time is often run on autopilot. It’s simple to just click the next link and keep scrolling without having to use too much brainpower. Even when going online with the intention to learn, because the internet is also used for pleasure, it’s to get distracted.

Drains Mental Resources. Processing the constantly flickering screens and filtering out pop up ads, and other distractions when reading online can easily drain mental resources, making the online reading experience less effective

Reading on Paper

Though it may be old fashioned, research continues to show that when it comes to reading for learning, paper reading has many more benefits than online reading does.

Deep Reading. When holding a book, we receive reminders of how many pages we’ve read and how many remain. We can flip pages to reread text as needed The text itself provides a “landscape” as we read that helps the memory centre become more active.

Multiple Senses. There is research that shows that information is processed more effectively when multiple senses are used. Touching, seeing, feeling, even smelling the book lead to more sense in use when reading a book.

Intentional. It’s easy to be distracted and fall into the habit of mindless scrolling online. This is less likely to happen when reading a book, as the act of opening a book, find the place where you left and choosing to start reading is an intentional choice that can make reading more effective.

Increases retention and comprehension. When we read, our brains construct a map of the text, like recalling that a piece of information appeared near the top, left-hand page of a book. This map can boost understanding of the material as well as how long we remember it.

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Our passion is to help churches and ministries leverage technology to help more people hear the Gospel message. Here are a few ways we think technology benefits the church...

1. Wider Reach

In a day when communication travels faster than ever and is immediately available, we have an opportunity as followers of Christ to take advantage of new tools for sharing the Gospel.

Whether you are creating an app, starting a podcast, or leveraging another communication tool powered by modern technology, you can reach more people with Gospel content than any other time in history.

2. Cultural Relevance

Our reception or rejection of technology sends a strong message to the culture around us. The best way to reach people with the good news of Jesus is to meet them where they are at in a way that's convenient to them.

Reaching people through technology, specifically mobile technology, is one of the most effective ways to help people see how much you care to see them engage with life changing content.

3. Increased Productivity

Streamlined processes and efficiency are much more common place with smartphones that act as a calendars, phone books, and communication tools all in one. Leveraging mobile technology to get more done in less time can help church staff focus on more initiatives and love more people.

4. Better Stewardship

The costs associated with older ways of doing things can be a major budget drain for many churches and ministries. For example, by making certain resources digital, churches can avoid costs associated with printing out bulletins, song lyrics, or event flyers, providing an opportunity for better stewardship.

5. Greater Engagement

Nothing can replace the value in face-to-face interactions with real people, but the truth is we live in a mobile world, and being more technologically savvy helps organizations stay more connected and more engaged with their people.

Technology is a tool that helps us live out our God-given callings. This is one of the most important things for us to learn as we engage the topic of technology and artificial intelligence. Because we often see the tremendous power that technology has over our lives, we are tempted to treat technology as more than a tool, as something with a value similar to our own if it is powerful enough or does enough work on its own. Technology will be misused and abused by broken people just like you and me.

Nowhere in Scripture is a tool or a technology condemned for being evil. Scripture shows that technology and tools can be used for both good and evil. Even if a tool was designed for evil, the tool itself isn’t evil. What is sinful isn’t the sword but how people choose to use it. It can be used for righteous purposes like standing up for justice against those who are evil, but it can also be used to hurt or kill the innocent. While the technology isn’t moral in that sense, it does carry with it the effects of sin and brokenness. Technology is not morally neutral, because it influences and changes us each time we use it.

Technology expands what is possible for humans to do. It can be best thought of as a catalyst or an accelerant for change because it opens new opportunities for humans to live in this world. Broken, sinful, and evil humans are the ones given the abilities to create these tools and the ones who can choose how we use them. Paul reminds us that each of us has fallen short and needs to repent (Rom. 3:23). The world itself did not sin. Our tools did not rebel. We did.

The story of Cain and Abel is a great example of this truth about the purpose and use of technology. Both Cain and Abel were created by God with specific skills and talents. Both used tools (early forms of technology) to work the ground and care for animals. But Cain sinned and chose to use his God-given strength and abilities to kill a fellow image-bearer. He chose to take the good gifts that God gave him and use them for evil and selfish purposes.

Technology Is Not New

In our digital world, it is easy for us to believe that technology always takes the form of digital and computer technology, limiting our idea of technology to our smart phones and computers. But even crude tools used to cultivate the ground and construct things are forms of technology. Shovels, hoes, hammers, nails, and saws are all technological innovations. These tools were revolutionary pieces of technology. They changed everything about our lives, from the foods we ate to the places we lived.

📷One of the most important pieces of technology in all of human history is the printing press. Johannes Gutenberg is credited with inventing the world’s first movable-type printing press in 1450, and it revolutionized the world. It allowed books and other materials to be mass produced cheaply and efficiently, and made them available for mass distribution, not just for the wealthy or those with high status in society.

The printing press is the main reason that you can hold a book in your hands and even have your own copy of the Bible. Before the printing press, each Bible was hand copied by scribes. Not only were these Bibles prohibitively expensive because of how much time they took to create but they also could contain errors because they were being copied by hand. The printing press helped to mitigate these copying errors as well as to bring the cost of books down so that common people could directly engage with the ideas in them. This technological advancement changed society not only at that time but for all generations to come by giving people access to more information than was ever thought possible.

But even as the printing press was a catalyst for good, it also expanded the possibilities for evil in our world. Without the printing press, we likely would not have 24-hour cable news networks and the rise of fake news. This is because the printing press began the process of spreading news and information throughout communities which previously didn’t enjoy these freedoms. With all of this information and freedom, people were able to connect in ways that were unthinkable prior to the printing press. All of this eventually gave rise to the press and mass media that we enjoy today as a natural extension of the free flow of information and exchange of ideas. While access to information is a good thing for democracy and society, it also can be misused to promote sinful and evil things. The printing press also led to the distribution of pornography by sinful human beings because it facilitated copying text and later images for distribution to a wider society. From these two examples, we can see how technology itself isn’t evil but can be used by broken and sinful people for evil purposes. Technology is amoral in that sense, but it is a catalyst for change and an opportunity for both good and evil.

We are at another turning point in human technological development. Artificial intelligence is, even now, revolutionizing nearly every area of our society, including our lives, our families, and our jobs. It is able to perform tasks for us with or without our involvement, unlike prior technological developments like the printing press that were driven manually by a human operator. Artificial intelligence is now performing many of the tasks that our culture was built on and is disrupting our society in ways that we cannot even fathom. From processing massive amounts of data with ease to replacing millions of people’s jobs, AI is changing everything.

What Is Artificial Intelligence?

My family has a digital assistant working in our home that is incredibly smart, never takes a break, and never complains about its job. A couple of years ago, we purchased a Google Home Mini™ to integrate with other smart household devices, and we’ve found fun ways to use it, especially with our toddler. My oldest son was learning different animal sounds, and we asked the assistant to make a number of animal sounds for him. But it couldn’t find one of the requested sounds, and its response struck me: “I can’t help you with that right now. But I am always learning.” Learning vast amounts of information used to be something only humans could do, but today we have many machines and AI-empowered systems that do just that.

Artificial intelligence is an emerging field of technology defined as nonbiological intelligence, where a machine is programmed to accomplish complex goals by applying knowledge to the specific tasks at hand. Because it’s nonbiological, AI can be copied and reprogrammed at relatively low cost. In certain forms, it is extremely flexible and can be harnessed for great good or for ill.

Google Home™ is a popular example, but there are far more advanced AI systems than this being used in a variety of applications such as business, medicine, and finance. In 2017, a set of videos of walking robots from Google and Boston Dynamics went viral on the internet. These AI-based systems did things that astonished most viewers (and even many in the AI community) with their ability to walk and even traverse rough terrain with ease.

AI systems have become so advanced so quickly that many wonder what these systems will accomplish in the future as they become smarter and human intervention becomes less necessary. This is not a sci-fi fantasy. It’s reality.

As I’ve written earlier, technology is amoral but acts as a catalyst that expands the opportunities for humanity to pursue. It is not good or evil in itself but can be designed and used for good and evil purposes. We are able to use technology for the glory of God and the betterment of society, or we can use it to push aside the dignity of others created in God’s image for sinful and contorted means.

AI is already being used to demean certain people and deny them fundamental human rights. Countries like China, Russia, North Korea, and Egypt have deployed AI facial recognition systems to control political dissidents. But this same technology can also be used ethically to identify criminals, stop terrorist threats, and even allow you to pay for a meal at a KFC in China just by smiling at a camera.

Though the purpose behind the creation of a given technology can be morally complicated or even evil, that doesn’t mean that God is unable to redeem it for a noble and righteous use. To use tools properly, though, we must understand the worldviews behind them and the motivations that drive their creation. As we engage these understandings of the world, remember that God calls us to “see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ” (Col. 2:8).