Religion and Technology Co-existing Together: Will One Rein Supreme?

As technology is continuously advancing, people are not aware of some of the less
obvious things that are hitting the dust because of this constant technology boom. The Industrial Revolution has passed, but left us with this need for inventions that make our lives easier. But, humans have only had technologies for a short amount of time compared to the overall time of human existence. So, what has been a part of humans world for centuries, much before the Industrial Revolution, or the nuclear bomb, or the computer? Something so obvious that people tend to dismiss it. Religion, a word so loaded, with many different contexts, but the same principle. Religion has gone through centuries and always made it out alive. It survived the Renaissance, the Boxer Rebellion, Communism, the Beat Movement, New Worlds and more. But, for the first time in history, something seems to have stepped in between religion and the people. It appears that technology is hindering the advancement of religion and affecting the spread and practice of religion. So the big question at hand is: has religion met its match, or will it use the advancing technologies for its benefits and continue to survive decades?
There is a little statistic that claims in America, three times more people attend a place of worship now, compared to when the nation was founded (Can Religion Withstand Technology? 2003). But, this statistic is quite deceiving and fails to take into account the growing population. The nation was founded more than 200 years ago and the only three times more
people go to a place of worship? Is that a substantial argument?
Some may argue that technology is in fact helping religion, and that some of the technologies are even helping one connect with their religion at an easier access. There are now certain cell phones now being equipped with a compass that can always point to Mecca, and sermons airing on television (Saudi Arabia Telecom News). These rather new ideas are supposed to be putting people in constant touch with their religion, but are in fact hurting religions. By having a cell phone compass that points to Mecca takes away from the journey that Muslims should visit Mecca once in their life (Lapidus 181). Mecca is a popular place for Muslims in the country of Saudi Arabia, which is how it generates much of its money, being such a poor place.
Then there are those who argue you that, no, religion isn’t about money being generated, its about one believing and devoting themselves to their beliefs. To say that the city of Mecca may not be generating as much money, is that a little ironic? It is not ironic that Mecca, a place of worship, may be concerned with the number of people who visit the area annually. No, instead, Mecca is in the desert. Mecca is the exact kind of quiet where Carretto and the Desert Fathers, group of spiritual monks around in the fourth century escaped the business of the world and collect their thoughts. To complain that a religious place isn’t prospering as it once did may seem a bit commercial to many people, but it’s much more than that.
Or people may argue that by airing sermons on television, it allows anyone to connect with their beliefs in the comfort of their own home and there are no restrictions or limits to who can “connect” with their beliefs this way (especially since the sermons are aired on public stations), but by religions standards these are fabricated connections. Carlo Carretto explains a layer of fat that clogs the mind, body and soul much like a greasy hamburger would. It is religion’s duty to strip that layer away, exposing realness. He explains the cross as an inverted knife that scrapes that “fat” away. Technology blocks a connection one must have with their beliefs and adds to the fat. Mother Teresa refers to the fat that Carretto explains as “additions” (Mother Teresa 13). One can conclude that the ideas of these two very spiritual, philosophical writers, are parallel to each other. They both emphasize the importance of different aspects of “stripping” the fat.
The city of Mecca, now in danger because of the spreading diseases in the area, does not know how to handle that situation (Epidemiological Investigation, sec. 1). Every year, poor Muslims travel to Saudi Arabia to visit Mecca. But, it isn’t the poor that Mother Teresa or Carretto are concerned with. It isn’t the poor that they say need God the most, it is the wealthy. Carlo Carretto states that the wealthy do not love their neighbor, because of all the possessions that tie them down. The wealthy become greedy and want more, where as the poor are free because they do not have possessions tying them down (58). It’s more than generating money for the area.
Mother Teresa in fact did not allow people to send money or fund raise for the poor people of Calcutta, so money does not matter right? But, that thought dismisses Mother Teresa’s other teachings. Mother Teresa would not accept money for the poor because she wanted the people to be active with what they gave. She wanted someone’s time, not their money. So, sitting on the couch, watching the sermon on channel 26 is similar to adding money to the basket in church and not actively giving your time for the greater good of religion. It is the same as buying a cell phone that has a compass that is equipped to point to Mecca in order to pray facing that direction. Religion is more than just showing your face once a week in church, or confessing your sins, or praying, it’s about incorporating the beliefs, and practices it into your lifestyle, as Mother Teresa would argue.
Then there are those who argue that religion wouldn’t be as widespread as it is without the use of technology. Technology allowed missionaries to do this. Boats, airplanes, trains, all this has allowed people to travel around the world, spreading their religion. Let us look at the Boxer Rebellion for example, which was spurred by Christians from the west who were able to travel across the world in order to spread their religion. The Boxer Rebellion was a movement in the late 1800s, where the Chinese began taking a stand against Christian Westerners trying to claim their land and convert their beliefs (Microsoft Readers 2000). In this case, technology was used to try and spread a religion, converting people of different faiths. The result was The Boxer Rebellion. These Christians wanted was a wider, larger following of Christ, and they were able to use technology to benefit their religion. The use of technology created a problem because it gave a false sense of power.
Throughout decades, peoples have tried to convert other faiths while conquering other tribes, nations, communities, villages. Jared Diamond tackles the idea of nations and regions that have become more advanced than other regions and explains this is not because certain peoples are “smarter” than others, but because of the use of guns, germs and steel, which has also explained the spread of religion. The introduction of guns and steel (not advanced technology, but still technology) allowed certain nations to travel and explore the world in earlier times, and conquer new lands (Diamond). Conquering lands and converting people was possible because of the introduction of guns and steel. It seemed that technology was in fact helping religion, but it shaded the true purpose and point of religion: love. In places where guns and steel were available it gave the people confidence and shaded their perception of the purpose of religion. Pride got the best of many explorers who wanted more land, more resources and to rein supreme. Converting people became obvious in order to make your nation the strongest, just like teaching your language, religion is a marker of one’s heritage and background. Therefore we can conclude that the introduction of many technologies, such as guns and steel have given a sense of power to nations, regions, tribes and people, suppressing the inferior regions and nations, forcing false conversions.
Religion is also about connecting, praying and meditating, and technology is also anti-wrinkle creams and diet pills, technology can be deceiving. Mother Teresa explains the importance of prayer in everyone’s life; how you need to escape reality from time to time and connect with God on a deeper level. More importantly are the harms of technology that Mother Teresa notes, “if we really want to conquer the world, we will not be able to do it with bombs or with other weapons of destruction. Let us conquer the world with our love” (page 26). Mother Teresa’s ideas and thoughts prosper with love, care and prayer, her main message about religion. In short, new technologies have changed, helped and hurt societies. because it is “a natural result of 8 or 10 hours of work-a-day routine with all these gadgets leads to a total disintegration of the inner concentration of our personality” (Can Religion Withstand Technology? 2003). Others believe that advancing technology, such as Stephen Hawkings work is dealing with questions that religions debate, such as, “why is there a universe at all, what was there before time began?” Another important question this writer asks is, “are the people who buy Hawking's books really straying from religion when they embrace science?” (Can Religion Withstand Technology? 2003). This question is important in the sense that it is a rather objective question. The answer is different for different people, but we need to look at the concrete information presented it becomes clearer. The question addresses the idea that people who are buying Stephan Hawking’s books neglect religion when they choose to support science. Many people believe that science and religion are polar opposites, but many scientists will say otherwise. Charles Darwin, who coined the terms natural selection and evolution, also wrote Origin of Species, which in the first chapter of this book, addresses the fact that he is not trying to disprove a God, for he was a religious man also. Instead, Darwin was explaining observations he noted when visting different islands and noticed that birds of the same species varied slightly at each island.
Now, if we explore the idea of evolution from a religious angle, the question becomes quite different. Of course the people who are buying Stephan Hawking’s books are “straying from religion” by supporting Hawking’s ideas and theories. These theories, many think disrupt the religious lifestyle and practices because they dispute what religions teach. Darwin noting natural selection and adaptations, go against the idea that God created man, not man evolving from an ancestor. So, this question then addresses and inquires a more important idea: did religion and science ever co-exist in harmony. Can one borrow bits and pieces from both science and religion and develop a common ground? The answer is complicated, but there is an answer.
Presently, religion and science work together in ever so slight ways. Most everyone has accepted that rain is not a mythical act that means God is angry, rather an act that science can explain. Science is usually described as explaining the attainable answers, the “how” answers, but religion explains that unexplainable, the “why” questions on everyone’s brain. But it was not always that way; religion explained these acts such as the weather that people cold not yet explain with science. It is possible to borrow different pieces from both religion and technology this concept parallels one that Merton discusses in one of his books. Merton explains that someone cannot combine bits and pieces from different religions, making their own to accommodate themselves. It’s like the person who says, “I’m looking for a religion that fits me.” The thing that this person is lacking, is that religion is not supposed to be molded, or changed, explaining why someone cannot take pieces they like from each religion. If a person tests different aspects of each religion and makes their own, they are molding religion, instead of molding to one religion. Therefore, the person learns, nor struggles with anything, because they are talking parts that are already molded for them. Merton continues to explain that one must be comfortable with their own traditions before they can explore others. He notes that one cannot be comfortable and understand other beliefs until their understand their own (175). This is the same idea for combining bits and pieces of religion and technology to make your own beliefs. Yes, it is possible to do this, but then the altogether concept of the challenges of either religion or science are picked out. Therefore, one chooses some explanations from religion and some explanations from science, but missing the key ideas and difficulties of them separately.
On the other hand, one writer, David W. Nobel believes that religion has spurred technology and science to advance. “Why has Western Judeo-Christian culture developed such an extraordinary obsession with technology?” he asks. “[Nobel] argues that, at its core, technology embodies a tenet of religious millenarianism promising the transcendence of mortal life. It is the achievement of this provocative thesis to foreground that religion and technology are not so much opposing historical projects but rather that they are deeply intertwined,” explains Felix Stradler of Nobel’s work (The Religion of Technology 1998). Nobel explains in his work that religion and technology are not polar opposites like many people believe, but instead they are “intertwined.” As described earlier, religion and science are related on the most basic levels, but to say that technology “embodies a tenet of religious millenarianism” is a ridiculous hyperbole. At the core of technology, there is science, modernism and material goods, not religion. At the core of religion is God, not inanimate objects, but a “mythical” creature. Technology is substituting for religion, not becoming intertwined with it.
Several religious philosophers, such as Thomas Merton, Carlo Carretto and Henry Nouwen, also points out a direct correlation of technology affecting one’s connection with religion, but in a different way. Nouwen believed that in order to reach God, one’s life must be simplistic and free of too many possessions, which can weigh a person down. Nouwen explores the idea of “prayer of the heart”, which he describes is something the Desert Fathers showed us. He details prayer of the heart as, “the prayer of the heart is a prayer that directs itself to God from the center of the person, thus affects the whole of our humanness” (Nowen 77). He continues to explain that one needs quiet and concentration to achieve a simplistic prayer of the heart, which in a cluttered society it hard to achieve. He uses imagery to describe cluttered societies and how this is in turn hurting the people. Upon describing our culture as becoming more “wordy” as the decades continue, “recently I was driving through Los Angeles, and suddenly I had the strange sensation of driving through a huge dictionary” (Nouwen 45). He relates this growing “wordiness” to the increasing interest and need for technology. Nouwen believes religion is silence. It is in the deepest silence that one can find themselves because they are not distracted by ads for diet pills, laced with artificial worries that only interrupt the spiritual self.
Carlo Carretto, another spiritual person, who wrote many books about his beliefs concerning religion and the need for quiet in one’s life, which religion provide. Carretto notes that religion is more than just believing and watching a sermon, and Mother Teresa notes that technology is more than just televisions and computers, but these things that can interfere with people’s mind and spirit. Carretto details the main aspects of a God and love. He describes the three stages of prayer, explaining that one needs to understand their place in the world and that God does not need anyone for anything. Carretto emphasizes the idea that to reach simplicity in one’s life we need to leave our possessions behind; they only cause problems and greed between neighbors. All one needs are the essentials, the rest is clutter of the soul and spirit and prevents us even being humble. If one does not reach humility, then they will forever be prideful and think that they are needed, but Carretto makes that misunderstanding clear by naming one of his chapters, “You are Nothing”.
Thomas Merton translated many sayings from the Desert Fathers, who were monks in the forth century. The Desert Fathers detailed the the ideas of “stripping” oneself originated, which Merton explains in his book. The Desert Fathers. This monks preached about leaving everything behind and helping people, striving to be more like Jesus. Even back then possessions affected one’s spirituality and these monks had to retreat to the desert in order to reach a clearer understanding of themselves and God. These monks tried living “The Life of Nazareth” and had to ward of many temptations in order to do so, something which many societies are facing to a greater degree now. Although archaic, the wisdom of the Desert Fathers is relevant and helpful for today’s age. The Desert Fathers’ passages can still be understood and followed, which is why Merton translates them. The main message of the Desert Fathers is to “strip” one’s self, which is also the main message of Carretto’s, Mother Teresa’s and Nouwen’s works. Merton asks deep, philosophical questions in his own works about religion. He urges the audience to think for themselves, which is something that with the growing technology that is hurting in this society. Merton asks, “the person who has meditated on the passion of Christ, but has not meditated on the extermination camps of Dachau or Auschwitz, has not fully entered into the experience of Christianity in our time” (Merton 97). This alluring quote impacts the importance that religion is more than sermons, while simultaneously shows the harm of technology and developing technology. The most important aspect of this quote though is that Merton asserts that not understanding or contemplating the evil of the past can be even more harmful. Merton contemplated the deeper issues that technology brought about, he explored the harm it can lead, and not escaping, as Carretto and Nouwen noted, can really hurt the soul and body.
In short, as the decades continue, more advancing technology is obvious, but something can be done about technology hurting one’s connection with their spiritual side. As Carretto describes, one needs to build their own desert. You don’t have to retreat to a desert, such as Carretto or Merton (Carretto 94). Carretto explains that as long as one secludes themselves and finds their own desert in this busy world, religion will thrive because in this quiet we can learn what love really is. The quiet of the internal desert more importantly allows someone to contemplate and become more aware of the indifferences of the world, and the indifferences in one’s life. As for people becoming less involved head on with religion and watching from the sidelines, well that is another thing that has to be done internally and individually. There is also the common theory that technology is going to become so advanced that it will become useless and turn back time. Technology may become so advanced and constructed and efficient that it will be inefficient, a theory that Bruce Mao is trying to work with. And when that happens, religion will be right where it was centuries ago, because it can withstand computers and laptops and plastic surgery, just as long as people find their own desert in this busy world.

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