Technology and the Human Person in light of God's Creative will

​The overall premise of this reflection is that in so far as technology hinders man’s fundamental nature and his orientation toward God, his creator, it is a scourge within his own hand but in so far as it contributes to his nature and orientation it serves as a royal diadem in the crown of his creator.
​As I began reflecting upon the relationship between technology and the human person in light of the themes of God and creation examined in the first part of this course I took a quick look around my little room. As my eyes surveyed the room I was struck by the presence of the technology that I’ve come to possess. The list includes: ‘my’ laptop, ‘my’ printer, ‘my’ cell phone, ‘my’ wireless headset, ‘my’ digital camera, an electronic chip that clips on to my sneaker to record my running log, and ‘my’ two ipods. I intentionally put quotes around ‘my’ because it struck me how highly individualistic these technological goodies are. These technological goodies are within themselves good but they can potentially draw a person into a highly individualistic lifestyle.
​With a computer a person can search a vast sea of information on the Internet. This particular form of technology has numerous benefits that can contribute to the human person and yet at the same time it can serve to be his own prison cell as he finds himself enslaved to the temptations that are so readily accessible to him. This reality is much the same for almost any form of technology. This reality flows out of man’s own very nature and orientation something, which we will reflect upon in the next paragraph.
​Man, as male and female, is created in the image and likeness of God and is endowed with the faculties of freedom and reason with the capacity for wisdom. He is a composite of both the material and spiritual worlds and in the words of the Tradition is an embodied person. Man’s origins as recounted in the Genesis accounts of the Creation stories tell us that he is the culmination of the created order with a strongly relational dimension to his very being. We see in the first creation story man’s sexual differentiation as a sign of his imagining God. In the other creation story we see man as a male realizing his capacity and need for relationship with one to whom he can truly give himself. In the same account we see man as female responding to that call to communion. This relational dimension of the human person flows from being created in the image and likeness of God who as our tradition tells us is a communion of divine persons. This relational dimension of the human person is not only horizontal but is also vertical as is gleaned from the relationship the first human beings had with God as they strolled around the garden in the cool of the day.
​Another fundamental dimension of the creation account that needs to be borne in mind is the orientation of all creation toward Sabbath rest. Man is created for worship, which is already endowed with a hint of the ensuing redemptive presence of the Creator in the life of man. The call to keep sacred the day of the Sabbath flowed out of God’s gift of the Law, which the chosen people had received after the Lord led them out of slavery in Egypt by his mighty, outstretched arm.
​A final dimension of the Creation story that needs to be remembered in treating of the relationship of man and technology is his fall from grace into the slavery of sin. It is with the dawning of sin that man’s relational nature is severely wounded. As a result of this ‘original’ sin man, as male and female, begins to interact in a world that is no longer the garden in which God planted him. All of man’s dealings in this world are therefore to some extent a struggle against his own wounded humanity. This wounded ness has affected his faculties of freedom, and reason. It has also placed a wedge in between the spiritual and material of which he is composed. He is not left only to struggle with relating to the world around him but as a result of this wedge he finds himself struggling to achieve a coherent ordering of himself or self-mastery.
​Having outlined this basic but indispensable knowledge of man as it relates to his nature and orientation we can now examine a few areas in which technology has both the potential to help man become more fully human and at the same time hinder such growth.
​As I mentioned earlier, the Internet is an explosively large technological advance in the history of humanity that has occurred just within this past century. Without listing off all the potential benefits and hindrances that this advance offers the human person it will suffice to mention just a few. On the positive side, the Internet has allowed human persons from all over the world to connect with one another thereby establishing one global village in a sense. This worldwide connection can serve in a most beautiful way the communal aspect of the human person. A person in Canada can share his or her experiences of life with the life experiences of someone in China and through such sharing help to transform that person’s life. The Internet allows for a sea of social communications: personal, social and business communications can be done electronically through programs such as email, Facebook, and a whole list of others.
This particular facet of the Internet can potentially cultivate the social dimension of the human person. On the other hand because of man’s wounded nature he can find himself struggling with aspects of the Internet that tear away at his nature such as pornography. Man is deeply sexual and yet wounded by sin he often times finds within himself a struggle to live out that gift as something given to the other. Many human beings have become addicted to pornography on the Internet and this is leading them into a world of illusory relationships and freedom. Pornography is also leading the human person to treat other human persons as objects for their pleasure. A slippery slope such as pornography will continue to rob the human person of his fundamental dignity and his call to a transcendent covenantal awareness of his/her sexuality.
​The Internet can greatly impact upon the social/communal dimension of the human person in both a positive and negative way.
​Other forms of technology affect man in both his nature and his call to build up the kingdom for all peoples. I am drawn to reflect upon how technology such as a fishing trawler when in the hand of a man that is not committed to self-mastery can become an exercise in greed. In particular I am thinking about the Newfoundland fishery that for 500 years or more has provided inshore fishermen with a livelihood that in some respects attributed to the development of a unique sense of culture. With the arrival of the bigger, faster and more technically equipped fishing trawlers the fishing grounds of Newfoundland became the object of man’s greed. Without using the use of his reason properly or at least ordering it toward good stewardship the cod stocks around certain parts of Newfoundland were over fished without allowing the spawning process its own Sabbath rest. This particular abuse has affected the livelihood of many inshore fisherman who have had to leave behind their connection to their history and many times their family and friends as they migrated to other places for work. To me this is an example of how man’s nature, as a steward of the good things of the earth, has been affected by original sin.
​I am also drawn to reflect upon the nature of creation as a gift and in particular, human life. This reflection leads me to ponder the expansive reproductive technologies that are circulating within our society today.  Our tradition testifies to the fact that children are a gift from God arising out of a procreative and unitive covenant of love between a man and a woman. Yet, many advances in scientific technology allow for women to receive ‘in vitro fertilization’ without ever needing to respect the wisdom inherent in God’s moral law regarding marriage. Technology in this case can be used to reduce human life to the object of one possessing a consumer mentality. In this case parents can choose when they want to have a child or not without any respect for God’s graceful initiation and blessing upon their union. Such technology also raises the question of eugenics and whether people will sever themselves from reaching out to those who are ‘so called’ less then ‘normal’ such as those born with down syndrome etc.
​Once again referring to the increase in the means of communication there arises the problem of evil in a universal mindset. By this I mean that many news stations consistently transmit news that shows forth a world of ever increasing danger, starvation and war. When this kind of news is always being broadcast it inevitably draws the human mind in to doubting the goodness of God and therefore his existence at all. Man begins to form God in his own image and likeness by thinking, ‘if I were God I wouldn’t allow all of these evils to occur’. The problem is, however, man is many times not privy to the great things that God is doing in the world because such technology is in the hands of those who seem to be not the least bit interested in this kind of news. This use of technology can greatly hinder man’s orientation toward worship.
​In our world today technology is also giving rise to a 24/7, business mentality. The greater the availability of goods and services is supposedly at the service of human freedom. In order for this business mentality to be realized someone has to be working everyday of the week including Sunday, the day on which man is called to reflect upon the nature and goal of his work and existence: worship. When this one day of the week is robbed of its sacredness, man’s work begins to lose its dignity and in his turn man begins to be treated as less then a man because now he is simply a pair of hands and feet that happen to be useful.
​I have listed a couple of ways in which technology is currently being used in ways that are detracting from man’s fundamental nature and orientation. There are ways, however in which man is benefiting from the increase in technology. One example comes from my summer placement in a hospital setting back home in Newfoundland. The technology I am speaking of is benefiting the lives of those diagnosed as dialysis patients. Dialysis patients are people with a blood disorder that needs regular cleansing in order for them to live. To be diagnosed with dialysis is like a life sentence for those with it because without their three times a week treatment they will surely die in a matter of time and with it they are committed to shaping their lives around the hospital setting. While patients don’t readily welcome the diagnosis of dialysis they do however show a lot of gratitude that there is such technology to extend their lives, whether for themselves or for their family and friends. I see this use of technology as beneficial to the human community because it shows forth the beauty of freedom in which a person makes a permanent decision to receive this laborious treatment for the sake of their loved ones.
​The relationship between technology and the human person can be a win-win situation for the human community if ordered properly. Technology must always respect the human person as a subject and not an object. The human person is the steward of this garden that we call earth and not its slave and we must keep the human person always at the fore in making decisions about technology.
​While technology can be good in and of itself it can also be used to negate that which is good within the human person. All technological advances must always keep in mind man’s origins and his fall from grace; a fall he must continually struggle with God’s grace to overcome. This struggle will always show itself in this life and as a result man is always in a position to be tempted to use it in way that reduces his own humanity and call to transcendence to a single dimension of his reality.
​Just as creation flows forth from the loving will of our Triune God, human technology must flow from the common voice of humanity and for the common good of humanity. Is the direction in which technology is going representative of humanity’s true needs and creativity? How does human technology show forth the love of humanity in comparison to God’s creative action, which flows from his own love? If freedom reaches maturity in making decisions of a permanent character how is technology availing humanity of this freedom? How does technology reflect the inherently human call to live in relationship? Finally, to what extent does technology respect man’s internal struggle for self-mastery for if man cannot master himself how can he master the world around him?
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