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The Religion of Technology: The Divinity of Man and the Spirit of Invention. David F. Noble. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1997, 273 pp. $36.00.
York University's social historian David F. Noble has once again broken new ground as he did in A World Without Women. It is generally stated in historical works that the rise of science and technology in the modern period has been destructive of religious belief. Noble argues that the modern technological world and Judeo-Christian religion have developed together, and that there is more than an accidental relationship between the two.
Part I of the book provides a historical treatment of the development of science and technology especially from the medieval period to the present, showing that "what we experience today is neither new nor odd but . . . a continuation of a thousand-year-old Western tradition in which the advance of the useful arts was inspired by and grounded upon religious expectation." Millenarianism becomes very much a part of the development of technology that it is seen as a means of recovering the knowledge lost with Adam's fall, yielding renewed perfection.
Part II deals with modern technologies such as atomic weapons and artificial intelligence. Looking at the statements of the weapon-makers, for example, one finds anticipation of annihilation `blended' with a belief in salvation." Considering the development of artificial life, promoter J.D. Farmer says, it "is potentially the most beautiful creation of humanity," a new creation to improve on the first that failed.
In the last chapter, Noble points out that the developments in technology were never meant to be universal, but were reserved for the elect. The 20th century proponents of technology have outdone their predecessors, in that their work has helped to increase state power and give greater means for corporations "to discipline, deskill, and displace millions of people, while concentrating global power and wealth into fewer hands." New technologies are not about meeting human need, but about transcending it.
This dense but fascinating study of technology and Christianity asks us to reflect about the pace of technological development, and assess its costs and benefits. Not every reader will accept Noble's arguments, but it calls for a careful assessment of our attitude to technological developments.
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