Man and Machine: A Biblical Look at Present and Future Technology with C. S. Lewis Lesson 5

1. Man and Machine: A Biblical Look at Present and Future Technology with C. S. LewisLesson 5 Chesterfield Presbyterian Church February 6, 2011 Andrew Shaw andrew.shaw@att.net

2. Man and Machine: Outline • Man and Machine: Theology of Technology • Man is Master of the Machine • Man Uses the Machine to Master Others • Man is Mastered by the Machine (part 1) • Man is “Nothing But” a Machine • Man Must Become a Machine

3. C. Man Uses the Machine to Master Others • In what ways is eugenics a Technique, a Technology? (Ellul: rationalistic, artificiality, automatism, self-augmentation, monism, universalism, autonomous) • How is eugenics “playing God?” (striving for omnipotence, eternality, omniscience, redemption) • In what ways were politics, the media, science, and religious institutions complicit in the eugenics movement in the United States and the subsequent holocaust in WW2 Germany? • How is eugenics related to abortion, racism, infanticide, euthanasia, genocide, et al. • Could eugenics happen again in the United States? • Is eugenics happening anywhere in the world today? • What should our role as Christians/Church be today?

4. C. Man Uses the Machine to Master Others • The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Matthew 25:40) • Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Matthew 19:14, Mark 10:14, Luke 18:16) • And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3) • The promise is for you and your children. (Acts 2:39)

5. C. Man Uses the Machine to Master Others • “We do justice when we give all human beings their due as creations of God. Doing justice includes not only the rightings of wrongs, but generosity and social concern, especially toward the poor and vulnerable. This kind of life reflects the character of God.” • mishpat: righting wrongs; tzadeqah: life of right relationships Micah 6:8, Zech. 7:10-11, Ps. 146:7-9, Deut. 10:17-19, Prov. 31:8, Deut. 27:19, Jer. 22:3, Job 29:12-17, Job 31: 13-28, Ps. 33:5, Jer. 9:23-24, Ez. 18:5-8, Is. 58:6-7. Tim Keller, Generous Justice, 2010

6. D. Man Is Mastered by the Machine “God willed the free will of men and angels in spite of His knowledge that it could lead in some cases to sin and thence to suffering: i.e., He thought freedom worth creating even at that price.” God “gave [humans] free will. He gave them free will because a world of mere automata could never love, and therefore never know infinite happiness.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 1943, radio broadcast His [epsilon] conditioning has laid down rails along which he’s got to run. He can’t help himself; he’s foredoomed. Even after decanting, he’s still inside a bottle – an invisible bottle of infantile and embryonic fixations. Each one of us, of course, goes through life inside a bottle. Mustapha Mond Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, 1932

7. The Loss of Individual Freedom and Choice: Do I Really Have Free Will? (Am I Responsible for My Actions?) • Biological/Chemical Agency • Genetics (DNA): Nature – “I was born that way.” “It’s in my genes.” “I was programmed that way.” • Environmental (upbringing, experiences, Behaviorism): Nurture – “That’s the way I was brought up.” • Darwinian Evolution (naturalism, materialism) – “I evolved that way.” • Biodeterminism – evolutionary imperative of survival.

8. The Loss of Individual Freedom and Choice: Do I Really Have Free Will? (Am I Responsible for My Actions?) B. Non-human Agency • Luck (chance) - “It was in the cards.” • Fate/Fortune (astrology, et al.) – “It was in the stars.” • Fatalism (inevitable) – “It was my destiny.” • Superstition • Mechanism – “I’m just a cog in the machine.”

9. The Loss of Individual Freedom and Choice: Do I Really Have Free Will? (Am I Responsible for My Actions?) C. Human Agency • My Sin (rebellion, anger, guilt, poor choices, obsessions, addictions) – “I was under the influence.” “I couldn’t help it.” • Others’ Sin (injustice, slavery, racism, hatred, prejudice, peer pressure) – “He/She/They made me do it.” • Governmental (totalitarianism; entitlement) – “Big brother…”

10. The Loss of Individual Freedom and Choice: Do I Really Have Free Will? (Am I Responsible for My Actions?) D. Super-human Agency • Satan – “The devil made me do it.” • The “gods.” • If Allah wills… • Karma – consequences of past lives • God – “Why did God let that happen?” • Preferring determinism/fatalism. • Confusing predestination with determinism/fatalism. “Therefore, I am not responsible.”

11. The Loss of Individual Freedom and Choice: Do I Really Have Free Will? (Am I responsible for My Actions?) D. Super-human Agency (part 2) • God – His sovereignty and predestination, my responsibility. (Psalm 139:16, Romans 8:29-30, Ephesians 1:5,11, 1 Peter 1:2)*I am free (responsible) because Jesus was free – he freely went to the cross for me. I am imago Dei! *The only true freedom is the freedom that only God can grant us. Human beings only have true free will and choice when God chooses to give it. (John 8:36, Galatians 5:1)

12. Systematic Dehumanization

13. The Loss of Individual Freedom and Choice:

14. The Loss of Individual Freedom and Choice: Carlisle Indian School (Pa.), 1885

15. New England Holocaust Memorial Boston, Massachusetts • They came first for the Communists, • and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. • Then they came for the Jews, • and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. • Then they came for the trade unionists, • and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. • Then they came for the Catholics, • and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant • Then they came for me, • and by that time no one was left to speak up. original version attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) New England Holocaust Memorial, Boston, 1995

16. Nuremberg Code 1947 Directives for Human Experimentation • The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential.  This means that the person involved should have legal capacity to give consent; should be so situated as to be able to exercise free power of choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, over-reaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion… 4. The experiment should be so conducted as to avoid all unnecessary physical and mental suffering and injury. 5. No experiment should be conducted where there is an a priori reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur; except, perhaps, in those experiments where the experimental physicians also serve as subjects. 7. Proper preparations should be made and adequate facilities provided to protect the experimental subject against even remote possibilities of injury, disability, or death. Nuremberg Trials, 1945-46

17. Sudan (Darfur) – Zaghawa, Fur, Massaleit Burundi, Rwanda – Tutsi, Hutus Indonesia – Irian Jaya, Moluccas, Sulewesi Sri Lanka – Tamil, Sinhalese India – Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs China – Christians, Muslims, Falun Gong, minorities Pakistan – Christians, Shiites Iraq – Kurds, Shiites, Sunni Viet Nam – boat people Laos – Hmong Somalia – Isaaq Congo – Hema, Lendu Morocco – Sahrawis Botswana – Bushmen, Namibians Nigeria – Ibos, Tiv, Hausa, Yoruba, Ogoni Israel – Jews Russia – Chechens Some genocides going on today…www.genocidewatch.org

18. D. Man Is Mastered by the Machine God Loves Life! And God blessed them. And God said to them,(S) "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." Gen. 1:28 "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. And you, be fruitful and multiply, teem on the earth and multiply in it.” Gen. 9:6-8 This mandate has not been rescinded!