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The Book That Made Your World

The Book That Made Your World. Exploring the Impact of the Bible. “Technology : Why did monks develop it ?”. Questions to consider Why don’t American women haul water on their heads? Why is pollution a much bigger problem in less advanced, non-biblical cultures?

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The Book That Made Your World

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  1. The Book That Made Your World Exploring the Impact of the Bible

  2. “Technology: Why did monks develop it?” • Questions to consider • Why don’t American women haul water on their heads? • Why is pollution a much bigger problem in less advanced, non-biblical cultures? • How is technology a fruit of a Biblical worldview? • How did the Bible “secularize” the physical universe? • Why didn’t Buddhist monks develop technology? • Why have so many inventions occurred primarily in the West in the last 350 or so years?

  3. 4 Ways Biblical Christianity Produced Technology • The Bible emphasized intelligent craftsmanship in the world’s design • Humans were created to participate in divine workmanship by being good artisans themselves • The Bible teaches humans to use the universe for righteous purposes, as God does • The Bible requires believers to use the time wisely, because each moment is a one-time opportunity

  4. Toil and Work: Two Different Categories • Toil was a curse caused by human sin. Why? • Work was to be like God. Why? • Prayer is work • Mindless, repetitive, dehumanizing labor is toil • How did the lateen sail end seafaring slave labor in the galleys of ships? • Why didn’t other cultures look for ways to emancipate slaves?

  5. Human Dominion over the Earth: A Divine Mandate • The Dark Ages were not as dark as we have heard: technology changed productivity! • Notice how the heavy plow, the horseshoe, the horse collar, and the tandem harness kept Europe from becoming a Muslim conquest • The monk Gregory of Tours (538-594) encouraged monks to use the watermill to relieve them from hand-grinding of grain • “Thank God that such machines can alleviate the oppressive labors of both man and beast!” Abbot Arnold (1136)

  6. Glorifying God and Serving the Weak: Biblical Motives for Technology • How did the wheelbarrow cut human labor requirements in half? • How did the flywheel multiply the power of each laborer? • Why did the monk Theophilus invent it? • The flywheel hybrid bicycle

  7. Monks, Pipe Organs, and Clocks • The pipe organ invented by monks was the most complex machine in use, before • Monks invented the mechanical clock. • Why did they invent the mechanical clock? • The monks needed to work and to save time to pray. • They needed to work as a group: supply one another with what was needed at the proper times, then finish the work to keep the Sabbath.

  8. Lessons from the TajMahal 1631: famine in northern India due to drought • Why had no dams or canals been built? • Why had no grain storehouses been erected? • Why weren’t farmers producing surplus food? • “Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim kingdoms did not exist to serve people. The people existed for the glory of their rulers, not for the glory of God.” • Nonbiblical cultures need more than technology. • They need a philosophy that values people. • The Bible supplies that.

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