God & Technology

The Tower of Babel

Is Technology Bad?

Many respond with some sort of, "it's neutral, it's about how it's used."

Long before I had an...interesting..."revelation" on the matter, I often wondered if there was a deeper way to ask this question.

For me, growing up as a Christian, I truly believed the teachings of the Bible, the person of Jesus, and received the idea of faith as a cornerstone to human existence.

Unfortunately, seeing flawed humans live out their faith in a broken world sometimes meant that certain questions were written off in a way like, "'faith', cuz we don't know"

Not to fault them, but I had questions that the Bible (which I took to be authoritative concerning ultimate truth) didn't seem to answer.

I found myself on one hand with an ancient faith that gave many high-level answers to many high-level questions about life and reality:

• Who/what are we? The Bible essentially says that we are creatures, created in God's image, meant to be priest-kings. But sadly, we are simultaneously marred by sin.

• What is life? An experience of union with an all-powerful, wise, loving, and mysterious divine being.

• What happens after you die? Yikes - judgement! Either saved by Jesus or...

• Why is the world messed up? Sin & disobedience

These answers were in large part satisfactory to me as I navigated teen years in a small town in the early 2000s. I didn't want much to do with popularity because I saw the vanity. I didn't want to drink or do drugs or party or hook up because I understood purity and was turned off by the recklessness of party life. I was content chilling with my homies, skateboarding, hanging out with our youth group, and listening to music. While this would change when I was around 17, it was my entire life up unto that point, and I saw it as a good one.

And yet there was always a certain curiosity I had concerning the global, technological world I found myself in. In a lot of ways, it seemed that people would compartmentalize - sure, there was a degree of both literal and metaphorical ways people would integrate their faith, but there were also areas of life that seemed rather important and hi-resolution to me that weren't covered by the Life Instruction Manual I was growing more and more familiar with (the Bible).

In some senses, the ambiguity didn't actually get in the way of day-to-day life. Jesus had a lot of stuff to say on morals and how to treat people, and what kind of attitude to have in life. From what I could tell, the idea was that you built a foundation on these values & then you kinda just added them into your "real life"; you went and did the "good stuff" people in your life (parents, guardians, teachers, coaches, etc.) told you - go to school, work hard, be kind, get a good job, and don't do bad stuff. In a lot of ways, that was all most people needed.

For me, I was always a curious child who was very imaginative and who kinda liked to tinker. I wasn't one of those crazy kids who could tear apart their parents old stereo and build a robot out of it, but I did like to play with legos and I would take stuff apart from time to time to examine it, stopping only when I got to electronics that I knew I couldn't fix if I broke lol.

Sometimes I would wonder, how does God feel about technology?

This wasn't one of those things you could go pull a verse for, unlike other things in life like "how should I treat this person who I REALLY don't like?" Jesus has a good grip of things to say on that; you know, the whole "love your enemies" thing. Got it!

Is it ok to have sex with my high school sweetheart before we are married? Yeah probably not. Seems like marriage is the place for that.

Can I cheat on this test if it means I get good grades and go to a better college? Many things in the Bible speak directly to integrity and honesty, so nah.

In other words, many moral questions were directly addressed in Scripture, often times in a multitude of instances. Therefore, in those cases, the Bible spoke pretty directly to "real life".

And yet, I often wondered what it meant that we lived in a modern technological society with planes, crazy medical & surgical abilities that didn't seem to be around circa 0AD, and what was God's take on things like the existence of TV (other than piecing things together to get something like "just don't watch bad stuff")?

For the most part, this question was just a fun "shower thought" (later, once smoking weed, it became a "stoner thought") that didn't really disrupt my daily life.

And then one day I watched a movie that would forever change my worldview - The Matrix.

The Matrix is interesting within this context (God and technology) because it uses a lot of Biblical references in its symbolism.

Those references made some Christians I knew uncomfortable, feeling as though the movie was exploiting or misusing them. I wasn't even really caught by the use of the Biblical references as much as I was interested in the abstract worldview being presented: a society that is ultimately a lie, with a true world that starts out much "worse off" in some regards than the "world as we know it". To me, this was exactly how I had been thinking of the world compared to the teachings I found in the Bible. From what I could tell of pop culture, everything was greed, vanity, fleeting trends, & exploitation. Most of pop culture & "the world at large" didn't seem to have the same values that I was finding in The Bible. I saw the truth as something like, "we are exiles in this world and we shouldn't get too comfy here - we are just passing through." See lyrics to "This World Is Not My Home" for Christian lore encoded in song.

Now I will say, this is interesting in light of my previous question (God's thoughts on technology), because there are some explicit and implicit verses in the Bible that point to a separation between God, his people, and "the world".

This idea of "the world" is actually a pretty hard one tho - John 3:16 says God loved the world. But James gets pretty wild when it says "friendship with the world is enmity with God". Or when Paul in Romans 12:1-2 talks about no longer being conformed to the pattern of this world, it seems like he is commenting on some part of us not being involved with it. 1 John 2:15-17 has some pretty divisive things to say.

But a question I've often wrestled with is, *what is meant by "the world"?*

Is it the oppressive way that things tend to go with power? And how power seems to corrupt?

Or how fame kinda seems to drive people crazy?

I could definitely see God not wanting his people to live or act in such ways. More on this in later episodes.

Again, I kept coming back to this base question of mine, how does God feel about technology?

Where would we turn in the Bible (or possible right outside of it) to find answers to these questions? Well, let's start in the beginning. Or the greek word for beginning: "Genesis".

{Note - from here on out, I'm going to be presenting an array of various ideas. Keep these in mind as we move forward, as we will put them all together toward the end of this episode}.

Many of you are likely familiar with the Adam & Eve story & the "Seven Day" creation account. Maybe in another post I could share some of my thoughts on how to interpret some of these stories, but for now I'll just assume you know what's up. If you need a refresher, here's a decent starting point resource:

https://bibleproject.com/videos/torah-genesis-1/

For now, let us start with the underlying backdrop of The Fall. Before this cosmic, cataclysmic event, we are told that Creation was *good*. We could go further into this, and perhaps we will one day, but for now let's just keep in mind that something, namely disobedience to God, has now opened up the possibility (and higher probability - see future discussions on *entropy* ) of evil & chaos.

As we keep this idea of The Fall in our minds, let us point out one of the biggest issues that up until this point was potentially *also* a good thing - separation. In the creation account, we see God separating things to create more things. Later, in the New Testament, we will see Jesus separating sheep from goats, wheat from chaff, etc. It should be pointed out that a biblical definition of the word "holy" is actually closely tied up with the definition of "separate". Again, an interesting detour could be taken here, but let us focus on the topic at hand - how does God feel about technology? As we seek answers to this question, let's pay attention the subtle ways that separation are at play in the early parts of Genesis.

Now our journey is about to take us into some very implicit waters, and I'd caution some discretion as we move forward. While I am about to peel apart some layers of some very old stories in search of finding a specific answer, I'd encourage any curious Bible-reader to remember *exegesis*: apart from it's scholarly definition, the word essentially means to seek what the Bible is saying it it's original context and meaning, and try to not read too much of your own meaning into it. This can be a very dangerous endeavor, and can lead to some very wild places. As we move forward, I hope to answer my question in tandem with the Bible's own purposes, if you will.

After the Fall, we have the classic story of Cain & Abel. But before we get to this classic & well-known tale, let's first take a look at a prophesy from Genesis 3 that many see to be the first hint at the later Messiah:

*I will put enmity between you and the woman,*

*and between your offspring and her offspring;*

*he shall bruise your head,*

*and you shall bruise his heel.”*

When God is cursing the crafty serpent for his deception of Adam & Eve, he introduces a hopeful expectation that one day an offspring of Eve will seemingly overcome this mysterious & deceptive entity (but not without a cost...). Many Biblical interpreters will then posit that the first hearers of these ancient stories would then have an eager anticipation that one day, a man would be born who would heal & fix the woes of the Human Condition post-Fall. Thus, as we transition from the "high-level" story of Genesis in chapters 1-11 and get into Abraham's story, it is this hopeful expectation of an Offspring that keeps us asking, "ok, so is *this* character going to be The Hero??".

Again, let's keep a couple of things in mind - the world is super messed up now (due to The Fall), and yet one day an Offspring will be born of woman that will one day set everything right, conquering evil & deception & healing all wounds. Sounds pretty great, yeah?

So now add in that idea of separation I mentioned earlier.

Now that we have this as our backdrop, let's drill into the lineages that are being developed in the early part of the narrative.

Once we get to Cain & Abel, we start to see this hope of an Offspring met with the common but unfortunate reality that is all across the Bible - every time it feels like we've found "him" (this Hero that will save humanity), something happens that shows that the story isn't quite complete yet. A quick overview of what happens here - Abel seems to a righteous person, gladly giving God an offering from his work. Cain, who seems to give a very unsatisfactory offering, becomes angry (and seemingly jealous). Even though God tries to help Cain with both warning & instruction, Cain kills Abel & the story of the World Still Being Jacked Up continues. Seems like Abel is not our Hero, and it doesn't seem like the Offspring will come from Abel's genealogy. And needless to say, we probably don't want Cain to be the great-great-great-great (and so on) grandfather of our Hero. Not that God can't work within the lives of broken people (spoiler alert - he often times does just that!), but the tension of the story is increased as we keep our expectation of the Hero in mind. Now we can ask, "who is this Hero that will "fix" the Fall, and whose lineage will he come from?"

As the lineages progress in the early chapters, an interesting undercurrent emerges (keep in mind "separation") - namely, that Cain's descendants seem to be contrasted with those of Seth, the child Adam & Eve had after Abel was murdered. Let's take a look below, keeping in mind that names are sometimes reused as they often are in almost every single culture since the beginning of time. We will highlight the specific folks of interest as we go.

Let's specifically look at the 7th generation - for Cain's descendants, this is Lamech. For Seth's, this is Enoch. Here's a couple excerpts about each from Genesis:

*Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.

Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” 

Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him. 

Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.*

Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch. To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad fathered Mehujael, and Mehujael fathered Methushael, and Methushael fathered Lamech. And Lamech took two wives. The name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. Adah bore Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe. Zillah also bore Tubal-cain; he was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.*

Lamech said to his wives:*

*“Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;*

*you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say:*

*I have killed a man for wounding me,*

*a young man for striking me.*

*If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold,*

*then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold.”*

For Cain's family tree, there is an increase in vengeance as we reach the 7th generation. Lamech is proudly increasing the curses that were originally Cain's. Very soon we will comment on the various folks mentioned before Lamech & their contributions to humanity, so add that to our list of things we are keeping in mind (The Fall, The Offspring/Hero, lineage separation, Contributions to Humanity, and of course our question about technology).

In the meantime, let's turn our attention to the 7th generation from Seth's side - Enoch (not the Enoch descended from Cain, mentioned above; but another Enoch descended from Seth:

*When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.*

Excuse me, what??

Even in the midst of a very ancient and very trippy story such as Genesis, we have yet to encounter something as mysterious as this. "Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him."

What could this possibly mean for our list of things that we are keeping in mind? If you will allow us to get trippy for a moment, I think the Bible is trying to tell us something here. In fact, I think the Bible clearly states later what it implicitly states here. Consider the following passage from the New Testament:

*For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.*

Perhaps, amongst its earliest (and most poetic-while-simultaneously-true) utterances the Bible is telling us - those who are focused on Godly things extend righteously towards heaven, those who are focused on earthly things focus on, well, earthly things.

Before I go too far down this rabbit hole - does that mean all earthly endeavors are "bad"? Quite the contrary. As you will see later down the line in subsequent items of the Form Devoid series, we will unpack what I believe to be the true issue at hand - doing earthly things without their heavenly meaning. This will be the key point in all of our subsequent discussions.

One story we will use quite extensively here and in the future is The Tower of Babel. Before we get there, let's unpack another handful of genealogies to see if there are any implicit hints towards God's plan (or any action that is opposed to that plan).

Keeping with the theme's we've been exploring - The Fall, The Offspring/Hero, lineage separation, Contributions to Humanity - let's pause on our way to The Tower of Babel to reflect on yet another famous Bible character, Noah.

Many of you have probably heard the story of Noah, our next contender for "Is this The Hero We've Been Waiting For?". Consider the following verses attributed to Noah's father, Lamech (not the same Lamech as before; same name different dude):

*When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son and called his name Noah, saying, “Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.”*

It would seem that Lamech (again, not "bad" Lamech from Gen 4) see's some Hope of the Hero in his son Noah.

Since you are likely at least somewhat familiar with the Noah Flood story, I'll 1-2-skip-a-few details of the story to highlight an ever-present theme in the Bible - a moment of hope seemingly shattered by the Fallen Nature of Man once more. The moment of hope comes after God wipes out all of the "evil on the earth":

5The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

17The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. 19And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. 20The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubitsd deep. 21And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. 22Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. 23He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark

leaving a "good guy" to seemingly start humanity fresh:

"a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.

After this mighty act of Salvation (& Judgement, both key themes throughout all of Scripture), we now have almost everything we need to have things back to their "good" state as they were in Eden. We have what seems to be a fresh start.

And yet, something terrible happens (of which we admittedly don't know the details, but suffice to say it is painted as a very bad thing):

*The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the people of the whole earth were dispersed.

*Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said,*

*“Cursed be Canaan;*

*a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”*

*He also said,*

*“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem;*

*and let Canaan be his servant.*

*May God enlarge Japheth,

*and let him dwell in the tents of Shem,*

*and let Canaan be his servant.”*

We won't highlight many of the fascinating details here, but we will focus on two things. One, that another curse is present (highlighting that things must still be bad & Fallen). Second, let's zoom in on the genealogies at hand as we build up to the Tower of Babel.

From Gen 10:

*The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan. The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. Cush fathered Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a mighty man. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord.” The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.*

Notice Nimrod, said to be a descendant of Ham, who is potentially a contender for our Hero. He's a great hunter, the first "mighty man", and as we will see he will go on to found an important city. Hero stuff indeed!

And then to Gen 11:

*Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.*

Here again we run into what I see to be an implicit commentary on technology, or at least in it's unaligned use. By "unaligned" I simply mean "against the will of God". It should be said that God's will is at times very hard to understand. On one hand, it seems clear that God does not like evil - this much is clear throughout Scripture. And yet, it seems that God in his mysterious wisdom will tolerate evil to a certain degree. Much more on this in later episodes, but suffice for our purposes now to highlight how The Tower of Babel is against God's will explicit will, if not entirely against his will both explicitly & implicitly. For the explicit, let's jump back to God's post-deluge (big word for "flood") mandate to Some-what-Reestablished-Mankind, via Noah. I'll share various translations to help paint a more nuanced picture:

When mankind decides to build The Tower of Babel, one of their motivations is thus:

A couple things seem an implicit affront to God - man reaching into heaven (we will discuss this in later episodes), making a name for themselves (later in the Bible is clear on multiple occasions that God would have *his name* be made, not man's - more discussion to come), and then: *scattered*. Depending upon your reading of the various translations of Gen 9:7, it seems that God's will for man was to spread out, to multiply, and to fill the earth (much like the acts of creating, separating, and filling that can be found in the Gen 1 narrative). Now while it is mostly suggestive that any of the motivations behind The Tower of Babel are directly an affront to God, the Bible does clearly paint it as unideal enough to be a thwarted plan:

*So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.*

If anything, it seems we can safely say that any action that has an associated curse & redirection by God is indeed something that is not in line with the ideal "good" from initial Creation.

So then how does all of this tie into my initial question: *how does God feel about technology*? While it doesn't seem appropriate just yet to say that God is definitively opposed to technology as such, perhaps we are able to at least confidently say that the Bible paints a picture of misaligned human endeavor as unideal.

Perhaps this is a jump to attempt to conclude, but it seems that the early stories of Genesis may be implicitly stating that most early technological developments came from the lineages of those who weren't walking in God's favor.

Cain messed up big time, and his offspring were "father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock", "the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe", and "the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron".

After Noah, his cursed son Ham is the fore-father of Nimrod, a mighty man who seems to have started Babel & it's Mighty Tower.

On "the other side", Seth may actually be the fore-father of The Offspring we are expecting, and his descendant Enoch is apparently so righteous and close to God that he doesn't die. Plus, after Noah, it seems that Shem is not only blessed in Gen 9:26, but a very important character Abram will come from his lineage. Notice they aren't called out for technological, societal, or strength-based accomplishments as much as character.

Does this mean that we should see a division between lineages who are operating according to God's plan (i.e. more "heavenly") vs. lineages who are more "earthly" or "worldly"?

This line of questioning may actually bring less answers and more questions, paramount of all in my mind - *what is God's ideal plan for humanity*? We will be discussing this in detail for the remainder of our episodes. There is much to be said within the Bible itself, and perhaps even a great deal of interesting insight to be gained slightly outside the Bible in books such as The Book of Enoch, supposedly containing utterances from the very Enoch mentioned above.

Until next time, please share any questions or thoughts you might have, and feel free to reach out to me on that ever-prevalent medium of technology we use today: Instagram.