By Sheena Goel
Religion and Technology can be the most unlikely combination one can come
across, as whatever science and technology does is viewed upon by majority of
reglions of the world as un-godly.
Despite this, both Religion and Technology have become unseparable parts of
human life. We can live neither without religion nor without technology. They
have got so interweaved in the fabric of our lives that it has to be religion-
technology balance. It then becomes imperative to ask the religious leaders of the world, how they see technology from religious perspective.
Most of whom, I believe will agree that the deal is fifty-fifty. Some of the
technological advancements have made human lives easier and even went on to
enhance the quality of life. However, many of them have ethical and moral issues
associated with them. Most of the religious scriptures have been digitized and it is easy to carry them along with you almost all the time. This is somethig which makes all the devotees contended. All the same, there are more serious subjects to ponder upon. Such as organ transplant, extending life on ventilators, IFV, geneticaly modifying a human, euthanasia amongst others.
In an interview with Metropolitan Kallistos Ware (a lecturer at the University of
Oxford, teaching Eastern Orthodox Studies, a position he held for 35 years until his
retirement.) ,reveals that while he would consider organs transplant as ethically
right (even though it involves organ donation from another human being),
keeping brain dead or terminally ill person alive with the help of ventilators and
other such devices according to him is subjecting a patient to pathetic life.
Determination of fetal sex is again a matter of debate as there are societies in the
world that look down upon girl child as a burden and therefore try to prevent
birth of girl child. Religion is a way of enforcement of ethics and values among people and society in general. But religion with the elapse of time gets infested with regressive traditions, and then technological advancement helps pull the society from the abyss of these regressive customs.
Like, in some religious groups periods amongst women were considered bad and
women were treated badly during at such times. However, with technological and
scientific advancement, they are now understood to be normal biological cycles
that will happen and the women have regained their lost prestige as a result of
this thought process, they are no longer considered wrong and bad. On the other hand, religion has never looked down upon many of the technological advancements, like rails, electricity, planes, mobile phones and laptops, medical equipment. In fact such technological advancements have been welcomed with open arms by the religion and religious leaders. Anything that enhances the quality of life and is not ethically wrong is never considered as hindrance or at cross-paths with religion.
Though, in the olden days, when the civilizations used to be un-educated and
religious leaders were political fore runners of the country, any technological
research was dealt with iron hand as it was a direct challenge to their authority.
People were made to believe that anyone practicing science was born of devil and
will bring upon wrath of Gods on the society. As a result all efforts were made to
thwart any technological advancement.
Not anymore. Religion has become a fair supporter of technology as long as it
does not crosses it’s limits of ethics.
References:
1. https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-3-319-
38889-2_6-1
2. https://www.learnreligions.com/technology-as-religion-4038599
3. https://technologyandsociety.org/religion-science-and-technology-an-
interview-with-metropolitan-kallistos-ware/
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