IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2017 - 23
wrong, that we make moral deci-
sions. Most fundamentally of all, the
image means that we humans have
God-awareness, the possibility to
relate to God, to enter into commu-
nion with him through prayer. And
this to me is the basic meaning of the
image, that we humans are created to
relate to God. There is a direction, an
orientation in our humanness. We are
not simply autonomous. The human
being considered without any relation-
ship to God is not truly human. With-
out God we are only subhuman. So
the image gives us the potentiality to
be in communion with God, and that
is our true nature. We are created to
live in fellowship and in communion
with God the Creator. So the image
means you cannot consider human
beings simply in isolation, as self-
contained and self-dependent but
you have to look at our relationship
with God. Only then will you under-
stand what it is to be human.
discipline and try to dictate how we
on our own powers of enquiry and
are to live our lives. Morality does
our own ability to apply science. So
not depend solely on scientific
exactly, the story of the Tower of
facts. We get our values, if we are
Babel is a story of humans think-
Christians, from our faith. Modern
ing they have unlimited power, and
science is an honest enqui-
ry into the truth. So long as
that is the case, we should
say to the scientist: please
continue with your work.
Fundamental to our personhood
You are not talking about
is the element of growth.
God, but God is present
in what you are doing,
whether you recognize that
particularly an unlimited power to
or not. Hubris comes in when the
unite the earthly with the heavenly,
scientist thinks he can answer all
whereas such unity can only come
the questions about human life.
through a recognition of our depen-
Hubris comes in when we think we
dence on God.
can simply develop our technology
without enquiring: is this a good or
Why cannot or should we not
bad application of science?
Is that well-known story of the
Tower of Babel from the book
of Genesis 11:1-9 at all relevant
with its dual reference to
"hubris" and "engineering"?
At what point would
theologians or ethicists reckon
we have crossed the line from
responsible innovation and
scientific enquiry over into
"hubris"?
Yes, that is an interesting way of
looking at the story of the Tower
of Babel. The story of the Tower of
Babel is basically a way of trying to
understand why it is that we humans
speak so many different languages
and find such difficulty in communi-
cating with one another. But under-
lying the story of Babel exactly is
an overconfidence in our human
powers. In the story of the Tower
of Babel, the people think that they
can build a tower that will reach
from earth to heaven. By the power
of engineering they think they can
bridge the gap between the human
and the divine. And this exactly
would be attributing to technology,
to our faculty for engineering, some-
thing that lies beyond technology
and beyond engineering. Once you
are moving from the realm of factual
reality to the realm of heaven, then
you are moving into a different realm
where we no longer depend simply
As a Christian theologian, I would
not wish to impose, as if from a
higher authority, limits on scien-
tific enquiry. As I said earlier, God
has given us the power to under-
stand the world around us. All truth
comes from him. Christ is present
in scientific enquiry, even if his
name is not mentioned. Therefore,
I do not seek in a theoretical way
to say to the scientist: Thus far and
no further. The scientist, using the
methods of enquiry that he has
developed, should continue his work
unimpeded. One cannot say that
any subject is forbidden for us to
look at. But there is then the ques-
tion: how do we apply our scientific
knowledge? Hubris comes in when
scientists go beyond their proper
march 2017
∕
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine
explore and innovate, and go
as far as is humanly possible
with respect to innovation,
if we carry the seed of God's
creative genius within us?
Yes, we carry the seed of God's cre-
ative genius within us, but on the
Christian world view we humans are
fallen beings and we live in a fallen
world. Now, how the fall is interpret-
ed in Christian tradition can vary,
but underlying all understandings
of the fall is the idea that the world
that we live in has in some way or
another gone wrong. There is a trag-
ic discrepancy between God's pur-
pose and our present situation. As
fallen human beings, therefore, we
have to submit our projects to the
judgement of God. We have to ask,
not only whether this is possible but
whether this is in accordance with
the will of God. That obviously is not a
scientific or technological question.
It is not a question of what is pos-
sible but of what is right. Of course,
it is true that many people do not
believe in God, and therefore would
not accept what I just said about
this being a fallen world. Neverthe-
less they too, even those who have
23
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