Idolatry of Invention

Seeing progress in terms of the development of persons

09/27/2018

Ecclesiastes 1:2-11 Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, vanity of vanities! All things are vanity! What profit has man from all the labor which he toils at under the sun? One generation passes and another comes, but the world forever stays. The sun rises and the sun goes down; then it presses on to the place where it rises. Blowing now toward the south, then toward the north, the wind turns again and again, resuming its rounds. All rivers go to the sea, yet never does the sea become full. To the place where they go, the rivers keep on going. All speech is labored; there is nothing one can say. The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor is the ear satisfied with hearing. What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun. Even the thing of which we say, "See, this is new!" has already existed in the ages that preceded us.

The pace of the progress of new inventions and technological development is truly dizzying. This hits me every time I go home and try to explain a new feature on the smart phone to my parents. But before I get a big head, and think I am smart, a teenager shows me some new feature on a phone that was recently released and then I feel like the “old foggy stoggy.” Do you recall the cordless phone that allowed you to move all around the house without a cable connecting you to a wall jack? Now, the phone is not plugged into a wall, it is permanently plugged into some people’s ears. No sooner do we learn the ropes of one new invention than ten other inventions have replaced it. Development is dizzying.

But I would suggest to you that while we have enhanced our experience of nature (the world around us), human nature (the world within us) remains largely unaltered. I am doubtful that humanity’s evolution as persons and communities has kept pace with the progress of science and technology. Sometimes, though not always, we have only invented new ways to exploit, abuse, isolate and ridicule one another. C. S. Lewis made this astounding observation on the nature of inventions and its connection with human progress. He wrote: “The whole modern estimate of primitive man is based upon that idolatry of artefacts (he means inventions) which is a great corporate sin of our own civilization. We forget that our prehistoric ancestors made all the useful discoveries, except that of chloroform, which have ever been made. To them we owe language, the family, clothing, the use of fire, the domestication of animals, the wheel, the ship, poetry and agriculture” (The Problem of Pain, 68-69). In other words, the progress of nature has not been matched by a progress in human nature. We do not behave all that better than our primitive brothers and sisters; even though we may carry smart phones, we are not all that much smarter.

The Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes drives home this same point of true development vis-à-vis moral stagnation. We read: “What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun.” Modern man, especially millennials, might rush to argue with ancient Qoheleth, saying that we can do things today that that old man could not dream of accomplishing. And that is true in many respects, but not in all, and perhaps not in the most important respect. Even though we have reached farther out to the stars – we actually put a man on the moon and not just sing about the man on the moon – have we reached any deeper into the human heart? That is, has there been a true and lasting progress of persons in truth, love, justice and mercy? When we shine the light on man’s march in moral development through time, we must agree with Qoholeth, “there is nothing new under the sun.” We continue to commit the same sins over and over, generation after generation.

May I suggest we measure the true value of any new inventions not only in terms of their novelty but also in terms of their ennobling of the human spirit? We must ask: does it make us better persons? For instance while social media connects us to more people – I have five thousand friends on facebook, aren’t you jealous? – does it help us love others better? Even though we enjoy faster and faster speeds of gathering information, has that made us any wiser? While we enjoy the freedom to surf the web from anywhere in the world, are we truly free or are we only fashioning new chains of slavery, addiction and dependency? If you want to test your freedom, just completely turn off your smart phone – not just switch it to vibrate or to airplane mode – and see how free you feel. In other words, if a particular invention or insight has not provided the human user an occasion for richer love, for deeper wisdom, for greater freedom, then it does not contribute to true human progress, but like Qoholeth predicted: “There is nothing new under the sun,” because human nature continues to commit the same sins over and over again. The same song, different verse.

In a word, if the pace of progress does not improve the human person, it does not deserve the name of progress at all.

Praised be Jesus Christ!