Is Our God Analog or Digital?

Electronic systems are usually grouped into two basic categories: analogs or digitals. The analog systems are those with the capability of working based on smooth transition of values, while the counterparts are based on rigid transition of two states – basically on and off. It is of the common knowledge that analog systems proceeded their digital brothers and sisters, which came as a result of technical adjustments with the principles of computer. Hence, it implies that life is originally an analog-based system and nothing is too rigid as to define it as exactly 0 or 1.

However, deriving the basic principle from the Bible, we could actually say that God tends to be more digital than this life ever is. In the beginning of this world, Adam and Eve were created and sinned against God. God was very much consistent by putting them under punishment, because sins have to be judged and punished. Therefore, they were expelled from the Garden of Eden respectively. And throughout the Bible, we could infer that sin is sin and righteousness is righteousness. There is no such thing defined as so-called half-sin or half-righteousness. Wrong is wrong and right is right in other words. This is why; I think God is pretty much digital.

In His digital decree, the sinful men were punished under His divine wrath, against which not even one being could stand. The punishment is certainly just and based on His divine and consistent characters. Forgiveness could not come without any just punishment. This is the very first principle we could derive from the Bible. However, if we later compare the first sin with the proceeding sins, we could actually conclude that the ones committed later are more terrible, crueler, more savage, and more prominent than its origin. How could then God took the first sin so seriously and so strictly? Isn’t it just about taking merely food from the garden and unconsciously they took it from the wrong source?

Talking about sin is not similar to talking about consumer-goods bargaining. It is obvious that sin has a deeper meaning than just taking food from an illegal source. It is deeper in the heart that the Bible has warned us profoundly to take care of it (Proverbs 4:23). This is the reason why the Israelites take this heart-problem so seriously. Talking about whether it is digital or analog to sin against God, perhaps we should go a little bit further to conscience examination. It is exactly coherent with what Jesus has said during His earthly ministry that sins originate from the heart (Matthew 7:21).

This is why we are more concerned about what is inside. It is then not really relevant to talk about whether God is analog or digital, because in the level of heart, everything becomes much more digital; it is whether your heart is or is not directed towards God.

However, in the context of practical life, it seems that God reminds us to be in the analog mode. Jesus indeed rebuked the hypocrisy of the Pharisees (Matthew 5:20) as they are more concerned about what is outside (fulfilling the law) and not inside (seeking a pure heart). It might seem a bit digital here, that Jesus was talking about doing good or bad, right or wrong. But, Paul brilliantly combined and concluded everything in a life consists of both analog and digital modes (Rome 12:1-2). It is evident that we should strive (as in an analog process) for being as good as possible, while thinking of perfect righteousness as the end goal (differentiating good or bad rigidly). So, is God analog or digital?

The Danger of Instant Messaging: The Declining of Human Social Interaction

Computer technology has been evolving rapidly in the past 50 years. Since the first time modern computer appeared, it has become a billion-fold more advanced than its first appearance in 1941 in a machine called Zuse Z3, created by Konrad Zuse from Germany[1]. In that year, men have begun a new era of computer technology, which later would penetrate all aspects of life.

It is completely unimaginable to perceive the technological advancement that has been resulted in the preceding century. A hundred years ago, it is impossible to contact your family members they are travelling to distant places. However, today the same business will just cost you a laptop and an internet hotspot in the neighborhood.

Nowadays, communication has been made really easy by using computers. Checking emails, using instant-messaging services, and browsing through social-network sites are three main activities in our daily life as modern men. These tools have eased our life so much by providing practical means for communicating people. These days, we can connect so easily with each other by using Blackberries. We then must admit that our life has never been easier and faster than before we used the technology, must not we?

Nevertheless, this advancement has unconsciously inflicted negative influences to humanity. It has ruined our desire to meet other people directly. Sometimes, we count more on those virtual tools than direct contact with friends and relatives. We become more reluctant to meet our fellows face-to-face due to Blackberry Messaging service. Even worse, we tend to put our fingers on keypads during meetings and gatherings with our colleagues and friends. Is it true that the way men communicate with each other has developed really well? Or is it a bad omen that humanity has started to decline. In fact, humans are created in God’s image, which means that we are individual and social creatures at the same time.

In the year 2004, a survey on workplace email and instant messaging, which was conducted by American Management Association and The ePolicy Institute, has reported some technical issues[2]. According to the survey, 58% of people use instant messaging for many purposes, e.g. jokes, gossips, confidential information, and even pornographic contents. It is also stated that 90% of the respondents use instant messaging up to 90 minutes per day at their workplaces for business and personal affairs. These numbers indicate that instant messaging has occupied a big portion in our life.

Yet, another study on human social interaction for knowledge transfer process was conducted by S.P. Gill and Jan Borchers[3]. The study shows that as the contact between people becomes more intense, it makes the interaction more fluid. On the other hand, more physical contacts provide a better means for the interaction between people, which would result in a better knowledge transfer. Therefore, we should ponder upon the way we should communicate with other people as instant messaging, which is quite prominent in modern life, is something that lacks so much physical contact.

Genesis 1:27 and 2:18 state that man is created as a social creature. This has a direct implication that men have to communicate and collaborate with families, relatives, and fellows in life. Furthermore, the basic and highest means of this communication is direct or physical interaction that God has provided and granted for humans since the time of creation. We can see this clearly when God talked with His fellow Adam directly and intimately, without any media in between. But, why is it that we now tend to use communication media more than direct social interactions? This is, of course, due to our sinful nature as the descendants of Adam. If not repent, then we, at least, have to contemplate deeper on this and take a decision. I am sure that our conscience will then say that it is completely better to communicate directly with other people than through instant messengers. Hence, let us meet and chat face-to-face if we can do so because we are created in God’s (social) image. Why do we then still play with Blackberries when we meet each other at the dining table?

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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer

[2] www.amanet.org/research/pdfs/IM_2004_Summary.pdf

[3] S.P. Gill and Jan Borchers. Knowledge in Co-action: Social Interaction in Collaborative Design

Theology and Technology

By Rahmadi Trimananda

Introduction

Once upon a time, men and women lived in a so called traditional way. There was no electricity, no lamps, and even no machines. Was there anything wrong? No, there was not. It was just a period of time, when everyone could live peacefully and happily without having to think about the contacts they might have in their hand-phones, the appointments they made by using their PDAs. They even did not think about buying fuels for their cars as it is in the mind of today’s modern people who are troubled by the steep rising of the world’s fuel price. The world was so peaceful and calm at that time.

Suddenly, the industrial revolution came into human’s civilization at the end of 18^th century and early 19^th century. It caused major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, and transportation, which then give great impact on social, economics, and cultural conditions in Britain ^[1]. Machines, as the embryo of automatic devices, were rising at that time, giving so much new flavors to human’s life. The train and steam boat were invented in the mean time, as the trend went further until the late 19^th century.

The freedom of thinking, which has appeared 2 centuries before, was one of the causes for this rapid changing. Human had put God aside from the center of life since the Renaissance movement rose in Europe. What happened? God, through the Christendom, was “reigning” over the land before the free thinking period came. People were not brave enough to say what they thought about everything they had and experienced in life, and even about the religion itself. However, the enlightenment had changed everything once and forever. Since then, men thought that they got a new source of energy to explore the legacy of this world. Wow, isn’t it too fast to conclude? The church, accused as the cause of the imprisonment of human’s thought, was finally left by the followers. Together, those people tried to discover their own ways of life. I cannot even believe that such thing could have happened in the history of the civilization.

Industrial revolution, French revolution, and American revolution are probably the most important events that contribute to the modern technology and the modern way of life. Within one hundred years, the industrial revolution had been able to bring the world society to enter the new chapter, so called the modern era. New things were invented and people thought that they solved the major problems, but they actually did not. In fact, the two worst wars were happening at the modern period of the early 20^th century. As God had been put aside, science (human’s thought) and technology emerged as the new religion.

The philosophy of technology and theology

Now we get into the real complication, because technology actually creates more problems rather than solves the initial problems. In the mean time, theology has been being left behind. Is there any way out of here? It is an irony, because the effort to summon a better condition for life has been showing its inherent flaws. At the same time, again, it has already been too far for the thoughts to get back to God.

Since the invention of the computer in the middle of 20^th century, humans have started thinking once again, that they got a super antidote for all problems in life. Within only 30 to 40 years, computers could develop so rapidly that they penetrated almost every aspect of human’s life. It has been developing even outrageously within the past 20 years, dating back to 1990s. Nowadays, technology is very identical to a computer based system. One may not admit so, but it is irrefutable that we have computers in almost every single entity that we see and have today. It is amazing, isn’t it?

In the middle of this great advancement, it is a big irony that men deny their religious nature. As we have agreed before, people tried to change God with science and technology. This has made human’s life become emptier. Slow but sure, life loses its meaning. The advances we saw and still see in science and technology cannot bring the real meaning back. So, what should we then do? How should we then consider the positions of God and technology in the modern life? It is of course not without any reasons that God allowed the modern era came to our lives.

The jazz corner

I was once in a festival in my neighborhood and I saw a guitar superhero, namely I Wayan Balawan. This guy could really shred the guitar’s neck until the last piece. There are only two words suitable for this guy: remarkably unbelievable. He is an Indonesian guitarist and for me he is a pure Indonesian-ist. He plays western Jazz music, but he does not make his music like the western people make it. He chose his own style of playing and he uses Jazz music as his media to bring his ideas and to express it everywhere.

One of his outstanding compositions is called Country Beleganjur. From its name, of course, we can guess that the music would sound somewhat western, as it bears “country” for its first name. The basic structure is country music. However, he reorganizes everything to make it become a Jazz-Country style. Even more, he goes further and puts his own ideas there. He puts the Balinese percussion and musical instrument on top of this Jazz-Country music. It is simply intended to introduce the Balinese local music to the Jazz and western music fans, especially for those coming from Europe. He plays the composition very gracefully and charmingly. Every single eye would stare at his fast-dancing fingers while he was playing. He does not reduce the measure of the Jazziness, yet he is able to put the deepest essence of the traditional Balinese content in it.

Unlike other good guitarists, Balawan plays a completely different set of ideas and standard although all of them play the same instrument, electric guitar. Most of the electric guitarists play pure western flavored compositions, while Balawan could create a good mixture to deliver the traditionalism on top of modernism.

Up to here, it might be clearer that I want to compare this example to the Christian life. Moving back to our discussion about technology and theology, we can see that the positions of these two entities are like the music that Balawan has created. Theology is the foundation of technology, and yet it is the content of the deliverance of technology. Technology is a tool to reveal God’s glory even more and to reveal technology, to get acquainted to God’s will, we should put theology as the basic foundation of belief. But, what does the bible say about this? Let’s continue the discussion further. Hold on.

Theology and Technology

What now? The bible in one of its parts about knowledge, Psalm 1:7, says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. It completely goes side by side with what we have discussed about before. Technology is the tool, not the content. Theology is the foundation, the content, and it is also the sword that should be used to justify technology. In Genesis 1 and 2, God gave the order to human to preserve this world. Technology is the most relevant mean to be used, in order to preserve this world in today’s modern life. However, the task is not up to preserving this world, because technology itself has been contaminated by the nature of sin. Its position is now should be brought back into God’s divine plan.

The question to think about is how we apply this positioning in the real world, in everyday’s life, in our daily activities, whether we are special agents of technology or not. I myself am a still-in-process engineer. I know what engineering is, but I have to struggle more to find the meaning and the position of my specific field of engineering in God’s eternal plan. One thing that I know, theology should be the foundation of all. My engineering knowledge should be established on top of it and should be redeemed according to God’s word, and should be used for preserving this world. As my field is computer engineering, for instance, I have to find a way to make the computers in such a way that they can be used to glorify God. It indeed does not give the influence deliberately like a sermon from the pulpit. A good computer installation can make the computer network in a Christian foundation work well, and thus it will result in a strong computer and database management system that may help the social workers organizing their activities better. At the end, it will affect thousands of people and even more. It is exactly as what Martin Luther have said about calling. No matter what kind of job we are responsible for, we have to do it as good as we can, because we serve God in everything we have and we do. Even more, we should think further to use technology as a mean to spread the gospel to as many people as possible. Therefore, we can end this discussion in the following sentence: we should struggle to redeem the technology according to God’s word, we develop technology in order to fulfill God’s command to preserve this world, and we use technology in such a way as a vehicle to introduce God to many people. Is this enough? It might never be enough. Now, it is your turn to also think about it. Do you dare to take this challenge?

References:
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution
[2] http://www.blahblahtech.com/2007/10/just-what-is-technology.html
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology