What might we conclude from the Bible's treatment of technology?
1. God created humankind with creative ability

First, it is apparent that God created humankind with creative ability, an ability that can be used to produce art, music, literature, and technology. In fact, our technological creativity might be directly attributed to the fact that we ourselves are created in the image of God, the Creator. We can celebrate information technology as part of God's gift of creation.

In Genesis 1:28, the first woman and man are told to "be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground" (NIV). This verse is called the cultural mandate in the Reformed tradition. The command to fill the earth is not just a command to populate the earth (which as a human race we certainly have done), but to fill the earth culturally as well. That includes developing information technology.

Information technology uses human ingenuity with natural resources like silicon and copper to create powerful computing machine hardware. Humans also work within the medium of computer software to create programs that can control pollution emission in automobiles, fly an airplane, predict the weather or the winner of an election, generate fantastic moving images for a film, simulate nuclear reactions, search the Bible in multiple languages for specific words, check a document for spelling errors, or generate medical images of the interior organs of a living person. Such human creativity is a product of God's grace.

Previous Page Next Page

 

 
   




These pages were written by Jeffrey L. Nyhoff and Steven H. VanderLeest and edited by Nancy Zylstra
© 2005 Calvin University (formerly Calvin College), All Rights Reserved.

If you encounter technical errors, contact computing@calvin.edu.