Feed Me, Seymour

David F. Wells, Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts, has written an excellent critique of modern, as well as postmodern, culture's effect on society as a whole. Here is a snippet on his view of technology, which was birthed from capitalism, which came along side a modern culture buttressed by the ideas of the thinkers of the Enlightenment:

"Capitalism requires the pervasive presence of technology, and technology is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, it has allowed us to transcend our world, to achieve what was unimaginable only a short time ago, to effect an unparalleled degree of efficiency in the production of the goods which fill our malls and showrooms, an elevation in their quality, a new array of medical procedures, more information, and more information spread more rapidly. Today, as Zygmunt Bauman asserts, there 'are more - painfully more - possibilities than any individual life, however, long, adventurous and industrious can attempt to explore, let alone to adopt.' On the other hand, what began as teh physical conquest of our world by technology, teh annihiliation of space and time, the control of some of nature's forces, and the exploitation of its resources, has now become a profoundly psychological reality. The benefits of technology all come packaged in values - values which are natualistic and materialistic. These fill the air, quite literally, all the time. We find no solitude. We have no escape. The experience of this new culture is intense and intrusive in wyas that older cultures never were."

How true is this statment? In other words, yes, technology has made our lives "easier" in the respect that there is more convenience and pleasure. However, technology (and indirectly capitalism) while not being negative in themselves, have so absorbed our 21st century society to where we literally could not function without it. Indeed, if capitalism did not continue to grow, businesses continue to make more money, stock markets continue to rise, and inflation continue to bulge, we'd be in trouble. Capatalism, and technology, are animals that have to be fed in order to survive. We must feed them - and we do feed them. However, lost in this feeding frenzy, is a realistic view of...well, reality. Our reality has become feeding an animal that, if he doesn't eat, will not only die of starvation, but will cause the server (us) to die as well.

We do live in a world, where, for the first time in history, we have no place of solitude and no escape.

However, there is one place of escape and solitude and rest: the arms of our loving Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. When Christians take a step back and realize that life is not about 'feeding the beast,' or 'more, more, more,' we realize that God has created us to serve Him...and not humanity. We are to serve the Creator and not the creation. Indeed, serving the creation makes us slaves to the creation, which is no life at all.