Machine Gun Brings World Peace | John Dyer
I'm catching up on a blog tour promoting From the Garden to the City: The Redeeming and Corrupting Power of Technology by John Dyer. A post from me every week, plus more at host site: ChurchM.ag. Check it out..
Chapter 9: Restoration & Chapter 10: Technicism
John Dyer (following Kevin Kelly in What Technology Wants), points out that many human inventors have envisioned their advances as a means of peace.
For example, Hiram Maxim, the inventor of the machine gun, insisted his invention would "make war impossible."
Alfred Nobel believed his invention, dynamite, would "sooner lead to peace than a thousand world conventions." When Nobel realized that his tool was bringing about the exact opposite, he founded the Nobel Prize in hopes that his legacy would be of peace instead of destruction. ...
Orville Wright believed that the aeroplane he and his brother invented would, "have a tendency to make war impossible."
Guglielmo Marconi believed his radio and "the coming wireless era" would "make war impossible."
Today these claims seem quaint. But John Dyer warns against Christians doing the same thing. John offers this chart in the previous chapter:
| Positive | Negative | |
| Unintentional | Reflection (Creation) | Restoration |
| Intentional | Redemption | Rebellion (Fall) |
On the unintentional line, John is saying that while the new iPhone can positively reflect the Creativity of a God Who Makes, it should not be looked to for Hope or to Bring Peace or finally Restore.
More at ChurchM.ag:
