I was driving home from Home Depot yesterday, when a car in front of me slowed suddenly to turn into a driveway. Seeing that there was no oncoming traffic, I turned to go around that car. But my car has a computer linked to sensors all over the vehicle, and the computer decided that I was too close to the turning car in front of me, so it applied the brakes just as I was executing the turn. The computer, based on its limited inputs (speed & distance to the object in front of me) decided to slow down or stop the car. I, on the other hand, having more inputs, ( traffic before and behind, width of the roadway, time required to execute the turn) knew the turn was the correct and safe move to make. Plus I have sixty-three years of driving experience; while my car is only three years old.

Computer technology can be a remarkable servant; but it makes a terrible master. Devoid of human reason, emotion, morality, and spirituality, the computer takes limited inputs and programming (by humans!) and attempts to replicate what we do naturally by design. There’s a reason the big new thing is called artificial intelligence.

Yet, we tend to idolize our servant machines, thinking that they can make better decisions than we can; thinking (wishing?) that they finally will so improve our lives that all the bad stuff will go away. In his blog today, C. A. Post, an online friend, posted an article titled “The Dangers of Trans-Humanism”. (https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/31459941/posts/4693589860) This is presented as a new religion, that sees artificial intelligence as the god who will finally makes us better. It’s the latest in a long series of idols that we make in our own image because the thought of the real God scares us. So what is an idol?

Idol: an image or representation of a god used as an object of worship.

• a person or thing that is greatly admired, loved, or revered

Idolatry: the worship of idols.

• extreme admiration, love, or reverence for something or someone

In the book of Hebrews, we’re given an account of the Israelites experience of God at Mt. Sinai:

Hebrews 12:18-21 (ESV) … a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”

That’s what it is like to face God without a mediator; it’s terrifying.

So the Israelites made an idol of gold, a golden calf, and they worshipped it. It was a god who represented no threat to them, a passive image that they could control. We have been making idols like that forever. We do it because of Satan’s lie, “If you eat of this fruit, you will be like God.” Though we are made in God’s image, we are not God. We are his beloved creatures, made to worship Him and fellowship with Him, to live in a relationship with Him and other humans. It’s an astoundingly wonderful design. But since we broke that relationship with God, He Himself provided the mediator, one who could mend and reconcile us to the Creator.

Hebrews 12:22-24 (ESV) But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood…

We do not need a super computer to make our lives perfect. In fact, since humans are the ones who build them, the computers will ultimately be imperfect, because everything we do on our own is tainted by sin. 

No, what we need is a Savior, one who will fulfill to perfection what God intends for us, and who will then sacrifice Himself to cover our sins and restore a right relationship with God, our creator.

I like and use modern technology every day; it is a useful tool for living in this age. But it is not my master, and it cannot be my savior. My Master and Savior is Jesus.