Please take a gentle look around your environment. Look at the people, food, materials, laws, knowledge, institutions, organizations, languages and ways of life. You would notice that life has continuously been evolving for the better. New things are being discovered every day in the areas of medicine, food, technology, architecture, agriculture, telecommunications, engineering etc. While life keeps evolving every day through these innovations, many people are still stuck with archaic beliefs, ways of life and teachings.
I was confronted by a woman sitting close to me in the church because I was following the scripture reading from my phone. To her, the Bible should not be read from any gadget but directly from the print version.
I learnt that a church leader once stopped his congregation from watching television because it was anti-Christ.
Many people still condemn procreation outside the womb as well as robots because according to them, it is moving away from the will of God.
A recent study shows that same course outline has been taught in the universities without change and improvement over the years.
Many still believe that all the stories of the Bible are infallible and sacrosanct because they were direct words of God (Dictation theory). Any modern teaching that is contrary to those, even though contains verifiable truth are condemned with the harbinger.
The truth remains that life is still evolving towards identifying the true nature of the creator and the purpose of creation. Man has been assigned the task and granted total freedom and responsibility to carry out this mission without fear nor intimidation.
However, every time we look back at various items, activities, behaviours of the people and events they encountered, we will be tempted to regard our ancestors as ignorant, foolish and archaic. With the level of scientific discoveries in the modern world, we always ask; how did our ancestors survive? In most cases, we take the innovations, and discoveries through science and technology for granted. They are no longer mysteries as they would have appeared if they were there many years ago. Wouldn’t it have been a mystery for people to go to the moon and discover other planets? Are computer and other information technology tools not wonders of the world? How would you have felt from this part of the world 100 years ago if somebody had held a piece of object in his hand and was communication with another person thousands of kilometers away?
Would you believe at that period if you were told that an object as heavy as an aero plane could fly in a long distance and knew where it was going and where it would land? Would you have believed that a human being could have produced another replica of human being that could work independently? Would you have believed that it would be possible for people to know when it would rain and when there would be earthquake? Consider the feat achieved in the health sector. Consider how man has converted roots, fruits and leaves into food and drugs. Have you noticed the feats by man in the areas of architecture, automobile, engineering, medicine, agriculture, communication and security? If these can be achieved today, have you considered how the world would be in the next 200 years?
At some point, religion became concerned about discoveries through science and technology. Some propounded that science was anti-God and should be ignored. Some scientists were ostracized because of their discoveries; some were excommunicated while some were killed. These were totally out of ignorance. If the discoveries were not in God’s plan, he wouldn’t have given man the freedom and knowledge to do so. The discoveries are therefore in line with God’s plan. Both science and religion are all good and are in God’s plan towards the end. However, science and discoveries have brought human beings closer to God than religion. While religion revolved around faith, theories and assumptions, science is real and practicable. So science, especially those that improve life should be encouraged as they bring us closer to the nature of God and real purpose of life.
One of the effective ways of developing the world therefore is through innovation, science and technology. They give meaning and value to the world and life and should be encouraged. They are also an expression of the purpose for which God created man.
