Church and the 4th Industrial Revolution
AS A young boy who was raised in the Lutheran Church, one of the things I had to contend with was the determination of my parents to assimilate me into the Christian religion.
When I was 13 years old, I was supposed to be confirmed. As with many other forms of Christianity, confirmation is the coming of age for all Lutherans.
To understand the logic of organised religion, I read the book The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine. In this book, Paine challenges the legitimacy of the Bible by using logic. He identifies aspects of the Bible that are contradictory to infer about the accuracy of the Bible.
I learned long ago that matters of faith defy human logic and are above human understanding. Paine was instrumental in the formulation of ideas about the separation of Church and state.
This was because the Church, especially the Catholic Church, was very much involved in the state’s matters. Paine was a British thinker who was an important figure during the Enlightenment.
One of the books he wrote in support of the French Revolution is The Rights of Men. In this book, he puts forward the fact that revolutions are justified if the government is not acting on behalf of the people.
Paine thought religion was irrelevant on matters of ethics as they could be attained from pure reason and logic.
Matters of religion are about faith, rather than logic. As we enter a new era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), can we turn to religion to answer some pressing questions? Can religion answer the ancient admonition about who we are if our brains can be augmented? Can it answer if we still have free will, if technology can nudge us to act in a particular manner? Can religion answer why we are here if machines can do much of the tasks that we are destined to perform? Do we need to convene religious leaders of all faiths to answer these questions, or should we rely on just science to answer these questions?
Some religious formations are starting to tackle these questions. For example, in February this year, the Roman Catholic Church joined with Microsoft and IBM to develop artificial intelligence (AI) ethics.
This is an example of science and religion working together to tackle challenging problems confronting our society.
The era of 4IR is no different. As science and technology advances, people will continue to look at religion to make sense of the world. In fact, the data backs the link between religion, science, and technology as the Pew Research Centre has found that the world is becoming more religious as it becomes more interconnected.
This is unsurprising when we consider that the relationships between our value systems and principles as well as digital transformation and greater interconnectedness are increasingly becoming complex.
This increasing complexity requires us to develop an ethical framework for technologies such as AI and biotechnology. Much of our people’s values are obtained from religions and are taught in places of worship.