I am jesus christ trailer twitter3/17/2023 Christians and humanists can find much common ground in ethics even if we disagree about the deeper backgrounds of our commitments. The human improvement and common good impulses drive humanists to subject everything to ethical examination in the light of human benefit. The prophetic impulse drives Christians to subject everything to ethical examination in the light of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Both say it is human to critique, to ask questions, to challenge, to be against certain things as well as for other things. If Christianity and humanism are anything they are calls to ethical reflection and commitment. I would like to suggest that this unwise resignation attitude and approach sets the stage for catastrophe. Let someone else do it or just give in and go with the flow. We are tired of having to think critically there’s simply too much to think critically about. Of course, not everyone who says it means all of that, but that’s the impression it conveys and, I would suggest, the impact it has. Just accept it.” In other words, it’s a-ethical resignation to reality, an active disinterest in ethical scrutiny. What does it mean? I take it to mean “Don’t over think it it’s here now and there’s nothing we can do about it. Now let me talk a moment about that common saying “It is what it is.” I hear it all the time so do you. And unfortunately many people’s attitude toward such things is “It is what it is.” Such was just a pipe dream when George Orwell wrote “1984” in 1949. A recent example, of course, is our own government’s collection of all telephone call data. We find out a technology is already in place that we thought was a futuristic dream or nightmare. Most of us are wondering how they could ever invent something while it’s being done. Today, as we all know and, to our chagrin experience too often, technology is racing ahead of us. Long ago Christian thinker and prophet Jacques Ellul warned us about the pitfalls of technology and especially what he called the culture of “technique”-a social worship of technology, an idolatry of technology, an attitude that if it can be done we must do it, a lack of serious ethical reflection on the technologies that use us as much as we use them. The general attitude is “If it can be done, it will be done-eventually.” Unfortunately the general attitude is also one of resignation: “If it can be done and will be done, let’s get on with it.” We are a society saturated with and fascinated by technology. One cannot turn around without seeing and hearing about new technologies few people doubt even the most improbable futuristic ones such as posthuman robots, half human and half machine. Then people thought that was science fiction it could never happen. It was “Skype” in the 1950s-in miniature. Many years ago, when I was a child, I was fascinated by the cartoon character Dick Tracy-a fictional detective who wore a tiny watch-like, two-way television on his wrist. “Our on line relationships are totally manageable and therefore shallow.” The Knudsen Lecture in Ethics, March 10, 2014, University of Sioux Fallsįoy Valentine Professor of Christian Theology and Ethics When Jesus Said “Follow Me” Did He Mean “On Twitter?” Ethics and Social Networking
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