Faith and Technological Change

The pace of monumental change has picked up exponentially since the Industrial Revolution and continues to accelerate.  A mere 63 years separated the first powered human flight and humanity’s first steps on the moon. The computer systems that enabled the latter event in 1969 would seem laughably quaint in modern classroom; each student would be carrying a smartphone with greater processing capacity.  Biotechnology – especially in the reproductive realm – has advanced from the clumsy eugenics of the early 20th century to the possibility of “designer babies” today.  And even the early founders of Artificial Intelligence now worry that the unfathomable benefits it promises will be difficult to separate from the risks it poses.  Is religious faith relevant and useful in helping us navigate these troubled ethical waters?  Given the potential for the “machine intelligence” of silicon chips to supersede our limited, “carbon-based” mortal thinking, will our strictly human ethical questions even matter in the future? Will God matter to whatever might transcend our human intelligence?