Getting Away From The God Model

Let me start by saying this journal entry is not specifically about God, my belief in God, or the existence in God. It is primarily about the utility of morality.

Over the past two weeks I have been embracing technology. I finally turned in my old flip phone and got a smart phone, I opened a gmail account and I am attempting to digitize all my papers. My new smart phone and all its apps have got me thinking about technology and how it effects us all.

We all know about the benefits of technology and the love that many have for it, we also know about the disdain many have for it and some of its pitfalls. That being said technology itself is an advancement of knowledge and in and of itself is neither good nor evil.

It has however been noted quite extensively that we are living in an age of immorality and many believe that technology is at least in part to blame.

So lets run with this and assume it is true. Technological advances have caused us to be less moral. Why is this? I believe it has to do with the fact that we have looked to God as the sole reason for living moral lives. God decrees we do such and such things because they are moral and he created us and if we do them we go to heaven.

The problem however is that as technology evolves we, or at least the combination of "we" and technology have become more God like. Things that would have been unimaginable even ten years ago are now possible. Things that were once designated as super natural now are possible and easily explained by science. This in turn causes us to question how unique God's omnipotence really is. We have machines that can read minds(admittedly in a very crude manner), time travel seems more and more possible, massive transmissions of information are made across continents in fractions of seconds.

If we can do all the things that God can do then what makes him so special, and furthermore why should we follow his antiquated morals. This argument may seem a little weak agains the big sins of murder and theft but more and more it resonates with people when it comes to lying and infidelity. They are questioning why they should follow these rules of a God that suddenly does not seem so powerful in contrast with our own abilities.

This is creating a very big problem. Morals are in fact necessary for more than just getting to heaven. Religion was largely created to control populations and create civilized societies, without morals things don't get done mistrust is widespread. It is very difficult to make long term plans when you cant trust your fellow man.

We need to look beyond the God model of morality. We need to find different justifications for good morals in our society. If we cannot do this then our increasing secular society is doomed to fail.