{"id":20671,"date":"2014-04-01T07:26:28","date_gmt":"2014-04-01T07:26:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/new-wp\/?p=20671"},"modified":"2014-04-01T07:26:28","modified_gmt":"2014-04-01T07:26:28","slug":"the-awesome-power-of-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/the-awesome-power-of-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"The Awesome Power of Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"

God says in the Qur\u2019an, \u201c\u2026And We bestowed upon you [the ability to make use of] iron, in which there is awesome power as well as benefits for man\u2026\u201d (<\/span>al-Hadid<\/em>, 57:25).<\/span><\/p>\n

Muhammad Asad, a modern commentator of the Qur\u2019an, relates the verse to the fact that God has endowed mankind with the ability to derive benefits from the natural resources.<\/p>\n

An outstanding symbol of this ability is man\u2019s skill in making tools, which is unique among all animated being. \u201cApes can use tools, but only man can\u00a0fabricate<\/em>\u00a0them\u201d, states George Beadle, a Physiology Nobel laureate, in his\u00a0The Language of Life<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The primary material for all tool-making and, indeed, for all human technology is iron. It is the one metal which is \u201cby mass the most common element on Earth\u201d, and which can be utilised for beneficial as well as destructive ends.<\/p>\n

In iron\u2014as stated in the above mentioned Qur\u2019anic verse\u2014there is \u201cawesome power\u201d (ba\u2019s shadid<\/em>), which is manifest in the manufacture of the weapons of war in general, and the modern \u201ctotal\u201d war in particular.<\/p>\n

Are we not cognisant of the newest, large-scale weapons, and of the horrors of mass destruction that men can create with these nuclear, radiological, biological, and chemical technologies?<\/p>\n

Friedrich Juenger, a German poet who volunteered for military service in the First World War observed the destructive bent of the war technological weaponry in terms of inhuman carnage: \u201c[Man] is not even cut up like an animal that is taken to the butcher, nor neatly carved and disjointed like chicken: he is blown to pieces, crushed, torn to shreds.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there is an even more awesome power inherent in technology. This has been called by many thinkers such as Mumford, Berdyaev and Ortega, \u201cthe problem of technology\u201d. While for many writers, the advance of technology is the primary source of\u00a0human<\/em>\u00a0progress, for others, it is the cause of regress in the nature of man and his institutions (Charles Van Doren 1967).<\/p>\n

This problem manifests itself more subtly in man\u2019s generally ever-growing tendency to advance the development of an increasingly complicated technology. Mesmerised by the success conjured up by technology, humanity can do nothing to stop it. The reactions of some people to the advance of technology border even on insanity.<\/p>\n

Placing the machine in the foreground of all human existence gradually estranges man from all inner connection with nature and even with himself. As observed by Mortimer Adler: \u201cOf all the things in the universe, those which are most intelligible to us are the machines that we ourselves contrive and produce. We understand them better than we understand ourselves or any living organism that is besouled.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jacques Ellul, a French philosopher and law professor, observed how technology has in turn invaded and controlled science; indeed, it dominates all intellectual activity of any kind and subtly undertakes the conquest of all social, political, moral, and artistic arrangements.<\/p>\n

It may be added that even as religion still plays an important role in some societies, it is largely formalistic; and from this deadening formalism cultural sterility ensues.<\/p>\n

It is this consumptive aspect of technology which is warned in that Qur\u2019anic verse\u2014technology which rapaciously exploiting the earth and all that it contains including man.<\/p>\n

The process of growing mechanization\u2014which is so evident in modern life\u2014and unimaginative way of thought jeopardise the very structure of human society. It thus contributes to a gradual dissolution of all moral and spiritual perceptions of divine guidance.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Juenger and others see anxiety, nervousness, mental devastation and desolation, continuous nervous work destroying leisure\u2014everywhere and increasingly. There are feelings of depression, of boredom, of futility, lack of purpose, nervousness and mechanical restlessness.<\/p>\n

On this, Juenger echoes the prediction of Max Nordau, a physician and social critic, that the nerves of mankind will not stand up to the pressures of the modern world.<\/p>\n

It is precisely to warn man of this danger that the Qur\u2019an stresses the potential evil (ba\u2019s<\/em>) of technology if it is put to wrong use due to the user\u2019s ignorance, stupidity and viciousness.<\/p>\n

It is the danger of man\u2019s allowing his dynamic technological ingenuity to run wild and thus to overwhelm his spiritual consciousness and ultimately, to destroy all possibility of individual, household and social happiness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

God says in the Qur\u2019an, \u201c\u2026And We bestowed upon you [the ability to make use of] iron, in which there is awesome power as well as benefits for man\u2026\u201d (al-Hadid, 57:25). Muhammad Asad, a modern commentator of the Qur\u2019an, relates the verse to the fact that God has endowed mankind with the ability to derive…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"_wpzoom_pinterest_image_url":"","_wpzoom_pinterest_hidden_image":"0","_wpzoom_pinterest_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[220],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-star","category-220","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20671\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}