Technology as Religion

I’m reading The Da Vinci Code and it forces me to look back to graduate school when we all sat around and debated religion, faith, and the nature of spirituality. Ah, those were the days! I still ponder these notions today; not doing would besmirch the education and training I received as an historian.

Anyway, while reading Brown’s book, I began to contemplate the role that technology plays in our daily lives as opposed to religion. Which receives more attention? The computer screen you stare at daily or the church, temple, or shrine you visit only a few times per week? Have Intel Duel Core processors supplanted supreme deities and have computer work stations become the new alters? Where do you spend most of your time? Reading the Bible, Koran, or Torah, or reading e-mails?

Historically speaking, religion is the oldest form of technology in human existence, created by a social class determined to control the rest, often by means of fear. Now, the same class of people exists, but they exist as the IT Department in your organization. Interesting isn’t it?

Brown raised many interesting points with his books and sparked controversy to this day, especially concerning the possibility that an entire religion is founded on false principles. He asks the reader if it is worth it to expose such frauds for the sake of truth. If at all came crashing down, how would most ill-educated people cope? The same holds to paying homage to our technological deities. When they fail to work, we curse the day they were made, demanding a return to normal function immediately. Did the Israelites not do the same when all when well in the Promised Land and curse God when their expectations were not meet?

I’m supposed to be the Cynical Librarian, and in keeping with a cynical thread, I postulate that the religion of the modern, western world is technology, the priests, the IT people, the church, the Internet, and the prophet, Google itself!! I invite arguments, attacks, and support.