I use Google, the biggest search engine on the Internet, just about everyday, as I am sure you do as well. I don't even look up phone numbers in a book anymore. It is faster to "Google it". No wonder the founders of Google, Sergey Brin and Larry Page have become rich and are the toast of America's Silicon Valley. They have also been named "Men of the Year" by the Financial Times.

Technology is a wonderful thing. I am glad to be alive in this age and have access to the Internet, computers and all the wonders the microchip has brought to our world. The promise this technology holds for us is in many ways immeasurable. This massive computing power applied to the challenges facing our world holds out hope that solutions can be found that will improve the everyday lives of the world's poor. 

Technology is being harnessed to prepare for a possible avian flu out break. A super computer at Los Alamos, New Mexico is running simulations showing how fast and in what patterns an outbreak would impact the United States. The hope is to quickly get a handle on a coming outbreak and lessen the overall impact. Can it be done? Possibly. One certainly hopes so.

Back to the inventors of Google. Brin and Page are in their early 30's and filled with energy and ambition. They have gone against the grain of computing to get this far. Their goal with their search engine seems to be to rival the human brain in speed and capacity. A recent Financial Times articles quotes Brin saying the human brain "is existence proof of how [search] can be better". This slice of biological computing power is "very easy to use, in a sense, and it's very quick, and it's much faster than the way human/computer interactions work today...So it's clear there's no inherent ceiling we're hitting upon." (December 23, 2005, page 13)  Can a computer search engine match the power of the human brain? What kind of world would that create?

I get a bit nervous whenever I read such boasts from science. Frankly, I don't think man will ever create anything to match what God, the Creator of life, built into the human mind and body. Yes, I believe that God is the intelligent designer and creator of all life on this planet. As I see the continuing efforts to remove, bar and forbid the teaching or mention of God or Jesus Christ in the public forum I have greater cause to fear the rise of science and technology. If we become reliant on technology and less aware of God we are headed into a box canyon with no escape.

Technology is growing exponentially and impacting our daily lives in more ways than we realize. The cost of data storage has become so inexpensive that it is feasible to preserve every form of communication, both verbal and written, we produce. That can be a blessing or a curse, depending on the values of those who have access and control of those records. That is the double edge sword technology produces.

A world of science and technology without a core reliance on God creates a bleak and dark existence. As men and women become dependent on scientific and technical achievements to the exclusion of the true spiritual values we are in danger of creating a world without God. When that happens we will find ourselves without hope. We will be very close to what we see described in Genesis 11 at the tower of Babel incident. In an attempt at self-deification humans attempted to build a tower to the heavens, in defiance of God's will. God would not permit this to continue and He confused the languages and scattered the people abroad over the face of the earth.

The Bible prophecies of a time in the future when a highly technological system called "Babylon the great" creates a global society that trades in the "...bodies and souls of men". (Revelation 18:13)  It will be a system without a soul and will meet its doom at the return of Jesus Christ. God will not let this worldwide system bring an end to civilization.

Technology has an important role in our world. But we should understand its limitations in discovering the deep spiritual truths that provide the missing dimension to life. For that we must rely on God and His revelation. Our free booklet, What is Your Destiny is a good place to start your study to find the purpose of your life.