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(5) Techno-Touch: "Understanding Science" 995:separate, distinguish mentally)
Flexibility - "for every kind of learning" - Triumph In a Chaos Culture

"But you, Oh Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, even to the time of the end; many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased." (Dan. 12:4)

BABYLON & TECHNOLOGY:

Babylon was the most powerful world Empire of all time. It not only was a religious capital, but also a technological focus for all the learning of the ancient world. The King kept on staff wise men from all kinds of different disciplines. The scientists of Daniel's time used all the tools they knew of to understand and cope with their world better. God allows technologies in time to provide His church new tools to accomplish His purposes. To be able to feel at home with the tools of your time is to give you a real edge in working for God in your world. Unlike many of your parents, you probably grew up comfortable with computing and communication tools, and feel no tension in learning how to use them in ways that are innovative and creative. This is to "understand science".

REVELATION, TECHNOLOGY & ILLUMINATION.

Arthur Custance's' "Noah's Three Sons" is an outstanding study on the roots of anthropology in the light of the Bible. Custance believed that God gave to each of the three sons of Noah a unique and powerful ability that forever marked their descendants. Those three gifts to Shem, Ham and Japhet were respectively the gift of revelation, technology and illumination. All of human history shows the outworking of these three streams in the people-groups of the world.

To the sons of Shem was given the task of REVELATION, and that is why the three major religious groups of our world that believe in one God Who speaks and shows Himself to mankind are all Shemetic in origin - Judaism, Islam and Christianity.

The sons of Ham had the task of bringing sometimes hostile and difficult climates and countries like Egypt, Asia and Africa under control, to conquer the problems of living in environments that were sometimes arid or desolate, jungle or arctic wastelands. To them was given the power of TECHNOLOGY, or the practical solution of life problems. Though they lost the benefits of their service and development that accrued to another, the genesis of many of history's most innovative inventions belong to the sons of Ham.

To Japhet was entrusted the gift of ILLUMINATION. From Gentile nations like India and Greece in the past to modern-day Western nations flowed some of the greatest philosophical, communication and descriptive systems and teaching structures of all time.

Vast breakthroughs have happened in history when in some way these different streams flow together and COMBINE. When illumination is married to revelation we get theology, the illumination of revelation. Think of what good or bad theology has done to the world over the centuries. When you combine illumination and technology, you get science, the explanation of technology, and think again of the power of this in history. The last combination is the one we know so little about in the West with our gift and genius for illumination, the explanation of things. It is the marriage of revelation and technology, the ability to tap into the supernatural world and practically implement these discoveries and powers into daily living. It is what in its worst incarnation C.S. Lewis called "That Hideous Strength." It is in its ugliest form, the morning of the materialist/magician. It is a psychic-technoculture that worships "forces" and "powers" that get things done. It does not care who or what they are, as long as it works.

Babylon was a culture that combined technology and revelation. In Daniel's day, it ruled the world. It became the most dominant kingdom of all human history. In your day it has come back to the children of Japhet, seeking a home in the hunger of the times. Its answer is not an explanation. Its answer is an equivalent. The world to come belongs to those who go beyond explanation. The future belongs to those who in some way can tap into revelation and technology. Our Western world needs leaders like Daniel, who both knew how to hear from heaven and how to put things into practice in the real world. That is why a Millennial Daniel must be equally at home with technology and spirituality.

Left-Right Learning

You were born with two distinct sides to your learning ability. Each side of your brain seems to handle what you do in two different ways. The left side of your brain works on things like numbers, letters and words. Logic, reasoning and concrete thinking take place on this side. The right side deals with visual or abstract things; art, pictures, stories, imaginative ideas. Music, motion, and rhythm run from the right side. Now this is not a strict rule; if your brain is damaged on one side, some functions can switch sides.

For nearly four centuries Western world people learned largely by print. Our learning was largely left-brained. We trained our minds as a culture to be good at numbers, words and logic. Right up to the mid-1980s most people learned that way. Then came television. Now most people in our Western world learn more from visual images, pictures and stories than from print. We have in electronic form returned to the older way of learning: story, song, dance and show. You are the first generation to learn with a total media exposure. You are a generation who has inherited a world of sound and vision learning.

Avenues of contact

Because you grew up focused more right-brained, you need to develop also your ability with words and numbers. Machines can now do numbers faster and better. A good calculator or computer program like MathCad can do much more than most people will ever need or use unless you are called to a specific field of study or work in the sciences or engineering.

Thinking through math-type problems now however is not useless. It will help you develop thought pathways you may need in other areas. God is a numberer. The Bible is filled with counting; people, building and river measurements. Even the stars are both named and numbered. Number is linked with accuracy, definition and structure. Even the very structure of Scripture is filled with amazing numeric patterns and constructions that reveal something of the incredible mind of the Lord. The Bible never uses numbers haphazardly; each has specific meaning and symbol. Jesus fed five thousand and there were seven baskets left over. God is both generous and economical. Nothing with Him is wasted. Do the math. God even counts the hairs on your head.

The same is true with words. Electronic Visuals don't help you think, but putting words down in a letter, a poem or a story will. Cultivate reading. Readers are leaders. Read good books, classic stories and poetry. Develop a love for words. The people who rule the age are those who know how to say what they mean with power. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. When God's Word is lived out in our lives, God visits earth in us again. Be a man or woman of the Word. (See Read - Mastering Print Technology)

The Bible is of course, your best training ground. Gods' prophets spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. The word of God will train your mind better to think and to think God's thoughts after Him than anything else in the world. Christian history -- biography of godly men and women ought to also be high on your list. Read what God did in their lives. What He did with them He can do again. Why not with you? Read some solid books of theology. Read the thoughts and ideas of those revivalists, missionaries and God-lovers whose works and ministries changed nations. Hidden in some of those old volumes are statements of fire and power that can live again, waiting only for someone to come along and trigger the world-changing truth again. Perhaps that someone is you. Charles Finney said:

"My brother, sister, friend; read, study think and read again. You were made to think. It will do you good to think; to develop your powers of study. God designed that religion should require thought, intense thought and should thoroughly develop our powers of thought. The Bible itself was written in a style so condensed as to require much study. I do not pretend as to so explain theology as to dispense with the labor of thinking. I have no ability and no wish to do so." (From the preface: Finneys Systematic Theology 1878)

Hi-tech, Hi-touch

As our involvement with technology grows, our ability to be close to each other in personal and close ways often shrinks. Most of our communication technology transfers words and ideas, but not intimacy, relationship and feeling. Faxes, computers, cable TV, cell phones, E-Mail and net-links all lack the spiritual presence of the personal and non-verbal. Put simply, when we spend too much time in technology, we have difficulty in getting close to others. It is possible to know a great deal of facts and nothing about people. As the tech goes up, so must the touch.

Part of the work of the Holy Spirit in our time is to heal us of our inability to feel deeply and strongly about real things. His work here deals not with the truths we learn or the principles we practice but the feelings and passions we lack that make us truly human. We were never made to live like machines. Put yourself in the way of worship. Learn to let go in God. He will teach you to laugh, to weep, to love and to be angry for the right reason again. As the tech goes high, so does our need for His touch. Don't cut yourself off from it when He comes. The world is never moved by the mildly interested.





Using Computers

In our Information Age, inability to afford or use a computer is poverty. God allows technologies for His purposes. Those He has allowed in your time are technologies of information. With print invented, the Reformation was possible. You have been born in a time with more access to ideas than any other generation in history. What are the purposes of God in allowing this technology?

Part of the purposes is time-shrinking. Our world is so complex. It changes all the time. Just trying to keep up with what is going on is more than almost anyone can attempt. In a single read of a large week-end newspaper you will process more data in a day than a sixteenth century intellectual had all his life. A computer is a time-machine. Its great strength is the ability to do a great deal in a very short time. John Wesley sometimes sent out literally hundreds of quill-pen written letters a month to friends and detractors. With a word-processor and a data-base you can send out millions. Strong went nearly insane compiling his exhaustive Bible Concordance by hand. A good Bible study program can look up any word or combination of words you want in less than a second -- and in Hebrew or Greek if you want. To design a house or a brochure, write a tract or a book, compose a hymn or song, find a fact or a friend, you can shrink time with a fast system.

Get the fastest hardware you can afford. Every year, new models of computers from reliable vendors come out that promise more than the last year's version. You don't need the latest and greatest but don't be cheap and go for the minimum system unless you know you can later upgrade it. The eighteen-month rule is a good guide-line for purchase for both hardware and software. When something really new comes out, if you can, wait that long before you buy it. By then all the bugs and early problems should show up and be fixed, and you won't be stuck with something that turns out to be an electronic Edsel. It won't be state-of-the art but it will probably be more than powerful enough for what you need, more reliable and certainly a lot cheaper.

Think carefully before you buy. The first question ought to be "What programs (software) do I want to use?" Pick your programs first then the platform that will run them. Software almost always trails hardware. Few programs really stretch the abilities of the systems that run them. If you are only planning to write letters or books or do Bible study, you won't need something as fast and powerful as a system for developing video, CAD-CAM, multi-media or animation. Shop around. Ask friends. Read the reviews. Compare prices. Check warranties, parts availability, upgrade prices and capabilities.

Consider a good second-hand system if a friend is upgrading; he might offer you a good deal.. Computers themselves usually last long after their technology niche. Most of all, think of your computer as one of the most useful tools of your time. Get a good one. If you can afford it go for one step back from state of the art. Take time to learn how it works and on its programs. Then get set for a quantum leap in what you can accomplish.






THINGS YOU CAN USE YOUR COMPUTER FOR:

Here is a short list of tasks and typical programs that can vastly simplify complex, chafing and sometimes costly projects. A computer never saves time when you start; it takes time. It always takes time to learn something new and a computer is no exception. But once you have learned one program in one system, many other useful programs behave in a similar way. And when you have paid the price to learn, you can accomplish awesome things.

(1) Bible Study - Topical & Lexical Word studies, Concordances, Cross-Reference
Quickverse, MacWord, CD-Word, Godspeed, The Word, Logos Study Bible
(2) Writing - Word-Processing, Spelling, Thesaurus and Grammar Checking
Microsoft Word, MSWorks, Lotus Word Pro, WordPerfect
(3) Publishing Layout - Brochures, Reports, Advertising
Corel Draw, Microsoft Publisher, Aldus Pagemaker, Freehand, Canvas, Serif Drawplus
(4) Art - Scanned Art, Photo, Natural-Media Paint and Retouch
Picture Publisher, Photoshop, Fractal Design Painter, Kai Power Tools, PhotoImpact
(5) CAD-CAM, Engineering Design, Invention
DesignCad 3-D, Floorplan, Chief Architect, TurboCad, Virtus Walk-Thru.
(6) Maths & Science Studies - Chemistry, Physics, Biology
MathCad, Bodyworks, Algebra, Sat Tests, Math Blaster, ChemCad
(7) Music - Recording Studios, SongWriting,
Cakewalk, Ballade, ProTracks, PowerTracks, Band-In-A Box, Jammer
(8) Music Notation & Learning
Encore, Beethoven, Music Mentor, MS Musical Instruments
(9) Animation, Cartooning and Morphing
Deluxe Paint Animation, Morph, Powermorph, Dabbler, Expression
(10) Video Editing & Capture, Scanning, OCR
ComputerEyes, Snappy, TextBridge Pro, Omnipage Direct, Photomagic
(12) Multi-Media Presentations
Macromedia Director, Astound, PowerPoint, U-Lead Media Studio
(13) Health & Fitness, Medical, Anatomical, Exercise
Mayo Clinic, Home Medical Advisor, Self-Health, Bodyworks
(14) Atlas, Geography, Travel Planning, Location
AutoMap, City Streets, Street Wizard, Precision Mapping, Streets USA
(15) Research - Encyclopaedias, Libraries, Tours
Encarta, Comptons, Groliers, Guiness Book Of World Records, Library Of the Future
(16) Games, Puzzles & Simulations
SimCity, Battle Chess, Flight Simulator, Myst
(17) Finances, Checkbooks, Spreadsheets, Forecasts
Managing Your Money, MS Office, Lotus 1-2-3
(18) Organizers, Schedulers, Phone & Address Books
Lotus Organizer, In His Time, Anytime, Ascend
(19) Data-Bases, Mailing-Lists and Catalogs
Alpha Five, Access, DB-II, Excel
(20) Communication, E-Mail, Video & Audio Links
Netmanage, Netscape Navigator, Emissary, Wincom, Procomm
(21) Animation, 3-D World Creation, Modelling
Caligari TrueSpace, Bryce 2, Extreme 3D, Simply 3D, Poser, Ray Dream Studio


CD-ROM DATABASES

How would you like to be able to hold an entire 600 volume library in the tips of two fingers? Next, how would you like to be able to look through EVERY WORD in that library to find something you are looking for and do it in just a few seconds? And of course you can! The simplest and cheapest mass storage of data is the CD-ROM. Anything from 700 megabytes (700 million characters of information or about 600 serious books worth) up to 10 gigabytes (ten thousand million, sufficient for two full-length movies with interactive endings) can be stored in this media. You will find these invaluable for looking up historical facts or quotations from Bible libraries including concordances, dictionaries, atlases and reference, to encyclopedias that cover in some detail the whole sweep of human history. If your calling involves art or graphics you can store slide photos and visuals by having them transferred onto a recordable CD-ROM.

Unless you use writeables, a CD-ROM's greatest value is for things not meant to change or matters of record. A CD-ROM is an electronic archive. Think of them as huge electronic books or big data-storage lockers. Many systems come equipped with them now as standard multi-media compatible equipment. Many large programs or software systems come now standard on CD-ROM saving you much hard drive and memory space if you can access it directly on the disk. Get the fastest-access one you can afford.

INTERNET SURFING

The other great resource of human ideas and information is the Internet, the huge world-wide computer-exchange network originally designed by the U.S. military. Although actually owned by no-one, it is host to literally millions of computers of all kinds in most countries of the world. The Net is quite simply the most awesome information link in all human history. Almost anything you ever want or need to know is probably out there on it somewhere. New software simplifies both setting up your own system to communicate with it, and to provide direction to the places you want to explore and contact.

To connect to the Net or the World-Wide Web you need three things. (1) Your computer (fast and powerful enough to handle the software needed to make the connection) (2) A high-speed modem, a device that lets your computer talk through the phone line to (3) a Network provider or service; a company or individual who will either give, loan or lease you access to the Net through their system. Many commercial servers also give you free software that makes it simple to set up your access to them and through them to the Net, and sometimes space for your own Web site. What you don't get through them can usually be downloaded from the Net itself once you find the sites or places where the information you are looking for is stored. Although the Net itself is free, service providers usually charge a monthly rate for access to their gateway to it. They also may charge for time used on their lines as well as phone calls if they are non-local. Again, shop around. Sometimes you can get free access through your local school or community college or public library. Some services offer a number of free hours a month, especially if you log on past prime-time (9:00 am to 12:00 midnight.) Many offer a single monthly rate ($20) for unlimited time and access.

NetCruising or cyber-surfing is like having a gateway to the whole world in your keyboard and your screen. On the Net you can download data from the government, scientific research projects, a university curriculum in Australia, Italy or England or the U.S. Supreme Court records on public hearings and policies. You can pull a visual shot off a satellite orbiting earth that shows you the weather over your part of the globe, book your own airplane tickets or hotels, talk with literally scores of people about almost any subject all at once, or send instant mail to another friend in some other part of the country or the world. You can sit at your desk at home and quite literally tour the whole world.

Thousands of sites provide detailed information, text, graphics, sound or even video on any subject under the sun. (see web sites in appendix) Some services provide electronic versions of the most recent issues of magazines, newspapers and periodicals that you can "read" long before they hit the newsstands. You can have the computer "gopher" or hunt through the whole world to find every reference to a subject you want to research. It can return to you literally hundreds of pages of facts and figures on your search. You can publish your own tracts, ideas, even books, songs and artwork and share them freely with anyone interested. You can interactively chat, play games, discuss issues and forward ideas or offers to a whole world electronically capable of being connected to anyone else.

The Net or World-Wide Web is just that - the whole world. All its ideas, questions, hopes, hates, loves, sins, ideas both great and ugly, lovely and vicious are somewhere out there. To surf the Net is an adventure that is not without its risks and dangers. Visual and verbal pornography, violence and addictions ride the same waves with witnessing Christians and fresh-breaking reports of significant spiritual history. The same newsgroup servers that inform you of the most recent outbreak of revival can also carry the rants of the blasphemer, the sexual cyberpredator and studied insult of the skeptic.

You can't download a relationship. There are limits as well as dangers to any such access system. There are some things it cannot do at all. But we ought not to be afraid of what God has allowed us in this technology. It has potential indeed for misuse and evil, but it is also perhaps the greatest technological tool for the democracy of data the world has ever seen. Already nations bound by ignorance and deception have felt the force of a few who stood for freedom armed with nothing more than a fax, a phone and access to the Net. Only the dishonest fear the truth. Jesus said "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." The Net is a door to the largest world of ideas and nations in all of history. Christians need to take a stand here as in any other land. The same link that carries the cynic can carry the Scripture. God's truth can stand the fire - and the "flames!"

CYBERPUNK & VIRTUAL SPACE

As the Net grows in size and complexity, its virtual world develops its own kind of heroes and horrors. In a world where you can be anyone you want to be, go anywhere you want to go and know anything you want to know, a new breed of self-defined information road-warriors has emerged to overthrow any who would seek to control information access. Inspired by the imaginative fantasy of writers like William Gibson (Neuromancer), movies like Bladerunner, Terminator and Robocop, cyberpunk (from kybernetes (a helmsman) and punk (considered anti-social rebel) is the dominant counterculture of the Web. What are its peculiar temptations?

(1) Virtual Identity: Race, sex, status, looks all mean nothing in the faceless world of the Web. A fourteen-year old lonely white boy from Wisconsin can be a forty-year old black queen from the Bronx. Safe behind your virtual persona, you can say things you would or could never be free to find on an actual street. You can make friends with virtually no risk to your self-esteem or reputation in the real world. The only difficulty with living in the Player mode so long, is that you may start to lose sight of who you ever really were. It would help us to remember that the Bible word for an actor under an assumed character, or someone who speaks or acts under a false part is the word from which we get the English word hypocrite; someone who pretends to be someone else. (Matt, 6:12; 7:5; 23:25; 24:51; Luke 11:44)

(2) Anti-Authority: Bringing down the big guys. The punk of cyberpunk is a Robin Hood; rob the info-rich and give to the poor. He is a Robocop equipped with the tools of his corporation but compelled to expose their dark side. Because virtual space does not recognize status or class, no-one can bring anything to impress others to the table of information exchange except depth and breadth of ability to access. Like kids with the cheat codes for a video or a grasp of all the fatalities of an arcade game, cyberpunks flaunt their authority against all authority. But when every man does what is right in his own eyes, any virtual community eventually turns into a virtual monastery. "Every way of a man in right in his own eyes; but the Lord ponders the hearts." (Prov. 21:2))

(3) Techno-Terrorism: Digital revenge; "Mess with my system and I'll virus or mail-bomb you; challenge me and I'll cancel your account". Grasp of the intricacies of the Web, backdoors and hacked codes through firewall security systems give the cybernaut a sense of supremacy. He becomes a control freak. But a jerk with a big system is a big jerk. A man whose outraged rights turn to revenge asks for the right to play God. The way we respond to people who cross us and our plans is a revelation of the greatness or the meanness of our lives and character. (James 3:11-4:3; Rom. 12:19)

(4) Freedom Hack: "Why did you break the code?" "Because it is there" In cyberspace knowledge is power. Restriction of any kind is perceived as an attack on the very cell structure of liberty. But privacy invasion and piracy electronics is still immorality and theft. And violation of any real law with its root in God's law will draw God's penalty. You are free to choose to violate such law, but you are not free to avoid the outcome. God never gave us the Ten Suggestions. "You shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another. You shall not defraud your neighbor, neither rob him .. " (Lev. 19:11-13; 6:2-5; Deut. 23:24-25; Prov. 21:7; Zech 5:1-4)

Witnessing to Technotypes

Many people who prefer the company of a computer and a modem to a scary or silly society around them are still profoundly lost. How do you witness to the techie?

(1) Hang out with them. Though often isolated and anti-social, technical types need to be loved and need Jesus too. Often their techno-weird front is just a cover for a sad heart.

(2) Know what you're talking about if you touch their territory. Nothing bothers a technotype more than someone pointedly passing on as fact what they know is just plain nonsense. If you don't know, don't be afraid to ask. ASK THEM! One of the great ways Jesus witnessed was by asking people for help. Now He is God. He doesn't need what we are asked to give. But in the very act of help, peoples' hearts often open. Watch how Jesus witnessed to a smart religious leader and a local lost girl (John 3:1-21; 4:1-42).

(3) Boldly go where no one has gone before with them. The Bible record is the most mind-boggling array of data, phenomena and creativity the world has ever seen. When you begin to explore the universe in the light of God's Word, you have a window on the world that can give you all sorts of clues to the very areas that most fascinate the technotype. What does the Bible have to say about ecology? UFO's? Giants and monsters? The true shape of the future? What is going to happen to our world? The unseen realm? The nature of reality, time and multi-dimensional space? Is there life on other worlds? Why is there life at all on this one? The Bible has been a major source of ideas and images for hundreds of famous S/F and fantasy writers from C.S. Lewis & J.R.R. Tolkein to Steven King and George Lucas. Don't be afraid to open a discussion along any of these lines.

(4) Give them the Gospel in the light of the best apologetics you can lay your hands on.
They are people whose whole world is imaginative thought. Give it to them. The human equivalent of the Spocks and the Datas of Trek are people often moved by truth and fact. They are prime candidates for a Gospel that works by truth and love. (John 1:45-51)

(5) Make sure they count the cost of commitment when you lead them to Christ. Jesus has no rivals. He is not one in a long line of Ascended Masters, Time Lords or part of the Q Continuum. He is not even the Highest Manifestation of truth, the end of the long evolutionary search for God. He is simply the Way, the Truth, the Life. When we bow our knee to Him, we forsake all our own pet ideas and imaginations. We keep no options in reserve. Technotypes know a lot of alternate paths. Bring them squarely back to the only One that makes the real difference between life and death in the real world. (Prov.16:24)

Tender technology

Technology is the practical solution of life's problems. It is not always machines, electronics or programs. It is getting things done efficiently without waste or stupidity. We in the Western World are very good with information. Much of our technology is data-transfer or access. We know hundreds of ways to pass on stuff we get or learn to others. We know an awful lot. We are experts in illumination - explaining things.

What we are rather short on is revelation (hearing revealed truth) and a true technology - applied wisdom to get things done. God is the smartest Being in the Universe. His very dumbest thought is wiser than anything we could ever come up with. His wisdom is unsearchably awesome and His ways are past finding out.(Rom 11:33) But God, the expected TechnoGenius, is the very opposite of what we might guess at from projected Infinite Wisdom. Instead of a giant SuperComputer we come face to face with the Father. Ultimate wisdom is also Intimate Friendship.

Personal, intimate and touchable. So should your own walk be. By all means learn all you can about life and your world. Get illumination from God, His world and His Word. A man or woman who hears from God is also an agent of revelation. God speaks and we are to hear. Be a person who knows His Voice. Dare to be a Daniel - hear from heaven and speak to kings. But remember the bottom line. If you don't do it, it doesn't count. Do it with wisdom, do it with commitment, do it like God said. Be kind. But just do it.