Feng, F. & Petrina (2010). The flesh is willing but the spirit is weak. (in press) This article looks at the interconnectedness and interdependence of spirituality, religion and technology. In the article, Feng and Petrina offer a glimpse into the past and the entrenched teaching once present in many religions that viewed science and technology only as bad; then lead us forward through time to the present-day where the development and utilization of modern technology is seen as not only right – but as God-ordained. In the past, “Theologians spoke for God, natural scientists spoke for nature, and humanists and social scientists spoke for society, while at the same time denying the voices of each other.” However, these separate voices have now merged to form a new choir. Spirituality and religion are no longer mutually exclusive. In fact, the authors assert that modern spirituality and religion have embraced technology to the point that inter-dependencies have been created between the two. “What creationists could not do with Darwinian science in 1925, intelligent designers are doing with technology in 2007.” The challenge put forth by the authors is “to recognize the complex dimensions of both spirituality and technology. Technology cannot merely be reduced to sacred objects, texts and spaces, or the material culture of religious cosmologies. Nor can technology be distinct from intelligent design.”
Feng and Petrina note that modern organized religion has not only ceased in the denial and fear of technology, but instead has embraced technology in their teachings. “Where browsing, surfing, and online games would have drawn the wrath of the holy not long ago, around the adage that the devil was finding employment for idle hands, the world’s religions crossed the virtual threshold to embrace new technologies.” There are now televised ministries, online prayer circles, virtual churches, online mass sessions, virtual aboriginal ceremonies, religious based video games, and more. Religious teachings have become asynchronous. “If you didn’t make it to the cyber- church, mosque or temple today, you have the option of deferring your appointment with God to a more convenient occasion. Modern organized religion has focused in on the new realization that, “salvation in shopping, surfing, browsing and blogging is not entirely satisfying.” In doing so, they have inverted the Christian gospel to read, “the flesh is willing but the spirit is weak”.
Feng and Petrina’s premise is that, “spirituality and technology are co-emergent— mutually interdependent.” That one cannot exist without the other. Through a series of questions such as: “Can we have spirituality without technology? Can we have technology without spirituality? Is the ideal form of spirituality that without technology? Is the ideal form of technology that without spirituality? Is there an atheistic technology? Is there an immaterial spirituality?” the authors seek to advance their notion of the new spirituality of technology. But I for one would still like to know, “What would Jesus have on his iPod?”