Month: July 2011

Subject: Culture, Technology and Religion Topic: Module 9: Favorite Questions
Author: Leslie Dawes Date: July 20, 2011 3:54 PM

Doing this week’s readings and watching some clips got me thinking about the connection between culture, technology and religion. I had never heard The Beatle’s Revolution No.9 played backwards before. That was very interesting. The sounds to me seemed to be a combination of religion, technology and culture. As was mention in the question part of this module does religion and technology discussion begin where Murphie & Potts left off? Thinking about all the chapters in their book, I am curious why they didn’t include a chapter about this week’s focus. Maybe, they will have a sequential to “Culture and Technology”, which I really enjoyed reading and discussing.
So, what does religion and technology have in common? Over the centuries it appears that they have had many differing opinions. Secret societies, namely the Masons were formed in defiance of the church to promote the advancements of mechanical processes (technology).Yet these men were very spiritually connected. Maybe, it has been the restraints of organized religion that has created fictions.

Religion in its purest form is an attempt to explain the world and how it functions and our relationship to it. Science in its purest state attempts to explain the same thing. They do have a commonality.

As Noble states,” The spirit of engineering easily mixed with the militant Protestantism into a specific American credence of salvation through technology was what propelled the colonialization of America to a construction of a paradise.”

Now what about the future of the relationship between religion and technology? Will it change? Will technology become so powerful that religion will lose influence in our society? Or will they continue to influence each other? Thoughts?

Leslie

References:

Murphie, A.& Potts, J. (2003). Culture and Technology, New York. Palgrave MacMillan.

Noble, D. F. (1997). American by Design: Science, Technology and the Rise of Corporate Capitalism. NewYork: Alfred A. Knopf.

I have really enjoyed reading Murphie and Potts, 2003, Culture and Technology. When I read about Nanotechnology, I was fascinated. My video production explores this wonderous technology and how it is impacting our present and future interactions with man-made products. These products have enormous effects on our lives and our environment.

I made this video using Photostory3. I like the way the program integrates pictures, text, voice and music to make whatever your imagination can create. It is fun to use and I have been using it with my Grade One classes over the last five years.