Device & Virtue

Last summer, Chicago Cubs baseball player Ben Zobrist got thrown out of the game when he turned to the umpire and complained “ that’s why we want an electronic strike zone ”. Who is a better witness to the truth—a person … or a computer? On a more serious note: This question became especially relevant in Chicago. Chris & Adam watched the race-charged trial of the police officer who shot black...

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So Chris found an article from 1962 called “Is Technology Diabolical?” What do you think Adam said . . . German theologian Helmut Thielicke posed this question more than 50 years ago, and it’s more relevant than ever. Chris and Adam unpack Thielicke's article and the most challenging questions it poses. Questions like, “If humanity wasn't sinful, would we need technology?” And, “Can humans avoid m...

CS Lewis became a household name because of the Radio. So why did he get rid of the one in his own house? What did CS Lewis think about technology? He had strong opinions about the radio and other technologies inhabiting our lives. Chris and Adam sit down to talk about what CS Lewis thought about technology, and also how he lived with it personally. Drawing from published work like Abolition of Ma...

The merging of human and machines sounds like an Ironman movie. But it’s actually happening right now. We even found some Christians who are praying this is the next big thing. Has humanity reached the end of its evolution, or could technology light the path for the next stage of human development? People like Neil Harbison believe technology could be just the beginning. Advancements in medicine h...

You’ll never guess who just released an ethics statement all about the values they are trying to promote. It’s not the government or your church. Yeah. It’s Facebook. Included in this episode: All the morals of scrolling through those cat pictures. How do Facebook and Instagram decide what you see every time you scroll through? Deciding what to show you involves value judgments. If it always showe...

Our grandparents met because they lived in the same neighborhood. Today, we meet because we’re on the same app. From dating scenes to dating screens, the Internet has turned your parent's relationship into a foreign world. Aziz Ansari, in his book Modern Romance , dives deep into how the Internet has transformed love and relationships. From intimacy and transparency to cheating, sexting, and break...

Some day your computer will drive your car. “Ok Google, Take Me To Church!” Could driverless cars alter church life? Could they even impact Christian beliefs? As we outsource human activities to technology, those devices come to define our human activities, and even our ways of thinking. How will driverless cars impact church attendance, parking problems, demographic shifts, embodiment, church geo...

Facial recognition is everywhere—it’s how you unlock your iPhone, and some cops are even using it. So what if your church did? Software companies are already stepping into the sanctuary. Sure, we might expect China or Facebook or Apple to use facial recognition, but what standards or expectations should we have for churches using it? Could facial recognition help make large churches more personal...

When did social media start? In 2004 when Facebook started? Nope, try the 1st century! Social media is anything but new and early Christians played a key role in its growth, Tom Standage argues in his book, Writing in the Wall . We dive in to look his claim that social media existed in the Roman Empire and and that the church influenced its development with their own system upgrades. What does it...