The Religion of Technology: The Divinity of Man and the Spirit of Invention

by David F. Noble

Book Overview

Are religion and science really at war with one another? Not according to David F. Noble , who argues that the flourishing of both religion and technology today is nothing new but rather the continuation of a 1,000-year-old Western tradition. The Religion of Technology demonstrates that modern man's enchantment with things technological was inspired by and grounded in religious expectations and the quest for transcendence and salvation. The two early...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140279164
• ISBN13: 9780140279160
• Release Date: April 1999
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.51 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 7.9"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

People are giving this book less credit than it deserves....

This is a good book and a bit of a fun read though in its nature-- in what it tries to be-- it alienates itself from whatever group is intended to be its core audience. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile and well-written; though I gather than some, from its reviews, have had some problems with its difficulty and subject matter.This is meant, I think, to be a popular book rather than an academic text. The author has his story-line and sticks too it fairly well: as with any 'popular' book, if you dig from one discipline into its minutia, you're going to find flaws and biases. Books can be great still. Because it is a popular book dealing with more or less of an arcane area, it does have a tendency to ramble between lots of stuff that most people generally haven't heard of: if you sit back and let the whole picture come into focus, I have found, in the end, you're still left with a worthwhile read.To the reviewer who said that this book only focused on the development of technology and its interplay with religion in the West: it could be argued that only in the West could the author's thesis be proved: religious devotion was a cause of technolgical development and not vice-versa (i.e. religion/religious groups reacted to technology in the form of change in doctrine, practice, etc.: like the development of the different 'modern' branches of Judaism in the nineteenth century OR changes in Islam toward fundamentalist, anti-Western belief caused partially by technology... I can't think of any better non-Western examples...)This is a worthwhile read; I'm pretty sure that its worth the fifteen dollars or whatever it costs. Buy it if you're in the mood for a challenging, good read on this sort of subject matter....

Theology as the Source of Technology in the West

This book traces the origin of the Internet and the attitudes of its developers to Protestant theology and its antecedents in Christianity. Instead of goodness entering the world through God's omnipotence, Protestants believe that they are required to build God's kingdom in this world. The drive in northern Europe for technological enhancements to life derives from this. A book that offers an interesting insight on Noble's ideas is 'Collective Intelligence' by Pierre Levy. This book examines the social impact of Internet technology and proposes a set of ideals that should be used to guide a society using it. Levy tries to show how his set of ideals would obtain the most benefits from society from this technology. An interesting part of the book occurs when Levy compares the mode of live in an Internet society with that derived from Catholic ideals. He recounts mediaeval Catholic philosophy on the means by which God's insight creates the world. God can exist by his contemplation of his own existence since he is the essence of all things and out of his contemplation springs angels which can contemplate their own existence but need other things to exist. There are 10 ranks of angels each created either by God's or the next higher angel rank's contemplation of themselves. The contemplation of the lowest rank of angels creates our world.The nub of this is that the world is top down. The ideal is at the pyramid of existence and goodness derives its meaning from the top. Levy contrasts this with the new conception of the Internet as shown by Noble. The lowest rank which is our world can create a new world above it. In this case, it is the lowest level of connectivity of the Internet. This new world is good in so far as it enables the inhabitants of our world to flourish. The lowest levels in cyberspace can create higher levels of existence with no limits on the number of levels which corresponds to the ranks of angels. Goodness flows up these levels from the real world in direct contrast to Catholic theology.These two books support each other. Levy offers this Internet world as an ideal and contrasts it with the Catholic ideal. Noble examines it as an historical process and notes its derivation from Protestantism.These are two very interesting books well worthy of attention.

New Camelot

God's words finally revealed for those who are called

...good insight into why western technology is western...

I suppose most people like me have wondered why technology has advanced so rapidly in western societies but so little in, say, India or in Africa. I first noticed this through the work of Joseph Needham. I went to an excellent lecture of his with the unforgettable title "The Pre-Natal History of the Steam Engine". The Chinese had many of the precursors to the steam engine but didn't put them together. I've seen this rise of western technology attributed to Christianity in western cultures but never in a very convincing way. David Noble has convinced me. In the first part of the book he shows the explicit influence of two passages in the Bible, one from Genesis and one from Daniel. It is an academic style of writing. You've got to want to read it but its worth it. I wanted to know much more in depth about the role of the monasteries in developing technology. I found myself looking up the origin of Benedictine liqueur (from an apothecary in a monastery). When it comes to the present day the book is weak. He dwells on the religious views of current or recent scientists. Since most of the American population is theist and attends church its not surprising that scientists also espouse religious values. To make a great point out of this is redundant. After reading this book I wanted to go further but was disappointed to have my appetite so whetted but not yet satisfied. Chris.