Gnostic Technopoly

Gnosticism (very roughly) is the belief that the 'spiritual' is uncorrupted, while the material world is fallen.

We extend our being through the use of technology. For instance, when you drive, the car becomes an extension of you: you 'feel' through the car.

Technology allows us to do more and faster - but this means it also acts as a buffer between you and what you are doing. Your attention to the things on your journeys is more fleeting when you drive than when you walk. Your connection with the world around you becomes attenuated with the use of technology.

This is most accentuated with digital technologies, where it is possible to inhabit a virtual reality for hours on end, extending your being to every corner of the globe, but in a severely limited way.

It is in this sense that technopoly (ironically, given its intense materialism) favours the gnostic point of view, since it allows the mind to remove itself to a very large degree from the actual experience of physical reality.

(Modern, new world Christianity, with its denial of a sacramental vision of reality, also implicitly favours the gnostic, since it implies that the spiritual cannot be made present through the physical, except in the vaguest of ways.)

Comments

Review of "The Language of Creation" by Matthieu Pageau

The problem we face today (and the problem that nearly all my reading, thinking and writing is centred on) is how to be the Church in the face of modernism. This was a really important book for me and I hope this essay goes some way to explaining why. I will say at the outset that I am simplifying here: pre-modern conceptions of the universe have persisted in the West, but nevertheless, the general trend has been towards abandoning such perspectives, and I am concerned with the overall downward trend, not exceptions. The general problem can be called scientism, that is, that matter is all there is, and thus the scientific method defines all there is to know. This is our basic outlook, and it manifests itself in many different ways, from ideologies as a concept, to consumerism and popular culture. In this way, all metaphysics, religion, spirituality and morality are seen as not based in material reality, and therefore not real, but rather imagined: they are social constructs, complet...

My (current) map of reality

This is a highly condensed version of how my map of reality developed; much is left out, and clarity is sacrificed for a packed sentence. My journey began in a tradition that has a deep respect for scripture, especially interpreted 'materialistically' or 'literally'. While there's problems with this, it has the strength of honouring the word of God: I was never persuaded by liberalism, which thinks it knows better than the Bible. My thought has always been that if God has spoken to us through Scripture, perhaps he knows what it means and we don't always, and to hold something in contempt is to place yourself in a position where you cannot understand it. But before I get in really deep, I should explain the basic problem I had, which was essentially a feeling of cognitive dissonance with my experience of the world, knowledge of history, literature, art and science etc, and what the mainline reformed-evangelical protestant church (I will use the word '...

When vampires ruled the earth

So, I decided to have a little fun skylarking around with idiosyncratic interpretations of the movie Blade. You're welcome. Let's start with that odd character Blade. He has a dual nature, being human and vampiric. In this sense, he's like a mythical god-man, and is thus an ideal for what vampires should strive to be (and thus resembles Christ, the ideal man). But he's also a vigilante, named for a sword, and so reflects the idea of ultimate (or divine) justice being handed out: the vampires are never given a way out, but are rooted out as if irredeemable. All fairly standard mythical themes. So, I went down another line of analysis, that of power. The vampires represent the powerful and gifted members of society: they control all the institutions and are blessed with extraordinary strength and agility, although Blade is the only one who refrains from exploiting others with his powers. Is this, then, a film about power and whether it can ever truly be used...

The Full Creation

Search This Blog