QOTW #9.4: Can Spirituality and Technology Live Together?
Talking about if spirituality and technology can live together, first we need to understand what spirituality is and what technology is. Because we can't know the answer until we know their mean and what they entails.
Spirituality has been defined in different terms in different religion and they all have same meaning. So in a general sense, is to have belief or to believe there’s something greater than oneself that even humans can’t sense with the usual sensory organs. Spirituality is when you believe that you are part of something big, something not of this world or ordinary plane but something divine on a cosmic level. The four elements said to be spiritual are fire, air, water, and earth.
Technology in simple terms is referred to as scientific knowledge that is put into practical use with different methods. They can also be referred to as devices, systems. Technology has however changed human life, changed how we see and use things in our environment. It has helped us develop and advance into the modern age that we are now and has made things a lot easier than it was.
So in talking about spirituality and technology, it has always been a conflict for the religious people who tend to believe that technology has come to abolish religion and they see it as an obstacle. They also believe that the world has turned their face away from their religion in turn worshipping technology.
So what is the relationship between spirituality and technology?
First of all, people fail to understand that there’s no competition between the two but they have both help each other in different ways. Also, spirituality doesn’t know whether or not technologies exist because it’s mystical and not artificial. But technology itself is aware of spirituality that is why technologies are being built or invented to help guide and some technologies have been built close to spirituality but not spirituality. Technologies like virtual realities or augmented realities.
Over the years technology has helped humans perceive spirituality in different ways, and it has made humans more aware of our spiritual environment through implementations of scientific knowledge.
What connects spirituality and technology is about finding the true meaning of something, which is finding the truth.
Believe it or not, technology has helped enhance the aspect of life through connecting with spirituality because with the help of technology it has been made possible for spiritual messages to be passed across all over the world through different means and devices.
Some people believe spirituality has no base with technology, the same people use mobile phones, microphones, gramophones, and speakers to pass messages, they forget that it was made possible with the help of technology.
In recent times, people have learned to cooperate and turn to spirituality and technology in the absence of one. For example, when sickness or something bad happen we often tend to spirituality by praying and hoping something spiritual happens in form of miracles, and when spirituality becomes absent, we tend to move to technology. A vivid example is a person sick with cancer or terminal disease and lying still in the hospital we both pray and hope the technological method for the person’s life to be saved.
To answer the question, spirituality and technology can live together? My answer would be yes. Because in as much as they share different concepts they can’t do with each other, they are both here to stay. And as for technology, it’s not going anywhere anytime soon because more updates and advancements are being made, changing the world and even controlling it.
So spirituality and technology can coexist and live alongside each other, technology has even made spirituality greater than it was, making people more aware of it.