The Big Idea
Our relationship with Technology can be charted out according to key opening stories in Genesis. From the Fall, to the Tower, to Storehouses and Monuments in Egypt, these early stories offer a comprehensive look at how we should think about and use technology as a whole.
Similar Notes:
An Introductory Framework for Technology
A Theology of Technology
A Creature Among Machines
A Theology of Technology
The Echo Chamber Squeeze
Religion of Technology
Soundbite Culture
Notes - AI and the Problem of Knowledge Collapse
Responses from Jeff Cloeter after reading initial essay.
The word on Gen. 2:20 being the first instance of technology is intriguing. Categorization and language formation. It would help me to have a little more on how these “internal tools” are technologies. If you define techne as “art, skill, craft in work,” it opens up a new realm. But I think there’s more here. Certainly the distinction between internal and external. And in general, it just got me thinking about how a technology like language is like and unlike a computer.
Good point on how every technology has been adopted to address some effect of sin. Remediation. It makes me think of the “curb” use of the law. Technology, like a medical breakthrough, can prevent some of the worst effects of sin.
Interesting: the written word of God is a gracious gift that address the need left by broken memory.
“The core technology that God disrupts is not the external one, but the internal one.” Very interesting. It connects me to Jesus who says, “Out of the heart comes all kinds of evil …”
In general, you make really good Scriptural observations in regards to technology. Bottom line, Babel is perpetuated in every generation. Or “high places.” Or “storehouses.” They take different forms, but they are all an assault on the first commandment.
Your Scriptural foundation is a good jumping off point for modern day critique. You beg questions. How should we respond? Are there certain technologies that we should refuse to use altogether? What are appropriate limits we should impose on our tech? How does this speak into the debate over regulation? In short, I’d like to hear you apply your thesis to a test case.
Note
Introduction and Heading Technology as a Good but Damaged Gift from God used as LCOS Epistle Sept 2026
Heading Technology as Escape from Sin’s Curse used as LCOS Epistle Oct 2026
It can feel a lot like drowning when technology moves faster than we can keep up. It doesn’t help that we often hear, or feel, the the nagging fear we might get left behind.
While the exact forms or types of technology may be changing very fast around us, I believe that the core stories of Scripture hold the key to understanding a timeless framework for engaging technology. A framework that helps us think about technology as old as fig leaf clothes and as new as AI or Quantum computing.
Over the next few months, we will be walking through the opening chapters of Genesis through Exodus to think about how these foundational Scriptural stories help us see technology in a timeless and faithful way.
Technology as a Good but Damaged Gift from God
Many discussions of technology place its origin somewhere outside of the human person. Be it a hammer, car, etc. This picture of technology thinks of it as any kind of external tool. These tools are used to interact with and shape the environment around us. The “discovery of fire” is a common starting place for this kind of understanding.
Interestingly, Genesis 2:19-20 starts in a very different place. It speaks of the first use of human tooling not as an external implement, but an internal naming. Adam is invited to help shape the world by performing the core work of categorization and language formation. “Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.” - Gen 2:19 (ESV)
Additionally, if we reach back to the meaning of the Greek root tekhnē: “art, skill, craft in work,” we see this same connection between the root and our modern word Technology. This helps us see the line to be drawn between our internal tools or tekhne (sometimes referred to as “Ancient Technologies”) such as categorization, language, memory, logic, and storytelling and how they reach out into external technologies in everyday life. Yet whether we speak of inner tekhne, or outer technology, both proceed from the tools that are deeply embedded and formed within us as simple gifts from God.
By them we are able to think and shape our internal worlds as well as our external world. One of the very first skills we work to teach every young child is the same work Adam first performed: “That is a cat!” “That is a dog!”
Afterall, it is only from our internal tooling that external technologies arise at all. Without the internal thought to action, no external tool will be beneficial. A hammer is as useful as a rock if it lays on the ground.
Yet still, every internal tool we poses is only by the grace of God. However, none of them stand unmarred by the brokenness of our sinful natures. As we continue this discussion, we will track this tension between the gift and the brokenness of technology as it arises from the ingenuity of sinful humanity.
Technology as Escape from Sin’s Curse
All of us have been given many tools within our own minds to navigate the world around us. We use tools like our imagination, memory, reason, or ability to communicate even without fully understanding them. Without these internal tools, our external tools would be completely useless to us.
Much more can be said about these most ancient technologies dwelling with in us. Especially how our ability to categorize accurately became corrupted when Adam and Eve stole knowledge and “control” of God’s categories of Good and Evil. Or how language was splintered by the idolatry of Babel’s tower. Or how little we truly understand about the inner workings of our own minds and memory as St. Augustine noted: “the force of mine own memory is not understood by me; though I cannot so much as name myself without it.” - Confessions Book X, St. Augustine
As we continue to walk through the opening chapters of Genesis, the first occurrence of any kind of external tool (or technology) comes immediately after Adam and Eve eat from the forbidden fruit: “they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths” - Gen 3:7 (ESV).
The very first external human innovation comes as a reaction to the new reality of sin. Much of the external technologies around us today (or throughout history) come from this same survival reaction.
To illustrate this, think for a moment about the curses and compare them to the benefits of many technologies:
- In the curse to Eve, we often focus on the pain part of child bearing (epidural?), but how many other technologies have been built to manage and even control all layers of the child bearing process, or to ward off sickness, or other biological danger? How about technologies that help manage the conflicts often found in human relationships?
- In the curse to Adam the very ground becomes cursed and dangerous. How many technologies have been invented to manage farming and food (look in your kitchen), comfortable and safe living environments, reduce the need for physical labor, etc.?
In other words, every piece of technology tends to do things (or solve problems) that help to ward off the effects of sin and its curse. Be that “remediation” of our own sin, protection from others’ sin (ring doorbells, etc.), or survival and comfort in our dangerous environment (AC, Toilets, etc.). In a very real and tangible way, these tools all seek to undo some effect of sin’s curse without ever really dealing with the root of it.
Yet as ever, God is gracious and: “made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them” - Gen 3:21 (ESV). The goodness of technology must always be connected with the graciousness of God. Through them God eases the burden of our sinful condition in ways we are not able to on our own.
Therefore, we should encounter and use our internal and external tooling within this tension. It is in the separation of technology from God that human pride begins to run amok.
We can see this playing out in Genesis 4. This is the very first mention of humans using particular kinds of external technology (other than a needle and thread). We are introduced to the Tent Dwelling Shepherds, Musicians, and Metal workers. And all of them are the direct descendants of murderous Cain (not to mention their father Lamech). Later generations inhabit these same roles positively, be they the famous Musical Shepherd King, or the Craftsmen of the Tabernacle, but in the introduction of these roles, the shadow of human brokenness bleeds through them all.
To summarize these opening considerations, technology is rightly understood along two vital dimensions:
- All technology both external (pluming, books, etc.) and internal (logic, memory, etc.) are gracious gifts from God to ease the suffering of sin and provide for our needs (Think 4th petition of the Lord’s Prayer).
- However, technology is not neutral. It always originates and flows out of our internal tooling and is embedded as firmly as we are in a broken and sinful world. This is seen in the very necessity and design of our technologies. Their shape and structure are derived to solve issues, or create advantages, only necessary in a fallen world. For example, the fact that we need the word of God written down is a testament to just how broken our memory really is.
The Artificial Mountain
With these two dimensions in mind, we can approach the next major biblical narrative that illuminates humanities fraught relationship with technology: The Tower of Babel.
A simple summary of the story following the framework we have outlined so far goes like this: language (an internal tool) and brick and mortar (external tools) are divorced from connection to God. They are then used for the pride and elevation of man over and against God.
The human dream seems to start innocently enough. An idea is carried by language into a set of physical technologies: “‘Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.’ And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar”- Gen 11: 3 (ESV).
Sounds a lot like the techno-hype we live in today. “Hey look at this new shiny tool! The world will never be the same!”
While claims like this may be true, and the potential for a technology may indeed be exciting, apart from God their use seems to always lead to a false hope for human utopia:
“Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth” - Gen 11:4 (ESV).
On a first read, this technological dream seems mundane enough, but in it we see the echoes of all human pride that has followed throughout history: the dream to conquer heaven with a tower, and control humans with a city and reputation.
In fact, the tower is far worse than we may realize at first. To reach up to heaven on their own means that the architects of Babel set out to construct a human and artificial version of the high place of God. The same kind of high place promised by the prophets to be built by God’s hand - not humanity’s:
“It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it” - Micah 4:1 (ESV).
Throughout Scripture, mountains and high places were where God is encountered and met (see my essay Mountains of Scripture for a full list) but humans have always had the problem of trying to force these high places and use them according to our human will and sinful desires.
In other words, they were making an artificial mountain. An attempt to reorient their society not around the mountain of God, or His dwelling, but a human built center of gravity. This ends up being an attempt at their own artificial garden of Eden coming about because of technology.
It was an artificial mountain on the plain, rather than the a real mountain in a range. From the false holy place, they planned to gather people together around their human accomplishments.
A world gathered around one language and an artificial mountain is nothing short of humanity that has completely cut themselves off from God.
That dark human dream has never really gone away. The Israelites made all kinds of false high places. And chased after the “advancements” of the nations all around them (a new Assyrian style altar anyone? 2 Kings 16:10-16).
Interestingly, the core technology that God disrupts is not the external one but the internal one:
“Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them” - Gen 11:6 (ESV). In breaking up the internal tooling, the external tooling crumbles.
Today we live in a world where the dream for a techno-utopia is right out in the open. Yet while the technologies themselves may be different and more complex, the human dream is the same sinful one deeply set within human consciousness. Afterall, if technology can undo some effects of sin and brokenness, maybe it will get us all the way back to the garden?
Summary, the dream for techno-utopia is old and rears its ugly head whenever we:
- Use any technology to “free” ourselves from God.
- Hope to “save” humanity by technological means (be that internal or external tooling).
Storehouses or Monuments?
The final stop for this discussion brings us to Egypt. And what do you know? We meet bricks in action again. First, God works through Joseph; “he gathered up all the food of these seven years, which occurred in the land of Egypt, and put the food in the cities.” - Gen 41:48 (ESV). Cities most likely made primarily out of brick. Then four hundred years later, we find that the building continues for much the same outward purpose: “They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses.” - Exodus 1:11. But while the stated purpose may be the same, the character and effect of what is being build could not be farther apart.
Joseph built and stored to preserve life. Pharoah built to grind life down. Both worked to build “store cities” but Pharoah had completely lost the original purpose of those cities. They had become a signet of his power and a way to oppress and control the Israelite people.
This brings us to a few final considerations for technology. Tools and systems are bound within the flow of history. In many ways, they codify and enshrine human decisions.
The horrible slavery the Israelites suffered? It wasn’t Pharaoh’s idea. It was Joseph’s! “So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for all the Egyptians sold their fields, because the famine was severe on them. The land became Pharaoh’s. As for the people, he made servants of them from one end of Egypt to the other.” - Gen 47:20-21 (ESV).
Joseph leveraged the technology of store cities to create a completely different social order in Egypt. One that made total sense when it was instituted. It was even a gracious and unheard of system to give as much food as was needed to help everyone survive even after there was no way for them to pay for it. But in time, that system was bent away from its original gracious purpose to fit the greed and power hunger of the Pharoah: “who did not know Joseph.” - Ex 1:8 (ESV).
Human technologies makes different worlds possible. Without God showing Joseph how to use store cites to prepare, there would not have been an Egypt four hundred years later at all. This is indeed a wonderful way God intervenes in history for the benefit of humanity.
Yet at the same time, from generation to generation, humans accumulate decisions within our technologies and systems. Servanthood to Pharaoh because of famine eventually becomes oppressive slavery. Bricks made by free workers becomes bricks made by slaves. Store cities build for the good of all become store cities build for the power of Pharoah. That trajectory does not start in Moses day, but is unknowingly set up by Joseph. Every human decision that is imbedded in our technology push us down a particular road whether we realize it or not. This leads us to one of the most contested observations about technology. Technology is not neutral.
This is tangibly seen in the history of every building and every road. The decisions of past generations often create unforeseen issues or headaches in the present. Our world is shaped and even constricted by these past decisions. Over time they create the infrastructure we often take for granted. For example, there was a time when indoor plumbing was a luxury, but today, a building is almost immediately marked as uninhabitable without it.
Therefore the accumulations of these decisions within technology creates the long tail of it’s influence and trajectory. Starting from a good place now does not automatically mean that the road is headed in a productive direction. We stand (as all generations stand) at the crossroads between the accumulation and pressure of past decisions with the potential direction of our own technological decisions hurtling us forward into the future.
How we handle what we are given, and what we build, can change the direction of society in ways we will not live to see. The weight of that should sit with us. God does indeed call us to use technology to it’s greatest extent to care for life around us. But we must be aware that we do not do so in a short sighted manner.
Summary, technology is not a “blank slate”:
- It holds and accumulates human decisions over time that shape and constrict the world of the future.
- These decisions may even be made in good faith, but can set up a path that leads to unintended places of slavery.
Conclusion
With all this in mind, we must carefully consider the path along which we decide to employ and build the technologies of our day. God does indeed work through the healthy use of technology to preserve and provide for His people. But we must ever be humble in this use, lest we unwittingly set up a new path to slavery.
To recap the major points we covered:
- Technology, both internal and external, are good but damaged gifts from our Creator.
- On one hand, they are gracious gifts from God to ease the suffering of sin and provide for our needs.
- On the other, they are all embedded as firmly as we are in a broken and sinful world. Their shape and structure are derived to solve issues only necessary in a fallen world.
- The dream for techno-utopia is old and rears its ugly head whenever we:
- Use any technology to “free” ourselves from God.
- Hope to “save” humanity by technological means.
- Technology is not a “blank slate”:
- It holds and accumulates human decisions over time that shape and constrict the world of the future.
- These decisions may even be made in good faith, but can set up a path leading to unintended places of slavery.