I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling powerless in the face of a world where power and the will to abuse it seem to be spiralling out of control. I feel powerless in the face of the grim events in Ukraine and the Middle East, where human ingenuity is put to building ever more ingenious ways for people to kill other people.
I often worry that the fruits of our intellect are outstripping our wisdom to use them well. Why is it that every couple of months, one of the pioneers of Artificial Intelligence research pops up in the news to tell us it could wipe out the human race? Most recently, it was Professor Yoshua Bengio from Canada, whose research is cited more often than any other computer scientist in the world, who left Faisal Islam visibly shocked when he told him bluntly on Newsnight that “the worst case scenario” from AI “is human extinction”.
I feel powerless in the face of not only of Artificial Intelligence galloping ahead but also Genetic Modification. I worry about why we feel driven to develop these very powerful technologies quickly, even when we know things as seemingly innocuous as social media and video streaming are driving some people crazy, partly thanks to smartphones that follow us everywhere, constantly buzzing and demanding attention.
Despite these problems, technology is often presented to us uncritically as good of itself. We live at a time when people seek truth in spreadsheets rather than sonnets. Yet human beings are more than rational creatures. We are made not for power, which often brings out the worst in us, but for beauty, truth, goodness, and love.
One beautiful idea from Christian theology is that the Holy Spirit is the circulation of love between God the Father and Jesus Christ—Love as a person in its own right, Love as God.
What does this have to do with our daily lives? Well, if power brings out the worst in us, it is often other people who bring out the best. We see this most powerfully in the love within families, but a strong society is made up not just of families but dense networks of organisations and communities.
In the smartphone era, many voluntary organisations have weakened as people retreat into their own homes, streaming entertainment and having their shopping delivered. In this context, it is a radical act of good to stay involved in the cricket club or the parish church, the art group or the Royal British Legion, especially if we help with the back office finance work and administration necessary for any voluntary group to thrive.
At a time when it feels like we are powerless to stop the world spiralling out of control, these little local gifts of our time and ourselves are one thing we can do; and they remind us that we are made not for power but for love—of our families, our neighbours, our country, and ourselves.
The Rev’d Gerry Lynch
Rector
Recent Sermons
- Paul was an oddball and Peter was a chickenhawk, but God used them both to do tremendous good. He can use you for good too, whether or not you are a practising Christian. Read here.
- Did you know that probably more than a million Iranians have converted to Christianity in this century, in the underground church there? Did you know our own Bishop of Chelmsford, the Rt Rev’d Guli Francis-Deqhani, is from an Iranian background. Read more of the remarkable recent story of Christianity in Iran here.
- At a lovely and well attended Ascension Day Benefice Eucharist in Poulshot I preached on the Feast of Waiting Patiently. Read here.
- I asked the good folk of Potterne if they’d be happy to see me dead! Read here.