{"id":3645,"date":"2019-10-14T10:53:20","date_gmt":"2019-10-14T10:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/2019\/10\/14\/being-human-in-a-digital-age-an-ethical-challenge-for-the-church\/"},"modified":"2019-10-14T10:53:20","modified_gmt":"2019-10-14T10:53:20","slug":"being-human-in-a-digital-age-an-ethical-challenge-for-the-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/being-human-in-a-digital-age-an-ethical-challenge-for-the-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Being Human in a Digital Age \u2013 an ethical challenge for the church?"},"content":{"rendered":"

14 October 2019 | Binfield, UK [Helen Pearson]  <\/p>\n

In an age where more than half the people in the world now have access to the internet,
what effect is the digital age having on our humanity? This was the question posed during the 2019 Beach Lecture at Newbold College of Higher Education on the evening of Tuesday, 8 October. <\/p>\n

<\/a>Graystone encouraged his audience to think not so much about the ingenuity of the technology but on the culture it creates \u2013 a culture which tends to \u2018disembody\u2019 people \u2013 creating different kinds of \u2018avatar\u2019. Different business enterprises \u2013 the bank, the electricity company, the shop \u2013 all are interested in different characteristics that don\u2019t relate to the flesh and blood person that we are. <\/p>\n

He described a major feature of being human in a digital age as the \u2018collapse of context\u2019. Unlike a physical object \u2013 a book, for instance \u2013 \u201cdigital information can travel across great distances and arrive in exactly the same condition in which it was sent. It can sit on a storage device for months or years, and when recalled it will appear exactly the same regardless of ownership, time or geography.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graystone suggested that the internet encourages the loss of distinction between a creator and what is created, between subject and object. We are all being easily manipulated by algorithms. And all of this dehumanising activity is carried on in a space where there are \u201chuge commercial and political interests at play \u2013 interests that go far beyond the boundaries of geographical states.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Audience<\/a>The lecture then went on to a complex and fascinating discussion about what sort of humanity a highly functioning machine could be said to have. Graystone discussed the possibility of human beings plus machines creating a form of what could be called \u2018posthumanity\u2019. While highly conjectural it is still clearly on the near horizon of human development. The implications of dehumanisation in the light of God\u2019s incarnation in Jesus Christ \u2018who came \u201cat the right time \u201d and to a physical place \u2013 the so-called \u2018scandal of particularity\u2019 are thought-provoking. The incarnation offers \u201ca contrast to digital culture in which nothing is particular, and no atoms at any time have more significance than any other.\u201d <\/p>\n

The penultimate section of the lecture dealt with the practical and pastoral challenges to the church in the digital culture. \u201cAs our understanding of what is \u2018real\u2019 and what is virtual are shaken up by new technology, Christians will need to think about new ways of meeting, organising ourselves and communicating the gospel,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Graystone concluded with three challenging questions for church people:<\/p>\n