Dear Friends,
It seems to me, a common fallacy of our times is that our technological age is inevitable. It’s not. Humanity existed for literally tens of thousands of years and didn’t produce a technological age. Not because people weren’t as smart as us, or as industrious, but their culture and philosophy made it impossible. Rome had superior technology and resources to Middle Ages Europe, yet collapsed in a few centuries, rather than building space ships. Our age is made possible by the confluence of several factors. Christianity, which set the philosophical foundation for free enterprise, limited government, an end to human slavery and the freedoms that contribute to our technological age. So the technological age nor the science we enjoy isn’t inevitable and we aren’t special because of them.
Christianity made the Renaissance, Enlightenment and free enterprise possible. We can deduce this from the fact it didn’t happen under any other system. Christianity offers several innovations to the religious world. While other religions might allow for other people, only Christianity has the combination of the Golden rule, we are created in the image of God, and salvation through the blood of Christ. The golden rule tells us to treat others as we would be treated, which is the foundation for crimes against humanity. Slavery was made unconscionable by the idea that we’re created in the image of God. Moreover, salvation allows us to get up and move forward even after falling. Treating others as equals allows free enterprise, as a lack of slavery means incentive to advance and capitalist jobs.
Free exchange has existed since the first man exchanged a stone tool for some meat. It didn’t turn into free enterprise until Adam Smith made it a philosophy. A new way of looking at the world. Then the Industrial Revolution galvanized it into industrialism… something impossible under the Roman, Mayan or communist systems. The ability to think freely isn’t possible under those systems. Plus the top down organization of those cultures made bottom up innovation impossible. Slavery, (or being a non party member in communist and socialist systems) corrodes the work ethic, and prevents people from being the productive twenty percent in the Pareto distribution. So, while free exchange has always been done, free markets require freedom of thought, speech, action and association.
Limited government is only made possible by Enlightenment philosophical and cultural innovations. Limited government is a necessary prerequisite for scientific, philosophical and cultural advancement. All advancements require thought, and if thought is criminally punished, it will be rare. Even the vaunted ancient Greeks had thought laws. Socrates was put to death for violating them. Which is why, even with the brilliance of some of those men, a technological age was unthinkable. Aristotle wanted to understand the natural world, but he lacked the scientific method, so his ability to understand it was hobbled. It was only after the Enlightenment and the scientific method, that was made possible by the Renaissance and Christianity, that capitalism allowed a technological age to develop.
This leads us to the idea that the fallacy of our age, is that our age is inevitable. Had it not been for Christ, and the chain of events that followed his death and resurrection, we would still be riding horses, dying of smallpox and sewing with thorns. Because without the philosophical innovation that was Christianity, and its compression, mankind simply would not have had the philosophical or cultural foundation to build upon. Which leads us to the final point… if we lose the philosophy that allows our technological age, that technology will vanish. Because technology can only be maintained and advanced where people are allowed to think, innovate and be free of the elite’s judging eyes. If we want to keep our technological age, then it’s up to us to defend those things that allow it to exist.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
