Pastor Foltz is Pastor Emeritus of Saint James Lutheran Church in Gettysburg, PA and author of the the Frontline Study content.
Many want nothing to do with the church anymore because it is so judgmental. They remember religious leaders in their youth talking as if life is only preparation for a Last Judgment that decides whether you’ll spend the rest of eternity in comfort or torture. Everything was about taking a test of accountability that absolutely […]
As I tried to decide on the next series, I kept asking myself what we need right now and what Christianity offers us. I asked with some anxiety, thinking we are in changing and often scary times. All sorts of conspiracy theories are thrown around, accusations that other people are deliberately lying, and outrageous claims […]
I found it hard to end this series because something new was in the news every week. Although I had written on technology and religion most of my life, I constantly encountered stuff I knew nothing about. Things are changing so quickly and convoluted that I found discussing the situation with others at any depth […]
For decades, I have thought that all of our modern problems stem to some degree from the conflict between culture and technology—the two offer completely different understandings of human life and decision-making. Technology defines truth as the accumulation of information. The more facts determined by science, the closer you are to truth (usually designated as […]
Many years ago, my son Franz and I did a study on juridification. Chances are you never heard of the term, as it doesn’t appear in many dictionaries. Juridificatiion is the attempt to codify into law every conceivable human transaction and establish appropriate penalties for all transgressions. We supposedly would no longer need courts, juries, […]
The Cultural battles in school board meetings across the nation reflect the tension between culture and technology we have been examining. Communities have always used their educational systems to teach their cultural values. The fights occur because we have significant disagreements about what these should be. Much of the problem stems from technology creating a […]
Technology and culture offer different approaches to decision-making. Ideally, a community uses technology as a tool for solving certain kinds of problems. Sadly, in modern times, it has been applied to situations that demand more than statistical reasoning, leading to the loss of certain important cultural values. Eileen suggested one way to counter that is […]
A number of people have asked the same kind of question my good friend Myron poses in the following paragraph. I’ll try to find an answer. “I have been wrestling with how to define the culture that is under siege by AI and just what exactly is the threat. It seems to me that culture, […]
When I started this series, I was still determining exactly where I was going. Then, I was supplied with an example every week that led the way. Last Tuesday, it was the ad introducing Apple’s new iPad Pro. It was immediately withdrawn when people objected to its content. However, I think it accurately conveyed how […]
My son and I wrote about artificial intelligence about 30 years ago. At that time, scholars discussed its effects on society. Some felt we were entering a transhuman stage in evolution. Our group was more concerned about warning that too much reliance on AI would lead to significant losses, especially in the arts and ethics. […]
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