During the founding of the United States, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin wanted a picture of the Israelites leaving Egypt to be the emblem to depict Americans leaving subservience to King George of England.
The unspiritualization of America has become obvious to religious observers. In the Twenty-First Century, children and many adults are subservient to King Technology and Queen Value Confusion.
What does Spindrift co-founder, Bruce Klingbeil, give as a reason why spiritual power doesn't cut through materiality as it used to do in the past? Bruce's reason: The whole zeitgeist of society has switched from a religious paradigm to a scientific paradigm. Between religion and technology, technology is absorbing the minds of men and children. For example, Google is as omnipresent as the air around human beings. Majority thoughts are not on the side of religious thoughts as they were before the Tech-Age.
Bruce was pro-science. Science is good, but there are unintended consequences of science and technology changing spiritual influences on society. For example, Bruce and John Klingbeil predicted that several advancements in science and technology would become a challenge for spiritual and religious people to remain relevant in a scientific world. Also, addictive technologies would control the human thought process and undermine and replace religious values. (See the Spindrift History page, paragraphs 6 & 7.)
Bruce also meant that man has developed his ego to create almost anything he wants to create. There is some truth to it. Now man thinks he is a creator and doesn't need any metaphysical and religious concepts of a creator beyond man himself as a creator. For example, the creations by 3-D printers, realities created by virtual realities, invisibility (stealth), sailorless cargo and military ghost ships floating on the oceans, and the new kid on the block that man set loose: The creation of "ambient technology" where computers carry on constant machine learning conversations with each other without human beings knowing that they are doing it. These examples are a foretaste of what the digital future has for human beings.
Actually, most human beings 'need a vacation' from the virtual, visual, and viral, but they can't have one. Tech intrusions are omnipresent. With social media, forgot about throwing a switch to avoid people and chatter when you need some private time to think your own thoughts. Religion and spirituality face the serious problem of being diminished and extinguished because of technology filling nearly every second of the day. For example, many people have become Click Monkeys. Artificial intelligence is learning to trick mortals into following routines which are unbeknownst as routines to so-called 'alert human beings.'
If man can become a creator of technology, why couldn't the advanced machines man creates become creators of technology also? Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking, and Elon Musk, all who have some doubts of God as the first creator. Alternately, they have the fear that the intelligent machines man has created could potentially decide to become creators themselves. These AI machines could potentially decide to get rid of all mankind or make mankind into slaves. Elon Musk predicts that AI machines will probably keep people as pets. Religion and its values would struggle while being held in tech-slavery.
Elon Musk also said, “With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon. In all those stories where there’s the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, it’s like, he’s sure he can control the demon. [It] doesn’t work out....” “Potentially [it’s] more dangerous than nukes.”
Louis Del Monte is a physicist and futurist. In an interview with Business Insider, Monte said: "You are going to see that the top species will no longer be humans, but machines.... The concern I'm raising is that the machines will view us as an unpredictable and dangerous species."
Stephen Hawking alerts us that sentient machines "could end the human race." Hawking predicts that the point of no more human beings existing is as close as a hundred years.
Brilliant physicist, Michio Kaku, said that at the beginning of the next century, AI robots should become conscious beings. The robots will treat human beings like we treat zoo animals or much worse. Dr. Kaku suggested that instead of fighting the robots that we merge with them. Merging with the machines would force an evolution on human beings that couldn't happen on its own. What happens to a perception of man and woman as images of Spirit in a possible scenario as that? Lots of Soul searching will be needed.
Physicist, Michio Kaku, said that science will be able to digitize your soul.
Civil Rights Activists, who push for equal rights, will find they will have to give equal rights to AI machines.
An AI robot is being constructed and educated into being representative of an African American woman. Her name is Bina48. Bina is receiving software code that reminds her that she has faced prejudices. Celebrities, such as Whoopi Goldberg and Morgan Freeman, are assisting in developing Bina's persona.
Kids and chemicals: Sean Parker was the founding president of Facebook. Parker said Facebook was designed to exploit chemical triggers in the brain and “consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible.... It probably interferes with productivity in weird ways. God only knows what it's doing to our children's brains.” Then there is the low radiation from cell phones travelling through a child's brain.
Another concern on the horizon is the increasing number of leaders in Silicon Valley who take LSD pills to expand their minds. Psychedelics is becoming a mainline practice soon.
Children need clarity. Most don't get clarity because many parents won't acknowledge when their children are wrong. Some doctors and parents won't write down the gender of a child when he/she/it/them/they is born.
A book to consider is Be the Parent, Please: Stop Banning Seesaws and Start Banning Snapchat by journalist Naomi Riley.
Good religious images and practices used to inspire wonder. Now religion inspires resistance. Hollywood, sports, and social media seem to be the places where the youth learn their values and practice their worship. The youth have only heard of Jesus Christ as a cuss word.
Fortunately, on June 13th., 2018, the U.S. Congress voted to ban child robots for sex purposes. The Creeper Act has gone to the Senate. There is not much news about it.
For another horrific example of tech-mindedness, the Internet makes terrorists.
Here is a question I was recently asked: "Do young people want lasting religious values?" I'd say "No" for an increasing number of youth. Youth want social justice and human idealism which is not akin to Judeo-Christian values. King Solomon gave this advice: "Keep your Creator in mind while you are young." (Ecclesiastes 12:1)
As a result of the zeitgeist shift in emphasis from religion to science and technology, there is an increase in comfort, materiality, confusion, atheism, and even suicide reported by one survey. The infinite nature of scientific discoveries have gradually replaced God, spiritual teachings, and moral distinctions. A current example of confusion is that there is no more binary: Man can create new sexes. There are a number of new gender creations, and there are more genders soon to arrive on the human scene. In 2019 in California, a driver's license gives the choice of checking male, female, or non-binary.
Spindrift founders, Bruce and John, were not alone in their worry about the unspiritualization of America. Their prediction for the downfall of Christianity and modern Judaism was because the youth of America would reject religion. The youth would also reject several western values that have a relationship to the Judeo-Christian influences on the founding fathers' thinking. Some youth would even work to purge religious teachings from mankind and have the teachings replaced with new and addictive technologies. "There goes the neighboorhood [and the society]"
The atheists have found the youth to be on their side to roll with new moral twists. Examples are the purging of prayer in schools, the substitution of God and most religions with secularism, science, social media, artificially generated simulations of reality, and only have materialistic explanations of truth.
Bruce and John, said something like: "You can't expect Christianity to be relevant to people without making Christianity relevant to the scientific age." That statement just doesn't register as important to a lot of Christians so far. Finding connections between Religion and Science is bound to happen out of necessity.
Another possibility why Christians, Jews, and others aren't bothered much is that technological progress is moving so fast that we human beings aren't able to develop a perspective and digest its negative spiritual consequences on society. Most of us can identity with too many fast changes.
To add more complexity for us to discover spiritual reality is this mental barrier: We are hampered by what we believe is material reality. Material reality is our brain's "best guess" at reality. Neuroscientist, Anil Seth, said, "Your brain hallucinates your conscious reality." A projected hallucination of reality is the material picture of reality.
People are also making this observation: As our communication becomes more sophisticated and immediate, we seem less able to communicate with each other in micro-details. Notice how kids don't talk to each other. They use texting, even if they are near each other!
There is even a high-tech word to describe average human beings. They are "neurotypicals."
If a science fiction idea being developed potentially for 5G and 6G technology happens: All of us human beings are sunk. What is called Skull Technology is where a person's unconscious thoughts are remotely controlled via 5G and 6G to feel different emotions on command.
Digital evil pervades society. At least Homeland Security takes digital evil seriously.
What is needed to clear the air before spirituality can get through to us? Spindrift suggests: "Get past quantities of things to the Quality of things. It's easy for quantity [measuring things] and the constant noise thrown at us to overwhelm the presence of Quality [and Spirit] in the American culture."
It's easy to get quantities of information from Tiktok etc., but it's not as easy to get individual Quality thoughts that don't have a mass media tinge to them. Individualized ''Soul is the only real consciousness which recognizes being.'' That sentence is one of my go-to quotes for Quality. (Mary Baker Eddy in Rudimental, page 5)
Again, science is good. It's that technologies and noises are creating opaque filters to spirituality, Quality, and religious values. Fortunately, there are some innovators, artists, healers, and inspirational people who go straight to Quality and end-run the quantities of confusion around us. They are tincturing opaqueness with some light.
With exceptions, in our Twenty-First Century, there is a lack of moral distinctions that were previously provided by religion, parents, and friends in peer-groups. Along with lack of distinctions, we can't have preferences anymore without being mocked. Radio host, Tommy Sotomayor, said if we have a preference for one person over another person, a working person over a homeless person, a person with good habits over a person on crack, we are called racist.
What does a lack of distinctions and preferences mean for modern society? Partly because of the social media and VR, there is little feeling-for, or intuition of, a spiritual Principle operating within our human consciousness. Principle operates with distinction litterally and figuratively.
Hidden underneath the materialistic view of human existence, what do Principle and Christ offer people of Earth? A moral compass to reference when there is confusion. Increasingly, our century has fewer spiritual symbols and institutions that reverberate for us the fundamental truths of being as a compass.
With terrorism giving religion a bad name, and the adoption of technologies as mankind's primary desire, can we still have hope for spiritual values to breakthrough on the individual consciousness of some nonconformist human beings? Yes. There are some people who will surprise and inspire us with their talents for mankind. Mankind might even surprise us someday with a supply of more prayer-a-troopers.
America is becoming resource rich but spiritualty short. Consider a May 2018 Intelligence debate about the question, "The more we evolve, the less we need God?" After the debate, the audience voted 67% yes, we need God less. 26% voted that we still need God.
For more discussion about the diminishment of spiritual influences and values in society, see Question 12, [on the FAQ page here].
A related article about technology taking over the human mind.
Bill Sweet
Spindrift Research