Higher sense of purpose needed

NOW that we are enjoying a flowering of technological development, we need to realize more deeply that the quantum leap in that area calls for a matching quantum leap in our sense of purpose. Otherwise we would get what is tantamount to an overdose.

I think such assertion is commonsensical. Yet we ignore it, mainly because the so-called overdose is not so much painful as it is euphoric. The danger is not immediately felt and seen. It can hide behind many rationalizations and justifications. The overdose assumes the character of a sweet poison.

Many times in my chats with young fellows in the front lines of this warp-speed technological progress, I get the impression that there seems to be endless possibilities of usages and advantages that the electronic world is now offering us.

More inventions and innovations are made. Just recently, in fact, I have been invited to a talk on blogging and on other programs like Tiddlywiki that provides tremendous and very practical facilities for taking notes.

I’m at the moment just discovering the wonders of the Facebook and struggling, dummy and unteachable as I am, to cope with its many possibilities. And here comes other programs knocking at the door for me to consider. I’m not sure anymore whether I’m simplifying my life or complicating it. Anyway, we’ll see…

Thing is we need to have a higher sense of purpose to truly make use of these technological marvels. I’m afraid that without this clear sense of purpose, more elevated than the usual practical level, we would end up wallowing more deeply in our own world, increasingly insensitive to the ultimate dimension of our life, which is spiritual, moral and supernatural.

In fact, this wallowing phenomenon is what we are seeing these days in the electronic world. What begins as humanly valid practical uses sooner or later deteriorates into inhuman, sinful modes if not animated properly by spiritual and moral values.

There are now a lot of inanities circulated around electronically. Subtle and even open forms of human moral anomalies like vanity, envy, sensuality, greed, egoism, etc., are having a field day in this arena.

These dangers can start with people, especially the young one, to waste a lot of time and to express and cultivate their youthful weaknesses with nuclear dynamics.

I remember reading an article about the Google CEO warning that young people should be allowed to change their names after some time because they would already have compromised their future with the irresponsible things they have posted on the net. Their cyber past would just be too hot to handle.

I have even seen in the web wanton displays of poor taste and impropriety on the part of some Church and spiritual leaders, as in priests and bishops, as they frolic in the beach with companions that can only raise eyebrows, engorging themselves in parties, and other forms of frivolity. There seems be no concern of avoiding possible scandals.

More dangers are still in store. Those who are more intellectually gifted or more business-minded ply their trades in pursuit of purely human gains that may lead them to be materially richer but spiritually poorer. The bargain is utterly unfair, but it’s resorted to with gusto.

Of course, Godless ideologies would not be long in coming. They in fact are now proliferating, giving the impression they are the mainstream in our world today.

We should not just stand by in the face of these developments taking place right before our eyes. We need to at least encourage everyone to use these new powers with a greater sense of responsibility, hooking them to a higher sense of purpose.

And this is none other than to use them for the ultimate purpose of our life here on earth. This is where religion as to come in, where our relation with God has to come in. This most important aspect should not be ostracized.

Some great effort is definitely needed here, since first of all, we have to break that deep-seated prejudice against religion when we engage in our earthly, mundane affairs. If we ever talk about religion, we seem to confine it only inside churches and places like those, but not in our secular concerns.

Our sense of naturalness seems to be twisted at the root, since it seems to be incompatible with anything spiritual and supernatural. We need to correct this irregularity, without going to the extreme of behaving in some strange, unnatural way.

A higher sense of purpose can help us do this.