Genesis
Response
April 1st, 2021
Imagine you were an alien preparing your first visit to Earth, and you were given a general picture of Silicon Valley–not the physical space, so much as the idea. I think you’d be pretty shocked to learn that Silicon Valley is, or at least has the reputation of being indifferent or even hostile towards religion. The kind of place where a tech CEO (admittedly fictional) would fear being ‘outed’ as a Christian. In turn, you’d also be surprised to see one of Earth’s best religious writers identify tech-skepticism as the faithful’s default position, dissent from which requires a serious defense.
I think you’d probably assume religion–especially the old-time, cheerfully fanatical type to which I subscribe–and the tech community would be natural allies.
Consider the two central challenges that Silicon Valley, at its best, confronts: the notions that “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” and “humans are fundamentally limited by scarcity.” While most Americans–from policymakers on down–complacently accept these ideas, Silicon Valley is the last bastion of weirdos who refuse to slouch towards Malthus.
Well, one of the last bastions. Tech’s actually the new kid on the block. Until recently, the greatest source (at least in the American and European context) for this sort of hopeful vision was the Bible. I’m not the first to read the Bible through a ‘Progress Studies’ lens. Peter Thiel summed up its narrative arc as, “The Garden of Paradise will culminate in the City of God.” But let’s be even more specific.
Is it true, for instance, that there’s no such thing as a free lunch? The Book of Genesis’s creation narrative represents one of the earliest dismissals of such an idea. Unlike the Mesopotamian cosmologies it critiques, Genesis is not at all interested in the “how?” of creation. Instead, a mysterious God simply calls the universe into being with a word or two. It’s the ultimate free lunch. And if creation is a free gift lovingly given, then that yields the, ahem, natural conclusion that we beneficiaries should respond–in the Talmud’s words–by “partnering with God in furthering the work of creation.”
Are humans fundamentally limited by scarcity? Is social stratification in response to brutal, zero-sum competition the lot of our species? Again, the Book of Genesis provided the first, great response to this challenge: all humans ever created bear the divine image. The imago dei is the ultimate non-rivalrous good making possible human equality and flourishing in the face of radical difference.
When Genesis first introduced these ideas they were–and in many ways still are–considered wild, fanciful, crazy. They spread across the world because the radical dreamers who pushed them–even constructed societies on their basis–were willing to indulge revolutionary, imaginative fantasies about a world that ought to be, rather than a world that is, and build accordingly.
America needs this spirit of imagination and willingness to invest in the future. Right now, the two best places to find it are Silicon Valley and traditional religion.
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