Wisdom & Technology

2.  Technology is both creating and destroying jobs.
Along with its several spiritual and material
blessings, this also brings great costs. On the whole,
technology creates more jobs than it destroys.
That’s why global markets have lifted a billion
people out of extreme poverty. Nobody would
suggest to abolish farm equipment so that several
individuals can return to back-breaking labor in the
fields, until death. Yet, that is cold comfort to those
who wind up unemployed—or to those who are
vulnerable to the anxiety that they may soon lose
them.

3.  Faith, though, has something to offer these people.
It is a place where those left behind by technological
change can find faith-centered identity, wisdom, and
equipping for the hard roads they are called to walk.
After all, religion orders us to actively promote the
good of all humanity, with special care for the poor.
So, we ought to be paying attention and making
plans. Here are a few things the faith can fulfill for
those whose jobs are eliminated or endangered by
technological change.

4.  Faith can become a means so that individuals find their
true identity: Job loss almost always creates an identity
crisis. People are indeed made for work; our calling to
make the world a better place is at the core of who we
are created to be. Because of our egos though, we are
constantly building identities in ourselves through
our occupations (our jobs) rather than in God through
our vocations (our calling to follow God in all we do). The
faith can be a means for individuals who have lost their
occupation to discover their vocation to a faith-based
identity—an identity that doesn't depend on the coming
and going of any given job.

5.  Faith can become a means so that individuals find
wisdom and vision: Over and over in the Qur'an, we
are admonished to pursue and treasure wisdom.
Individuals who lost their jobs want to know: Why is
this happening? Is God at work in this mysterious
and seemingly chaotic process of technological
change? What am I supposed to do?

6.  Faith is not about economy; no one expects it to be.
Yet, it can help individuals interpret the meaning of
their lives and respond in morally right ways to
complex and ambiguous challenges. A broad vision
of what God is doing in the world and a mature
understanding of economic wisdom can go a long
way in helping them discover how they are equipped
to do work that creates value for others, and how
they can recover from job loss and find new
opportunities for productive work.

7.  Faith can become a means for cultural
entrepreneurship: Helping people one at a time is
essential, but we can do more. Human-beings are
made to be social, cultural creatures. We shouldn’t
march out and try to take control of the levers of
worldly power, but we can find opportunities to do
things in our own God-given spheres of influence
that manifest our faith.

8.  People are ill-equipped to endure job loss in large
part because of the catastrophic failure of our
school system. Every child should be nurtured in the
virtues of honesty, diligence, self-control, and
generosity. As Os Guinness has put it, all people
should strive to be “entrepreneurs of life.”

9.  Individuals perish without a vision. Faith can help
cast a vision for how the diverse members of
humanity can come together to live together.

10.  Faith can become a means for making the poor
flourish: Faith means reconciliation with the God, so
a faith-transformed person views others as
flourishing in right relationship with God and others.
This applies to our relations with everyone, but the
acid test is whether we apply it to the poor.

11.  Do you think that helping the poor bounce back
from job loss and find a way to pursue their vocation
in daily work is someone else’s problem? Here is
what God says in the Qur'an:

12. "Whoever does righteousness, whether male or female,
while he is a believer— We will surely cause him to live a
good life, and We will surely give them their reward [in the
Hereafter] according to the best of what they used to
do" [Quran 16:97]
"But he has not broken through the difficult pass. And what
can make you know what is [breaking through] the difficult
pass? It is the freeing of a slave; or feeding on a day of
severe hunger; an orphan of near relationship; or a needy
person in misery." [Quran 90:11-16]

13.  By all means, our service to those in economic need
must be grounded in the Qur'an. To love our
neighbors in deed, faith must become a means so
that those who have lost their livings can find life,
and find it abundantly.