Article April 21, 1980 Issue

Mind's control

JAMES RICHARD BARTELS-KEITH

An accident at a nuclear power station forces thousands to evacuate their homes. An oil well burns out of control, spewing black crude into the ocean for weeks before it is finally capped. A burial ground for waste chemicals becomes a city's nightmare.

Are these recent events examples of runaway technology, as some have suggested? Has mankind created a monster it cannot control? There are some who argue that modern technology has become so complex and so far-reaching in its consequences that society is unable to cope with it effectively.

From a material standpoint, the problems indeed seem formidable. But if we look at the picture from a spiritual point of view, our perspectives change. "Be still," we read in Psalms, "and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth." Ps. 46:10; Significantly, one Bible commentary on this passage renders the words "be still" as "desist from your vain efforts." In the degree that we can put aside a frantic searching for material solutions to seemingly insoluble problems and gain instead a clear sense of the omnipotence and omnipresence of God, we are able to bring constructive thought to bear on the situation.

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