“Reason is a tool like technology. It can be used correctly or incorrectly but it is only a tool. Once you elevate it beyond that, you have made it into an idol.”

Exactly right.

For example, last year, I was driving through rural Ohio and spotted a man selling baked goods out of the back of his wagon. Like a fool, I thought “Ooh, Amish baked goods!” I spent $20 on three pies because I had created this idea that someone who lives their life simply would have some great, passed-down knowledge of rustic cooking and baking. Sure enough, the pies tasted like crap.

I know there are probably some Amish people that cook better, live greener, make furniture better, raise animals better, or whatever. But that doesn’t make the Amish community somehow superior to non-Amish folks. They’re just people.

You might be interested to learn that some Lancaster County (PA) Amish use voice mail forwarding to spread news (i.e. a birth, an accident) the way we use email. There are numerous 900 number chat lines for the Amish, with different topics discussed on different days and times. For instance, organic dairy farmers from around the U.S. can chat with each other one hour a week. Finally, there is an electronic bulletin board, using voicemail technology, for people seeking to travel and share bus rides around the country.

Where I live, the telephone is not inside the house and not for mindless gossip. But it has become the platform for information sharing and community building.

While we are considering assumptions, how about this one: “Meh… minds clouded by superstition. One wonders what humanity might have accomplished if reason ruled the day.”

Nowhere did I state that the Amish or anyone else should just “watch it all hit the fan and just pray in the hope that “God will provide.” That, again, is an assumption on your part.

At best, I stated that the Amish were better prepared if technolgy and all it provides were no longer available. They would not have so great a learning curve as many of us would.

Finally, you state that “people who make REASON their PRACTICE (not idol, as idols presuppose faith, and reason rejects faith)…”. How does this jibe with your initial statement, quoted above, that the world would be a better place if only reason ruled the day? Is this not a statement of faith? Reason is a tool like technology. It can be used correctly or incorrectly but it is only a tool. Once you elevate it beyond that, you have made it into an idol.

Erin, I apologize for hijacking the thread. This will be my final word.

Best,
Shalin

Earlier today, I picked up an audio book by Peter Walsh about decluttering the mind. I listen to audio books while I work, using the CD built into my computer terminal (and the computer is 100 percent of my job). I ordered the audio book online through the library’s network, and I do not know the library from which it originated in the loan system. When the audio book arrived at my local branch, the system generated an e-mail to inform me of its arrival.

If the power goes out, I cannot work and I cannot hear my audio book about decluttering. Ironic, isn’t it? Of course, I could have ordered the physical book and been able to read by candlelight…

Technology is supposed to make my life easier not add distractions. Good info on how the Amish work with this!

Not that I think faith/religion and reason are necessarily at odds either. I just find it really funny that suddenly we are pitting reason and technology against each other.

And people who stubbornly cling to “reason” or “being rationality” still have succumbed to making a religion out of reason.

At the end of the day, what matters is that technology is a tool, nothing more or less. Technology isn’t good or bad — it simply exists. Its up to us to use it the right way (to enrich our lives) and avoid enslaving ourselves to it.

And I bet you can find a few stubborn Amish who vehemently disagree with the inclusion of any newfangled electronic gizmos in their world.

Nice article in Wired from a few years ago on this same topic.

Basically – the Amish evaluate tech based on what it does for/to the community, not what it can do for an individual.

I hit “enter” before I finished. Your second paragraph makes many assumptions and fails logically. Many rational people are indeed taking the “squirrel” approach these days, ensuring that there are emergency supplies available in light of the very real possibility of economic collapse. We all had to wake up to that possibility after the events of these past few years. That has actually LED to uncluttering for many, as we seek to discard those things that aren’t important so that we can more efficiently live our lives.

I’d say people who make REASON their PRACTICE (not idol, as idols presuppose faith, and reason rejects faith) are going to be better off in general than those who watch it all hit the fan and just pray in the hope that “God will provide.” You will observe that the Amish pray for God’s blessings, but where the rubber meets the road, they milk the cows and plow the fields on their own, using noticeably non-heaven-based methods.

Power goes out from time to time, and there are backup options that are generally low-tech. That does not constitute a compelling option for discarding the high-tech superior options and using the backup all the time.

And what to you do when the electricity fails. How well does your technology work then?

My wife and I were discussing this the other day. If, GOD forbid, the power grid were to fail for an extended period of time, how would we fare once the heat is gone, the gas pumps are no longer functioning and the food stores are depleted? I imagine the “superstitious” Amish would fare much better than the individuals who have make REASON their idol and lean on technology for their comfort.