Sunday, October 13

Consulting Online Maps Condemned As Idolatry

Posted on Baptist Press News is a column titled “Praying To Alexa”.

The author Sarah Dixon Young repents of, upon getting lost while driving, vocally asking Google for directions instead of asking God of whom she reminds owns cattle on a thousand hills according to the Bible.

The concern that human beings might surrender too much control to technology as we grow increasingly reliant upon it is valid.

However, there is also something said against attempting to appear so pious as to overreact in response to what is a legitimate use of technology.

Had Sarah Young asked God for directions, in most instances, is He really going to indisputably give them to her with a thunderous “Thus saith the Lord” when in most of life's other complexities the answers He provides are not usually so explicitly direct but rather through other means built into the system of creation that He sustains?

So just how far does Sarah Young want to take this analogy?

Are those driving to the supermarket for bread denying that God is the Bread of Life who will supply our needs according to His riches?

Would those going to a doctor's appointment be guilty of denying that God is the Great Physician as argued by the Christian Scientists, related metaphysical cults, and assorted faith healers tottering along the brink of heresy?

And are those even driving automobiles in the first place guilty of the great going to and fro predicted in Daniel 12:4?

by Frederick Meekins