Herman Bavinck on the Internet

Well, sort of. Herman Bavinck died in 1921, so technically he couldn't have written about the internet (but in one sense, he is "on" the internet - see the Bavinck blog). However, an article I came across today - on the internet! - reminded me of something I had read in Bavinck's Prolegomena.

According to the article, today is the 40th birthday of the internet. Way back in 1969, on October 29th, a team of computer engineers, led by a Professor Leonard Kleinrock, enabled two distant computers to "talk" to each other for the very first time. And the rest, as they say, is history.

This is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, I had no idea the internet is almost as old as me (I was born in August of that year). So, when I tell my children, "Listen, when I was your age, there was no such thing as the internet!", I now know that statement is technically incorrect. And this is good to know, because if there is a logical or factual flaw in anything I say, sooner or later my eldest daughter will discover it and try to use it to her advantage.

Second, it is interesting because of how much a part of peoples' lives the internet has become since its invention four decades ago. The internet is certainly a big part of my life. Whether that is a good thing or not is debatable, but the fact is I find it hard to imagine what life was ever like before e-mail, Facebook, online shopping, online news, Wikipedia, blogs, internet radio, Google maps, st.louis.cardinals.mlb.com, and so on.

The internet is a two-edged sword. Like any technology, it is morally neutral in itself but in our hands it becomes an instrument either for good or for ill. E-mail and Facebook is a wonderfully convenient way to communicate with others, and to stay in touch with friends. But is my life really enriched by knowing what 80's song my college buddy is most like?

And I'm not convinced the internet saves us much time. Sure, it is much faster to send pictures to relatives via e-mail or Facebook, compared with the old-fashioned method of developing film and using "snail-mail". But the internet could very well be the biggest time-wasting device ever created (it may be a toss-up between it and television). Who hasn't kicked himself after spending needless time on the computer, knowing there are far more pressing and important things to be done? When it's all said and done, the increasingly-rare person who avoids all things internet may prove to be the wisest among us.

I'm also struck by the strange way the internet distorts human relations and interpersonal communication. I've known of an online "dating" relationship that completed fizzled once the two people actually met in person. Typing words onto a screen is a wholly inadequate substitute for face-to-face interaction. And, the internet is probably the world's worst forum for engaging in theological (or political) debate. I can't believe some of things Christians will say online.

On an even more serious level, the internet has been the means for all sorts of wickedness. What immediately comes to mind is the pornography epidemic it has fostered. If the devil tried to create the perfect tool to make pornography as accessible as possible to as many people as possible, all as secretly as possible, he would have invented the internet. And this torrent of online pornography only spawns more depraved and dangerous sexual sin.

On the other hand, the internet can serve the interests of the Kingdom of God. Used rightly, it can be a great tool for the church (though it can never be a substitute for the church!). I personally benefit from various Christian websites, blogs, online books, articles, lectures, and sermons. And I'm sure many, many other believers profit as well from the all the good resources online.

What does Bavinck have to do with all this? In a section in which he discusses the necessity of written Scripture, Bavinck argues that the increasing complexity of the world demands a fixed and unchanging, and thus inscripturated, Word of God:

Scripture is the word of God that has completely entered into the world. It makes that word universal and everlasting, and rescues it from error and lies, from oblivion and transcience. To the degree that humankind becomes larger, life becomes shorter, the memory weaker, science more extensive, error more serious, and deception more brazen, the necessity of Holy Scripture increases. (472)

And then what he wrote next is extremely relevant for our information and internet age:

Print and the press are gaining in significance in every area of life. The invention of printing was a giant step to heaven and to hell.

If the printing press was a giant step to heaven and to hell, how much more so the internet?