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Faith, Science, and Technology Initiative

The Faith, Science, and Technology Initiative aims to foster cross-disciplinary conversation about foundational questions that inform every academic discipline: what is a person? How do humans flourish? What does a flourishing society look like? In our modern scientific and technological world, answers to these questions are often assumed rather than discussed or debated. At LeTourneau University, we believe in the importance of approaching these conversations with curiosity and Christian conviction.

Inseparable from Technology?


According to Pew Research, approximately 31% of U.S. adults report that they go online “almost constantly" during their waking hours every day.

According to World Economic Forum, approximately 65 percent of children entering primary school today will end up working in jobs that don’t even exist yet.

Guiding Questions



 

1. What Does It Mean To Be A Human Person?

 

2. How Do Human Beings Flourish?

 

3. What Does a Flourishing Society Look Like?


Technology is inseparable from being human. It accompanies our waking and our sleeping, our work and our worship, our recreation and rest, our being born and dying.

Because technology is so intimately woven through every sphere of human life, it makes it difficult to appreciate how much it shapes our basic perceptions of personhood, human flourishing, and what kind of society we want.

For this reason, we must ask probing questions about the implicit model of the human person assumed in our academic disciplines. Furthermore, we must interrogate our basic instincts about what it means for human beings to flourish individually and together in a society.


  • Our Context
  •  Previous FSTI Lectures

Three Societal "Currents" Which Seem to Be Driving Technological Change: 

  1. Aiming at Utopia
    Our society believes that all our problems in the world are fundamentally technological dilemmas that can be solved with technological fixes.

    We say: we need alternative diagnoses and treatments to promote a healthy society.

  2. Efficiency
    The governing logic of technology tends to assume that efficiency is the key to making the world better.

    We say: efficiency is not the ultimate measure of technology. Efficiency must serve some higher goal.

  3. Disembodied Interaction
    Embodied, fase-to-face communication and relationships are often seen as obstacles and hindrances to control and choice.

    We say: it is difficult to overstate how foundational embodied face-to-face communication and relationships are for a good life. True flourishing depends upon being in one place, at one time.

Dr. Paul Rezkalla (Video):

 

 

Dr. Derek Schuurman (Video):


Dr. Brad Kallenberg (Audio):


 

Dr. Jonathan Lett (Audio):

 

 

 




The Faith, Science, Technology Initiative exists as part LeTourneau University's mission to form the next generation of Christians who are capable of working out answers to these questions in the technology they design and create.

Dr. Jonathan Lett
Director, Faith, Science, & Technology Initiative
Associate Professor of Theology 

jonathan-lett-fst1.jpg

 

Upcoming Speakers 2023-2024


Dr. Elizabeth Lewis Hall
Professor of Psychology, Biola University
October 19, 2023, 7:00pm - AFSC Great Room

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