21st July 2006
There have been lots of people asking me about what I've been doing this holidays. Well what can I say? Its made up meetings for various things except recreation. Most of it involving VCF ministry. Exco meetings, council meetings, UDS meetings, informal meetings etc. The list goes on... Other than that, I've been reading. I'm currently reading a book God's that Fail by Vinoth Ramachandran and Growing Deep in God by Rev Edmund Chan.
The first is really thought-provoking book, about the world we live and the relevance of the Biblical message in the light of ideologies of Modernity, Post-modernity, development, science and research, suffering etc. I'm left with 2 chapters and it has been challenging my views about Christianity and the way I view the world we live in. One of the issues that the writer talks about is especially thought-provoking to an scientist or engineer in training such as myself. He talked about science and how science started out as a Christian response to the world which God has created. An appreciation of the work of our Father's hand by creatures who where exclusively made in His image. He talked about the motivations of research in the area of technology. He pointed out that engineers and scientist cannot relinquish our sense of responsibility to the things that we make or discover in the course of research and development. For example, the makers of the atomic bomb cannot say that they had no part to play in the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
It seems like many engineers I know including myself view our work as having a responsibility to our employers or superiors. Our drive for discovery and research is in many ways monetary or due to responsibility. Yet we cannot deny the fact that our work impacts the environment and the people in it as well. The impact can be postive or negative. Toxic waste generated from manufacturing being one of the negative and green cars or recycling methods being one of the postive.
Society itself can be impacted by technology as well. The invention of the internet, the television and even mobile phones has sociological impact on the way humans interact with one another. It has "shrunk" the world as we know it and forged the notion of a global economy. It has blurred the lines of the nation-state and sense of nationality so prevalent before the World Wars and in some other ways emphasised the ethnic and religious lines of people around the world. (Think Muslims, Christians, East vs West etc.)
From this I realised that though in an Asian setting, engineers are not as highly regarded as doctors, lawyers and architects; it does not diminish the sense of responsibility that we have in our work which has impact to the world that we live.
And as such the engineering and scientific profession requires a conscience.
May it then be a Christian conscience that I will develop.
The first is really thought-provoking book, about the world we live and the relevance of the Biblical message in the light of ideologies of Modernity, Post-modernity, development, science and research, suffering etc. I'm left with 2 chapters and it has been challenging my views about Christianity and the way I view the world we live in. One of the issues that the writer talks about is especially thought-provoking to an scientist or engineer in training such as myself. He talked about science and how science started out as a Christian response to the world which God has created. An appreciation of the work of our Father's hand by creatures who where exclusively made in His image. He talked about the motivations of research in the area of technology. He pointed out that engineers and scientist cannot relinquish our sense of responsibility to the things that we make or discover in the course of research and development. For example, the makers of the atomic bomb cannot say that they had no part to play in the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
It seems like many engineers I know including myself view our work as having a responsibility to our employers or superiors. Our drive for discovery and research is in many ways monetary or due to responsibility. Yet we cannot deny the fact that our work impacts the environment and the people in it as well. The impact can be postive or negative. Toxic waste generated from manufacturing being one of the negative and green cars or recycling methods being one of the postive.
Society itself can be impacted by technology as well. The invention of the internet, the television and even mobile phones has sociological impact on the way humans interact with one another. It has "shrunk" the world as we know it and forged the notion of a global economy. It has blurred the lines of the nation-state and sense of nationality so prevalent before the World Wars and in some other ways emphasised the ethnic and religious lines of people around the world. (Think Muslims, Christians, East vs West etc.)
From this I realised that though in an Asian setting, engineers are not as highly regarded as doctors, lawyers and architects; it does not diminish the sense of responsibility that we have in our work which has impact to the world that we live.
And as such the engineering and scientific profession requires a conscience.
May it then be a Christian conscience that I will develop.
4 Comments:
looking at your post makes me think whether undergrads do have a liking in writing essays.. just had me Qualifying English Test.. gosh.. i wrote less than 500 words(requirement is abt 500).. -_-
hmm... I think its an NUS thing... din want to write so much one... or maybe its just me *wink wink*
haha. perhaps so.. eh! u din inform ppl of your blog right.. trying to get free publicity from all our blogs right.. din even have links for us! no tag board oso! quiclk quicl! improve your blog!! haha
*quick quick
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