Charlie Dean’s Blog

From a Newsweek article called “In iPad We Trust.”  (click here for the full article)

What’s wrong, or at least interesting, is why some of us expected so much more from a new gadget. I suspect this is because for some people, myself included, technology has become a kind of religion. We may not believe in God anymore, but we still need mystery and wonder. We need the magic act. Five centuries ago Spanish missionaries put shiny mirrors in churches to dazzle the Incas and draw them to Christianity. We, too, want to be dazzled by shiny new objects. Our iPhones not only play music and make phone calls, but they also have become totemic objects, imbued with techno-voodoo. Maybe that sounds nuts, but before the iPad was announced, people were calling it the “Jesus tablet.”

That line about the shiny mirrors?  That makes me think about the church & technology.  And if a church markets itself by it’s “tech-savvyness,” how is that different than shiny mirrors?

On a personal level… I want one.  I’ve been thinking hard about a Kindle for some time, but that’s out the window now!