What does Christianity have to say about the not-too-distant future of human civilization? As science fiction increasingly weaves into our reality, we need to think ahead and think well about how our theology will shape—and respond—to what comes next. To read the start of our discussion, check out yesterday’s post.
Based on the Kardashev Scale—a seven-part scale of the phases of a civilization as it expands dominance over its environment—I want to examine the overlap between the kingdom and our “control” of the cosmos.
Kardashev’s Type I civilization is one that has control over its planet. For humans, this will look like our ability to harness the power of the entire Earth: weather, tectonics, natural resources, and the larger energy of our planet.
Where we stand now, as a species, we’re clearly not a full Type I civilization. But we’re really not too far away. We already can create weather, shape much of our environment, and harvest (to the point of abuse) a great many of Earth’s resources. We may be like a Type 0.75 civilization.
But some who study these things believe we may achieve full Type I status within the next two centuries.
So what does God’s Word have to say about a Type I civilization, if anything?
Three biblical truths come to mind as I ponder a civilization—ours—that has total planetary mastery. At the point where humanity, God’s image-bearers, become a Type I civilization, the faithful must be aware and alert to these realities:
- The Earth Is Ours
- The Earth Is God’s
- The Earth Is Doomed
A Fulfillment of Our Calling
God tells us that the earth is ours. Growing in mastery over it is a very real fulfillment of God’s will for his human creations.
Mankind is the pinnacle of creation. We have dominion over nature, including its creatures and resources.
The heavens are the heavens of the Lord, but the earth he has given to the sons of men. (Psalm 115:16)
The Earth is for us—earthlings.
For this is what the Lord says—he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited—he says: “I am the Lord, and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45:18)
In the Bible’s very first chapter, mankind is given power to “rule” over all living things and to “fill the earth and subdue it.” In Genesis 2, the first man is granted power to name the animals and, in Genesis 9, to eat them.
Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. (Genesis 9:3)
Adam and Eve kept the garden. Cain and Abel shepherded flocks and sowed the ground. Across Genesis we see the development of tools and the use of resources and technology, advancing humankind’s dominion over created things.
The dominion over the world, from the plants to the stones, the animals and the elements, was foreshadowed from the beginning. That humanity would inch—then leap and fly—toward Type I civilization may not have been inevitable, but it seems a natural outworking of our inhabiting, filling, working, and subduing the Earth.
That said, mastery of creation can be a very good thing.
But with the responsibility of use also comes opportunity for misuse. Management for good can easily turn into manipulation for bad.
An Abuse of God’s Property
At the same time as God calls humans to increase on the earth and rule over it, he also call us “to work it and take care of it.”
It is possible in the Christian worldview to have dominion without destruction, though we know how difficult this is to achieve in fallen reality. But while we have dominion over lesser nature, this is no God-given license for exploitation.
The Earth, after all, is given to us—but only because it ultimately belongs to God, who is sovereign over all things we think we can control.
The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it. (Psalm 24:1).
Our authority is always subject to God’s authority.
Humans in many ways have become obsessed with conquest—a violent, greedy conquest that results from Genesis 3 and is out of alignment with the good filling and subduing of Genesis 1. Why do we say we “conquer” a mountain by hiking it, or “conquer” the air by inventing airplanes?
We have the image of God, but let us not forget we were made from dust.
The creation itself, though it does not have the crowning glory of humankind, is still a beautiful, valuable testament to God’s goodness. The skies “proclaim the work of [God’s] hands” (Psalm 19:1). The creatures belong to God (Psalm 104:24). We want the very land to be healed (2 Chronicles 7:14).
In his hands are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. (Psalm 95:3–5).
In the creation, God’s eternal power and divine nature are “clearly seen” (Romans 1:20).
And for these reasons—that 1) humans are intended to “take care” of creation, 2) creation testifies to God’s goodness, 3) through creation we are without excuse in our knowledge of God, and 4) nature belongs to God anyway—our striving to master creation must not be a rapacious conquest.
Tolkien made a striking critique of our temptation toward anti-environmentalism with Saruman’s burning of Fangorn Forest. Lewis did something similar as the White Witch turned the trees to her side and kept spring blooms from erupting during prolonged winter.
We are so enthralled by our technologies that we little consider the pollution of the planet and the cost to the natural world. In fact, if our technology allows us to control nature by pillaging it, we are often eager to do just that.
Protestants especially have removed sacredness from nature.
On the one hand, that’s a good thing. All worship must be to God. But any sacramentality, any divine mystery, any fingerprints of God in the created order—outside of humankind—is mostly gone. And that’s a real loss.
While we have focused our attention and efforts rightly on God and God alone, we have lost a respect—even a reverence—for his created order.
As Type I civilization comes closer to reality, we must not forget that while humans are in a sense “above” the rest of creation, we are not vindictive, greedy gods over it. We are still called to respect and care for creation. And to be obedient to God’s kind, creative, and creating will. For we pray:
Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10)
So let our stewardship of Earth turn it not closer to the sulphurous wastelands of hell, but the verdant, rivered city of heaven.
A Fading Homeland
Finally, as we barrel toward planetary domination, we must not forget that the Earth is our home, but only our temporary home.
We are pilgrims, passing through.
We are exiles from God’s garden, living now always East of Eden.
And in that knowledge, we can know that Type I civilization, total mastery of all the energy of our terrestrial orb, is fleeting and not eternal.
“Heaven and earth will pass away,” says Jesus (Matthew 24:35).
On the one hand, that may give us more motivation to pursue greater mastery over our world. After all, in the scheme of eternity, time is short. Let’s steward and build our planet the best we can with the time that’s given to us.
On the other hand, this truth should remind us that no level of harvesting earth or managing its resources—and, even less, greedily exploiting its treasures—can be our ultimate ambition. Our eyes must always return upward to the God of heaven, rather than downward to our fading, temporary homeland.
[For] according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. (2 Peter 3:13)
So while the earth is ours, let us use it well, and even come to gain ever-increasing mastery over the bounty it has to offer. But let us never believe our privilege and responsibility toward the planet is equal to the freedom to loot and pollute it.
We can master the Earth, but it is only good insofar God is Master over us, and to the point we acknowledge that our planet and its fruits and energies, as they are now, are not long for this eternity.
What a great post. I love what you said about our authority being subject to God’s authority. Oh that we would have his heart to steward obediently!