Creative Creatures Values and Ethical Issues in Theology, Science and Technology

by Görman, Ulf; Drees, Willem; Meisinger, Hubert

• ISBN13: 9780567030894
• ISBN10: 056703089X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-12-01
• Publisher: Bloomsbury T & T Clark

Summary

Creative Creatures introduces a new theme into the growing field of science-and-theology by focusing on topics that have so far received little attention from scholars, namely ethical issues raised by the technological applications of scientific knowledge. The main themes explored include technology's impact on our worldview, morality, nature and culture in a technological society, along with discussions of artificial intelligence and biotechnology.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements	ix
List of Contributors	xi
Chapter 1: Introduction: technological and moral creatures or creators?	1	(14)
Willem B. Drees
PART I: TECHNOLOGY'S IMPACT ON OUR WORLDVIEW
Chapter 2: ICT and the character of finitude	15	(19)
René P.H. Munnik
Chapter 3: Technology and the changing notion of nature	34	(11)
Zbigniew Liana
Chapter 4: Co-creator or co-creator? the problem with artificial intelligence	45	(8)
Noreen Herzfeld
Chapter 5: From thou to IT: information technology from the perspective of the language philosophy of Rosenzweig and Rosenstock-Huessy	53	(11)
Otto Kroesen
Chapter 6: Being cyborgs: on creating humanity in a created world of technology	64	(11)
Taede Smedes
PART II: MORALITY, NATURE AND CULTURE
Chapter 7: The perennial debate about human goodness: the primate evidence	75	(17)
Frans B.M. de Waal
Chapter 8: Theological reflections on the moral nature of nature	92	(15)
Nancey Murphy
Chapter 9: Is it suitable to translate Christian anthropological topics into genetic and cognitive categories? The case of original sin	107	(16)
Lluis Oviedo
PART III: MORALITY IN A TECHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY
Chapter 10: Ethical issues of AI and biotechnology	123	(11)
Margaret A. Boden
Chapter 11: Co-creation or hubris? Responses to biotechnology in Christianity, Judaism and Islam	134	(18)
Ulf Görman
Chapter 12: The human being a co-creator? Theological reflections on reproductive cloning of human individuals	152	(10)
Jan-Olav Henriksen
Chapter 13: When astronomers and environmentalists clash over a sky island	162	(8)
Christopher J. Corbally, SJ
Chapter 14: The crisis of ideologies and the need for a new anthropology: values education in a technological and pragmatic age	170	(15)
Angela Roothaan
Index	185