Back to Spirituality & Ethics

I sort of fear getting into this topic again but… The way in which spiritual development (that is our overall system of ethical and moral development and our personal system of belief, our concept in faith (important in that it is a factor in how we view our place in the world and our ideas around control and will) and indeed the attitude with which we face the world. (Obviously all the previous factors- physical, emotional and intellectual contribute to this together- for example our attitude can be positive because of our beliefs but it could be impacted by negative emotions based in physical neurotransmitter imbalance.) Further, our personal philosophies and beliefs can have great impact on how we interact with one another and what we can achieve (for example the concepts of positive thinking and self-fulfilling prophesy)As Bertrand Russell observes and I shall paraphrase, although religion has problems due to its dogmas, there are parts of religion that are desirable such as our interest in the well being of humanity.Such issues of civic in nature and so questions of citizenship fall naturally into this category (which is where Silverstone places them).Considering the issues between digital technology and spirituality are really at the heart of my second entry and the relationship seems to be defined by its long history I suppose the best way of addressing this question is to reconsider the issues that are raised in reconciling spirituality and digital technology with reference to educational settings.The first being of course that spirituality is an immensely personal thing, and that in the Irish context particularly we have difficulty in defining where the role of the formal learning environment should be, given the mixed feelings of spirituality in schools left by the legacy of religious involvement in education. Secondly of course, attempting to address any sort of personal development in schools can be tricky in that It is not something which can be assessed (not unlike emotional development) and therefore falls under a category of learning which- although most people can agree is important is assigned less value in the informal or “hidden” curriculum due to this and therefore is little addressed and less concerning for students already under numerous stresses.Further, the difficulty in addressing the reconciliation of technology and spirituality is increasingly complicated by our long held (enlightenment period) historical belief that man is mechanistic and therefore traditional education has rather overlooked the need to deal with how humanity deals and interacts with technology. In fact, the view that technology (particularly the cutting edge of technology) and spiritual ideas seem like such complete opposites that they have no place with one another is a major obstacle to exploring the two concepts. Thus, I think it is fair to assert that research into the civic and ethical development of students as pertains to technology is extremely understudied, and Silverstone seems to call strongly for more research in this direction.I also think it important to make the point that this reconciliation of the spiritual/ethical/moral side of man to the mechanistic/rational/scientific side of man is fundamental to the discussion of what it is to be human, and critical analysis of the human condition. So I think it can be argued that these ‘spiritual’ issues are important and that they are overlooked. I think further study of this topic might come from posing the questions “where do our ideas about our interactions with technology come from, and how do we reconcile the human dichotomy between spirit and machine?