Google is the biggest search engine on the Internet. I use it just about everyday, as you may do also. I don't even look up phone numbers in a book anymore. It is faster to "Google it". No wonder the founders of Google, Sergey Brin and Larry Page have become rich, the toast of America's Silicon Valley. They have also been named "Men of the Year" by the Financial Times.

Technology is a wonderful thing. I am glad to be alive in this age and have access to the Internet, computers and all the wonders that the microchip has brought to our world.

The promise that this technology holds is in many ways immeasurable. Massive computing power applied to the challenges facing our world holds out hope for solutions that will improve the everyday lives of the world's poor.

Technology is being harnessed to prepare for a possible avian flu outbreak. A super computer at Los Alamos, New Mexico runs simulations to anticipate how fast and in what patterns such an outbreak would affect the United States. Scientists hope to quickly get a handle on any outbreak and lessen its overall impact.

Can it be done? Possibly! One certainly hopes so.

Google's inventors Brin and Page who are in their early 30's are filled with energy and ambition. They have gone beyond normal computing paradigms to get this far. The goal for their search engine seems to be to rival the human brain in speed and capacity.

A recent Financial Times articles quotes Brin saying that the human brain "is existence proof of how [information search technology] can be better". The brain's biological computing power is "very easy to use... and it's very quick, and it's much faster than the way [current] human/computer interactions work today... So it's clear there's no inherent ceiling we're hitting upon" (December 23, 2005, page 13).

Could a computer search engine ever match the analytical power of the human brain? What kind of world would that create? I get a bit nervous whenever I read such boasts.

Frankly, I don't think man will ever invent anything to match the creative capacity that God, the Creator of life, has built into the human mind. Yes, I believe that God is the Creator or Intelligent Designer of all life on this planet.

Because of continuing efforts to remove, bar and forbid the teaching or mention of God or Jesus Christ in the public forum, I have greater cause to fear how science and technology may be used if we place too much confidence in what we invent. As we become more reliant on technology and less reliant on God we head into a box canyon with no escape.

Technology is growing exponentially and impacting our daily lives in more ways than we realize. Data storage has become so inexpensive that it is now feasible to preserve every form of communication—both verbal and written—that we produce. That can be a blessing or a curse, depending on the values of those who have access to and control over those records.

That is the double edge sword that technology poses!

As we become more dependent on scientific and technical achievements to the exclusion of true spiritual values we are in danger of creating a world without God. If that happens we will find ourselves very close to what is described in Genesis 11—the tower of Babel incident.

In an attempt to play god, humans then attempted to build a tower to the heavens. Because they were in defiance of God's will He did not permit them to continue. He confused their languages and scattered them abroad over the face of the earth.

The Bible prophecies of a time in the future when a technically advanced political system, called "Babylon the great," will create a global society that trades in the " bodies and souls of men" (Revelation 18:13). It will be a system without a soul that will once again attempt to make human ability equal with or superior to that of their Creator.

But God will not let this worldwide system bring an end to civilization. It will meet its doom at the return of Jesus Christ.

Technology plays an important role in our world. But we need to understand its limitations. By relying on it alone we cannot discover the deep spiritual truths that reveal the vital missing dimension to life. For that we must rely on God and His revelation.