Why Do We Default to Technological Solutions Despite the Risks?

Two overlapping forces drive the default. First, the cultural inheritance: progress has been the dominant narrative of Western modernity for several centuries, and it has trained us to assume that newer is better, faster is better, and “more capable” tools indicate genuine human advance. Second, the loss of a robust account of human flourishing: when we no longer have shared answers to questions about what humans are for, efficiency becomes a default proxy for value. If we cannot say what life is for, we settle for making it more efficient.

The Enhanced Games — a sporting movement designed to allow performance-enhancing substances — illustrate the dynamic clearly. Their stated philosophy is that “scientific and technological advancements can be safely applied to sport. Their use should be embraced and celebrated.” This is not framed as cheating but as progress, because the underlying anthropology assumes that human limits are problems to be overcome rather than features of finite creatures made by God. Christians who simply absorb the cultural default will treat each new technology as an obvious upgrade rather than as a claim about human flourishing that deserves theological scrutiny.

Key Takeaways: Progress as the Modern Default

Case Study: The Enhanced Games and the soft transhumanism behind them.

Scholar: Iain McGilchrist (The Matter with Things) on conflating manipulation with understanding.

The “So What”: Christians need a theological account of flourishing robust enough to evaluate technology beyond “does it work?”

James Spencer, PhD, is a theologian, author, and host of the Thinking Christian podcast, where he writes and speaks on Christian formation, political theology, and technology. He holds a PhD in Theological Studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and completed the Institute for Educational Management at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He serves as President of the D.L. Moody Center in Northfield, Massachusetts, as adjunct faculty in Wheaton College’s MA in Leadership program, and as an Associate Research Fellow at the Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, Christianity.com, and Sojourners. His forthcoming book is Discipleship and Discernment in the Digital Age (InterVarsity Press, Fall 2026). Learn more at jamesgspencer.com.