Advanced technology has given us giant systems through which energy, transportation, and communication resources are readily available. Limits on the progress of former generations have been eroded—so much so that it might seem the systems themselves are the cause of progress. But when a major system fails, as the electrical system serving the New York City area did in 1977, urban life is suddenly transformed into a state more primitive than before the system was introduced. Because of gloomy predictions that the natural resources, such as oil, which feed our giant systems are coming to an end, there is speculation about the general chaos that might ensue should we be deprived of the living standards supported by our systems.
But neither the systems nor the technological communities that design, build, and operate them are the real agents by which chaos is transformed into harmony. The Scriptures and Christian Science make clear that all aspects of human existence are products of thought. Human life gets better or worse as thought approaches, or recedes from, the Godlike.
If we accept the materialistic view that human systems are the agents of progress, we are making gods of the products of human thought, and our living standards become susceptible to deterioration. If, however, we accept the spiritual view that God is the one Principle by which man is governed, and that Christ, the true idea of God, is the only agent of human progress, we begin to discover the truth that "all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Rom. 8:28;
