Idolizing Safety

About Idolizing Safety

Abstract

Users of technological devices have a reasonable expectation that they have been designed, manufactured, and maintained to be safe. Achieving safety in the design of technology requires careful engineering analysis that recognizes the source of failures and accounts for them using techniques such as redundancy. Even so, design for safety is difficult for technical as well as sociocultural reasons. Challenges include difficulty in predicting the behavior of new technology, dealing with system complexity, the need to make trade-offs, and gauging social tolerance for risk. Christian engineers should care about safety. Although all engineers should care about safety professionally, Christians have some further, distinct reasons to care. Scripture calls us to care about the safety of others. However, our theology also leads us to conclude that perfect safety is not possible. Failures may have technical causes, but the ultimate underlying causes are rooted in the theology of the fallenness and finitude of creation. Engineering design processes should account for this understanding. Christian engineers should care for more than safety alone. Fixation with safety can become inappropriately detrimental to other important goals such as creative flourishing or stewardship . We can turn concern for safety into a kind of worship that becomes idolatry. Using the perspective of the two greatest commandments, we can put safety in its proper place.