Monday, October 30, 2006

7 The whole human race is foolish and has no knowledge!
The craftsmen are disgraced by the idols they make,
for their carefully shaped works are a fraud.
These idols have no breath or power.
18 Idols are worthless; they are ridiculous lies!
On the day of reckoning they will all be destroyed.
19 But the God of Israel[f] is no idol!
He is the Creator of everything that exists,
including his people, his own special possession.

(from Jeremiah 51)

How much of what we do is genuinely helpful to the world? We might design well crafted products, but how does it matter if our products become objects of desire without genuinely helping the people who use them? How much of what we do will make it to the other side? Will it be destroyed. How do my designs strengthen the human net?

3 comments:

Thomas Parel said...

hehe- I might have posted more than people normally see from me. But this is how I tick. A large part of me is trying to make my professional life jive with my personal convictions.

Jeff Mowry said...

Refreshing to see someone come to an ultimate question like that. I grapple with this with the "kids" (some may be older than I) at the ID program at ASU. Let's face it--the push-button era and the space-age really didn't pay off. The promises ended in hollowness and perhaps even bitter disappointment. Better living through design? Maybe. More significant life through design? I haven't seen it. This is troubling and ought to be examined before striking out on a life of futility. What really lasts? What's really important? Why am I here? What's the point?

Without a consistent philosophy, live reveals itself as chaos. With a philosophy consistent with reality, order is revealed behind the chaos.

tobi said...

Thankyou for the post, that's a good scripture for designers to remember, these issus are really important and not many people seem to talk/care about them.