The contributions of the theology of creation and of human action to the orientation of applied sciences and technology: an ethical and axiological mediation

Abstract

Sciences and technologies have given us an enormous power to transform our environment as we have never had before. Currently, applied sciences and technologies are guided by a technocratic instrumentalism characterized by an instrumental reason, a pretension of neutrality and a vision of nature that privileges the development of technical instruments as ends in themselves or as a function of mere financial values and reduces the environment to economical usefulness. This article aims to present how the theology of creation and of co-creative human action contributes to reorient applied sciences and technologies towards solving real human problems and responsibly adapting the environment to make it viable for present and future generation, taking care of the created world as a prudent administrator. These contributions require an ethical and axiological mediation that puts human beings, their social relationships and the environment above things-instruments.