Comment by dangus
7 years ago
IMO, the Amish/Mennonite or similar groups' systems never made a lot of sense, like many extreme religious orthodoxies.
Powering these appliances with compressed air doesn't change the fact that their engineering drawings were done on a computer, assembled in a factory rife with robotics, and delivered on a UPS truck. And that the most convenient method of producing compressed air involves internal combustion or electricity.
Nothing in the Bible supports electricity or any other 20th century technology being anything sinful. It's just another extremist group making their own bonkers interpretations of a religious book.
I think the Amish are glorified based on their work ethic and nice furniture, but I think the reality of living in that community has all the negatives of an extreme religious cult.
From my understanding they do not reject electricity because it's inherently sinful. Their rejection of it comes from desires to maintain a degree of separation from the rest of the world and to continue a tradition of hard work, which are biblically motivated.
I think any religious beliefs, from anywhere on the conservative to progressive spectrum, will have aspects that seem illogical to an outsider. On the scale of things, the reasoning for these restrictions doesn't seem too irrational.
IMO, it does seem unnecessarily inflammatory to refer to a pacifist group as extreme when that term is usually applied to groups engaged in terrorism, etc. I also find the label of cult too strong, unless you're using it in the formal sense. Look into the tradition of rumspringa [0]--unless you're being cynical it doesn't seem like a cultish practice.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumspringa
The point of their approach to technology is to cherry pick that which supports, and does not diminish, their contemplative and social way of life. I don't think they're against computers either, to give an example. They're just against letting them be a temptation to idleness.
Obviously they live embedded in a world that doesn't work according to their rules. Everyone who wants to change society does that.
> I don't think they're against computers either
They aren't. There are in fact computers specifically designed and marketed for Amish business work. They're more like a classic Word Processor than what we call a computer.
That’s what I find admirable, when you put hard work into something you learn to value things and the work of others.