If you think about it, faith and technology go hand in hand.

Using technology and believing it works is a little like believing in God. You can&8217;t see it, touch it, make sense of it, but through faith you believe it.

Because technology is a man-made thing there seems to be greater room for skepticism, however.

Take man walking on the moon for example.

As a child who loved to convert cardboard boxes into rocket ships and had a rendering of that famous picture of astronauts unfurling the American flag on the moon&8217;s surface, I never had any doubt that event really happened.

I had faith &8212; faith in technology, faith in the human imagination and faith in the spirit of exploration.

But an acquaintance truly believed that the whole event was made up.

In his mind it was a conspiracy by the United States government conjured up in some secret television studio.

His life experience told him that going to the moon was impossible.

The thing is, except for my faith, I had no real evidence to show that man walking on the moon really happened.

And given what we see on movie screens today, his argument seems more plausible today than it would have in 1969.

Recently listening to the arguments for and against the proposed condominium complex, I can hear echoes of the same argument.

Do you believe that the $28 million dollar construction called the bluff stabilization project really does what it says &8212; stabilize the bluff?

Or do you believe that this 60 foot high and mile long wall will become victim to Mother Nature&8217;s whims?

How much faith do you have in man&8217;s ability to overcome the laws of nature?

Will global stability systems, monitoring devices and soil nails provide enough assurance to those building on the bluff?

If so, for how long?

There is a part of me that wants to believe that the bluff stabilization project will actually hold the soil in place and will forever make the bluff a safe place to build and live.

I am an architect after all. From towering cathedrals that span hundreds of feet with tiny pieces of stone to dams that hold back immeasurable amounts of water, much of my schooling was spent studying constructions that defy the laws of gravity and nature.

The little I know about structures and engineering supports my faith in human achievement.

On the other hand, those who have expressed anxiety over the situation, have many examples from the recent and not-so-recent past to back up their claims.

Look at the major collapses that have occurred in the past century they say.

Names like Clifton Street, Silver Street, Jones Lumber Company are brought up. Tons and tons of earth have already collapsed into the river.

Many point to the Mississippi River itself as an example of man&8217;s futile attempt to reign in Mother Nature.

Of course we all know by now about the infamous levees in New Orleans, another U.S. Army Corps of Engineers construction.

After assurances that these highly engineered earth constructions would hold back hurricane flood waters, the forces of Hurricane Katrina once again proved man&8217;s vain ability to keep nature at bay.

&8220;Don&8217;t ignore the warnings from the past in our anxiety to do good,&8221; geologist John Bornman told the Natchez Board of Alderman Tuesday morning.

Is it enough to question my faith in technology?

I don&8217;t know.

Ben Hillyer

is visual editor of The Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3552 or by e-mail at

ben.hillyer@natchezdemocrat.com

.