Be All That You Can Be!

By: Steve Huston

BE ALL THAT YOU CAN BE! Turns out that the United States Army and transhumanists have the same slogan. Whether melding man and technology or genes are manipulated to create “super-soldiers,” knock out cancer, or enhance other desirable traits within a person, we had better be a thinking, praying, and discerning people.

Technocracy covers an extremely wide area of topics and subtopics; each of which demands deep ethical consideration and, for the Christian, thinking within Biblical parameters to the glory of God and to the meeting of man’s deepest need – salvation. Transhumanism, the blending of man and machine, and its incompatibility with Christianity’s theological precepts is my focus here.

Technology, including that specifically related to transhumanism, is promoted as a matter of convenience and often accompanied by false promises of freedom. While there’s no denying that technological advances have often brought convenience and ease to our lives, it’s also true that with these conveniences we’ve given up an element of control which translates into a loss of freedom. We need to think Biblically and critically, realizing that if these new technologies are put into the wrong hands a technological fence is put around us to control us; thereby stifling the ability to be all that we can and all that God intends us to be.

I am not against technology, but I do take issue with it when it runs contrary to God’s plan or is designed to draw men away from their need for God, salvation, sanctification, or keeps us from following the command to “set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” When we better understand the tenets and goals of transhumanism (and those of Christianity), we’ll realize that while one can be a Christian and secondarily a technophile, one cannot be a Christian transhumanist anymore than we can be a Christian Muslim, Christian Buddhist, or a Christian witch. This will sound like science fiction, yet much of it is already here on some level and readily desired and accepted by the masses thanks to the propaganda put out by Hollywood.

When one considers that man was created in the image of God – that we are image-bearers of our Creator – one is flabbergasted at the hubris of the transhumanists. Being evolutionists, they have a sense of duty to use science and technology to transcend the so called limitations of the human existence, speeding up the process and recreating mankind into the image that they think it needs to be. Indeed, one can become as God, increase one’s knowledge, and find “eternal life” here on earth. Sounds a lot like the serpent’s false promises to Eve in the garden, doesn’t it?

Lest you think I’m making this up, gubernatorial and presidential candidate, Zoltan Istvan, is a transhumanist who wrote in the Huffington Post (2016): “We must force our evolution in the present day via our reasoning, inventiveness, and especially our scientific technology. In short, we must embrace transhumanism—the radical field of science that aims to turn humans into, for lack of a better word, gods.” He continues, “Obviously, the human body is a mediocre vessel for our actual possibilities in this material universe. Our biology severely limits us. As a species we are far from finished and therefore unacceptable. The transhumanist believes we should immediately work to improve ourselves via enhancing the human body and eliminating its weak points. This means ridding ourselves of flesh and bones, and upgrading to new cybernetic tissues, alloys, and other synthetic materials, including ones that make us cyborg-like and robotic. It also means further merging the human brain with the microchip and the impending digital frontier. Biology is for beasts, not future transhumanists.”

Four years later Elon Musk stated that with synthetic mRNA/DNA you can basically do anything. He said it’s like a computer code that could stop/reverse aging or do anything you want. It could even “turn you into a freaking butterfly if you want, with the right DNA sequence.”

Whether inserting chips, injecting nanobots, or using CRISPR technology to edit/manipulate DNA sequences, transhumanism attempts to remove God from the equation, focusing on the materialistic. In trying to circumnavigate God, man attempts, by his own strength, to reverse the effects of sin, ignore the value of redemptive suffering, refuse the need for divine forgiveness, and attain eternal life without humbling himself to the atoning work of Christ upon the cross. Christians must recognize the futility of such actions. Whether we live 50, 100, or 1,000+ years we will still stand before God and give an account of our lives; God will be the Judge. There is only one way to salvation and that is through Jesus, God’s only begotten Son. Even if one could “live forever” on this earth through “digital immortality” (uploading one’s mind into computer programs) or cryogenics, this earth will one day pass away and they will still give an account of what they have done with their soul.

Christians are not meant to be carried away on wings of ease or so focused on their own physical longevity/health to the ignorance of those still bound by the chains of sin. The goal of transhumanism is to make us more than human and modify our behavior; yet Christ died for those who are human.

Wesley J. Smith, writing for First Things Magazine, so well contrasts the fundamental principles of transhumanism and Christianity that I will close with his words: “First principles matter, and those of transhumanism and Christianity could not be more contradictory. Transhumanism is materialistic. Christianity is theistic. Transhumanism is utopian. Christianity sees the fallen world realistically. Transhumanism perceives immortality as something that can be achieved by men. Christianity identifies eternal salvation as the mercy of a loving God. Its eschatology focuses on God’s promises, not upon advanced scientific applications.”

 

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