Monday, September 17, 2018

The Coming Transhuman War

There is a spiritual war taking place that is being ignored by many within the Church.  Going back to the Garden of Eden Satan offered Eve the opportunity to become as a god.  Today, Satan is using the same lie to entice mankind into becoming his own god.  There was a time when secular humanist pushed the theory of evolution as the means of humanity becoming a god.  The reality is there is no natural evolution of the species.  However, all over the world, there are those who see through the process of transhumanism, technology can reach the level of superhuman power, radically extend lifespans, and increase the IQ of mankind and become as a god.

Transhumanism is a class of philosophies of life that seek the continuation and acceleration of the evolution of intelligent life beyond its currently human form and human limitations utilizing science and technology, guided by life-promoting principles and values.  This does not sound all that threatening when we talk about improving the intelligent or doing away with the human limitations that hold us back from doing the things we want to do.  Most people are on board with using technology to improve our intelligent or doing away with things like Parkinson’s disease, all cancers, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, Diabetes and old age. There are a growing number of Christians who do not see the dangers posed by the transhumanist movement.  All they can see is becoming smarter and living longer without the fear of the devastating diseases that are taking the lives of so many people.

Transhuman literally means beyond human. Transhumanists consist of life extensionists, techno-optimists, Singularitarians, biohackers, roboticists, AI proponents, and futurists who embrace radical science and technology to improve the human condition. The most essential aim of many transhumanists is to overcome human mortality, a goal some believe is achievable by 2045.

Transhumanism has been around for nearly 30 years and was first heavily influenced by science fiction. Today, transhumanism is increasingly being influenced by actual science and technological innovation, much of it being created by people under the age of 40. It’s also become a very international movement, with many formal groups in dozens of countries.

One leader in the transhuman movement is Maria Konovalenko, a 29-year-old Russian molecular biophysicist whose public demonstrations supporting radical life extension have made international news, is a prime example.

“We must do more for transhumanism and life extension,” says Konovalenko, who serves as vice president of Moscow-based Science for Life Extension Foundation. “This is our lives and our futures we’re talking about. To sit back and just watch the 21st Century roll by will not accomplish our goals. We must take our message to the people in the streets and strive to make real change.”

A primary goal of many transhumanists is to convince the public that embracing radical technology and science is in the species’ best interest. Looking at this from a religious point of view several issues come to mind. First, death is a part of the human condition this is a result of sin.  Man was not created to be mortal but rather an immortal being living for eternity with the Creator.  The whole plan of salvation is to give man eternal life.  Transhumanists want to help humans live much longer, and they also want to increase the quality of those lives dramatically.  Ultimately, most transhumanists are fully convinced that they will be able to defeat death altogether. This is a circumventing of the God’s plan of salvation.  The idea of salvation is a spiritual means of defeating death.

The question of what it means to be human is not based only on the DNA structure but the spiritual as well.  When God breathed into man he became a LIVING SOUL.  Man may classify as being human by their sociological or psychological behavior, but God looks at His Creation as a spiritual being.

One of the core concepts in transhumanist thinking is life extension: Through genetic engineering, nanotech, cloning, and other emerging technologies, eternal life may soon be possible. Likewise, transhumanists are interested in the ever-increasing number of technologies that can boost our physical, intellectual, and psychological capabilities beyond what humans are naturally capable of (thus the term transhuman). Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), for example, which speeds up reaction times and learning speed by running a very weak electric current through your brain, has already been used by the US military to train snipers. On the more extreme side, transhumanism deals with the concepts of mind uploading (to a computer), and what happens when we finally craft a computer with greater-than-human intelligence (the technological singularity).

So, would you like to live forever armed with superhuman powers?  That is the same question Satan posed to Eve in the Garden of Eden- ye shall be as gods.  During the last event in which Satan tried to change humanity by corrupting the DNA of man with that of fallen angels, it ended up with only eight humans escaping the judgment of God.  Since God locked the DNA of all species from being able to crossbreed, Satan has given man the knowledge to circumvent the physical laws of God through the use of technology.

There are those who believe that a crucial turning point will be reached around the year 2030, when information technology achieves ‘genuine’ intelligence, at the same time as biotechnology enables a seamless union between us and this super-smart new technological environment. Ultimately the human-machine mind will become free to roam a universe of its own creation, uploading itself at will on to a “suitably powerful computational substrate.” We will become essentially god-like in our powers.

Does that sound good to you, or does it sound frightening?

The transhuman movement has the goal of defeating death and circumventing God’s plan of redemption of mankind.  It is the goal of Satan to make men “as gods” and destroy what God has put in place for the redemption of man. Satan has deceived mankind in becoming as gods by transforming their own image for their own delight and not that of God’s.

The question we need to ask ourselves is, are we willing to circumvent the plan of salvation for enteral life?  If we become no more than a machine have we sacrificed our humanity to become something less than human?

As you can see, things get complicated quickly when discussing transhumanist ideas — and life extension and augmented intelligence and strength are just the tip of the iceberg! This philosophical and ethical complexity stems from the fact that transhumanism is all about fusing humans with technology — and technology is advancing, improving, and breaking new ground quickly. Humans have always used technology, of course — our ability to use tools and grasp concepts such as science and physics are what set us apart from other animals — but never has society been so intrinsically linked and underpinned by it. As we have seen in just the last few years, with the advent of the smartphone and pervasive high-speed mobile networks, only a handful of new technologies now have the power to completely change how we interact with the world and people around us.

Humans, on the other hand, and the civilizations that they build, move relatively slowly. Up until the last century or so, we doubled the human lifespan, but neurology and physiology were impenetrable black boxes. In just the last 100 years, we’ve doubled our lifespan again, created bionic eyes and powered exoskeletons, begun to understand how the human brain works and started to make serious headway with boosting intellectual and physical prowess. We’ve already mentioned how tDCS is being used to boost cranial capacity, and as we’ve seen in recent years, sportspeople have shown the efficacy of physical doping.

 Do you think that your grandparents weren’t wigged out by the first television sets? Before it garnered the name “television,” one of its inventors gave it the rather spooky name of “distant electric vision.” Can you imagine the wariness in which passengers approached the first steam trains? Vast mechanical beasts that could pull hundreds of tons and moved far faster than the humble — but state-of-the-art — horse and carriage.

Looking at the obvious benefits of no more disease, eternal life, superhuman strength, and an unbelievable IQ are some dangers and ethical pitfalls of human enhancement

In the case of eternal life, if every human on Earth suddenly stopped dying, where would that put humans down the road with population limitations. Unless we ended giving birth to babies, of course, but that merely rips open another can of worms: Without birth and death, would society and humanity continue to grow, or would it stagnate, suffocated by the accumulated ego of intellectuals and demagogues who just will not die? Likewise, if only the rich have access to intelligence- and strength-boosting drugs and technologies, what would happen to society? Should everyone have the right to boost their intellect? Would society still operate smoothly?  Where does God fit into all this?  Will the soul of man no longer exist?  Will humanity no longer be human?

I am sure there are Christians who will say that the LORD will take them out of this corrupt and polluted world before this can happen.  What happens if by 2030 the technology is available to make this a reality and you are still here?  As Christians, we need to be addressing the issue of the day and stop putting our heads in the sand and say this will not happen in my time.

The spiritual welfare of your children and grandchildren are at stake.  As Christians, we need to address this issue and tell the world that this is another scheme of Satan to destroy humanity.

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