All our lives we have been exhorted to follow the science, especially when it came to observations that formed the theory of evolution about 165 years ago: apparently, over the course of billions of years, a “primordial soup” developed to become living, breathing, thinking human beings. With this “science,” there is a lot of conjecture about the past, but no provision for a future.
Perhaps “living on” through an improved genetic legacy to future generations satisfied evolutionists for some time after 1859, but the desire to extend one’s life beyond a normal lifespan has developed since.
To accommodate the quest for immortality, “science” has been intervening with concepts and methods to more quickly change one’s being than Darwin’s On the Origin of Species provided for.
Humanity has been working tirelessly to attain immortality in our present state, despite an observation made in an article by Adam Leith Gollner that appeared in Forbes about 11 years ago:
“Physical immortality is a seductive conceit and its allure gains in luster with each new technological breakthrough. Despite the fact that there are no documented examples of anything immortal in nature, there’s an increasing sense that science will soon figure out how to end mortality altogether.”
Certain key ideas embraced by Western Civilization over the past 165 years have brought us to the following beliefs:
- Theoretical and extrapolated science accounts for human existence.
- Human beings can be whatever they believe they are.
- Humanity can attain immortality in its current form.
“Evolutionary” Thinking has developed into the modern “Trans” Trends. Let’s take a brief survey of these progressive ideas and analyze how they have been presented to our Western societies.
Generations of education in this “science-based” theory from the grade school level through university has made evolutionary thinking ubiquitous in just about every area of modern life. The theory of evolution developed as so:
- Darwin started with organisms evolving over generations through the inheritance of physical or behavioral traits.
- Those traits that enable organisms to adapt to their environments will help them survive and have more offspring, which will inherit those traits.
- The traits that enable species to survive and reproduce will become more frequent in the population and the population will change or evolve.
- Given enough time and accumulated changes, natural selection of these traits can create entirely new species, a process known as “macroevolution”.
The changed traits that occur through time are expressed in science as “mutations” that will eventually make an organism into a new, stronger, faster, efficient, better looking and more intelligent species.
In our modern age, however, “eventually” does not seem acceptable to effect the change to transform humans into the higher evolved species we believe we should be. Hence the “Trans” trend – transvestitism, transgenderism, transhumanism.
The “Trans” movement in our Western societies have, as their basis, a “new” and more rapidly-developed evolution – becoming whatever we wish as fast as we please.
There was a time when a human being who was dissatisfied with how they were born (male or female – the only two gender options we had for millennia), would transition to what they wished to be through altering their appearance, the way they dress, and the way they behave, as examples.
Transvestites (otherwise called “drag queens,” or “cross-dressers”) are certainly still around and have become very high-profile: they appear on their own themed television shows, at children’s “story hours” at schools and are present at many social events in the West.
Though the flaunting of their abnormal behaviour is believed by many to be psychologically harmful to young minds, transvestitism is more “pretend” than real for biological reasons that don’t require much explanation.
The concept of transvestitism, however, has evolved into another “trans” trend: transgenderism. In an article by Wesley J. Smith published in National Review on April 27, 2023, we find a summary of what is going on in our nations today:
“A person’s subjective perception of ‘gender’ — which isn’t a biological but sociological concept — is all that really counts. Thus, ludicrously oxymoronic phrases that only a few years ago would have been scorned derisively — such as ‘men giving birth’ and ‘women with [male parts]’ — are now the preferred nomenclature within our most important social institutions — from medical journals to K-12 schools, universities, the media, and other organs of popular and political culture.
“Moreover, gender ideologists insist that transitioning is a fundamental right to which all of society must pay obeisance.
“Thus, using ‘dead names’ or ‘mis-pronouncing’ a transgendered person is a firing offense and deemed akin to violence by gender ideologues.
“Girls and women are now forced to compete against biological males who claim to be female in sports, and even to share intimate spaces such as gym showers and restrooms.
“How extreme has this ideological zealotry become? Children’s bodies are being mutilated with mastectomies, facial reconstructions, and potentially harmful hormone ‘therapies’ that seek to prevent normal puberty.“
But even more dastardly than transgenderism is how it works to another recent “trans” phenomenon – Transhumanism.
Continuing with Mr. Smith’s article in National Review:
“The first wave of transhumanist ideology has already shaken society to its core with the explosive growth of and support for transgenderism.
“Gender ideology — of which transgenderism is merely one part — is a baldly transhumanist belief system that claims the sex in which one is born is not innate, and, indeed, irrelevant to one’s true self.”
Helen Barrat, with the Christian Medical Fellowship in London, England, captures the concept in her article entitled Transhumanism:
“The philosophy underlying transhumanism seeks to make humanity grow beyond its present state to what is perceived to be its full potential. It claims that we no longer need to be bound by biological evolution, but that by harnessing technology we can choose our own path of development.
“For transhumanists, the era of ‘autoevolution’ has begun and the responsibility for human development is now ours alone; we can choose what we want to become and how we want to become it.
“Transhumanism seeks to transcend all limits to life, intelligence, freedom, knowledge and happiness. In particular it considers that science, technology and reason must be employed to abolish the greatest evil of all, death…
“…[this may be achieved with] technology, which recognises no limits to human technical possibilities – technology that is used to seize God’s rightful place as creator, and to overturn creation order.”
The fact is, transhumanists are theorizing well beyond the science available to them, but there is impressive science involved. In the last couple of decades, we have seen the possibilities of such technologies as:
- Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs)
- Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)
- Nanotechnology
- Robotic Prosthetics and Exoskeletons
- Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality (VR & AR)
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
In an article entitled Human Enhancement – The Scientific and Ethical Dimensions of Striving for Perfection by PEW Research in July, 2016, is this description on how technology is expected to make super-humans or conscious machines:
“…thanks to recent scientific developments in areas such as biotechnology, information technology and nanotechnology, humanity may be on the cusp of an enhancement revolution. In the next two or three decades, people may have the option to change themselves and their children in ways that, up to now, have existed largely in the minds of science fiction writers and creators of comic book superheroes.
“Both advocates for and opponents of human enhancement spin a number of possible scenarios. Some talk about what might be called ‘humanity plus’ – people who are still recognizably human, but much smarter, stronger and healthier.
“Others speak of ‘post-humanity,’ and predict that dramatic advances in genetic engineering and machine technology may ultimately allow people to become conscious machines – not recognizably human, at least on the outside.”
Whether its finding ways to slow or stop aging, merging man and computers, transforming into conscious machines, transferring existence to another dimension, the goal is to extend life as long as possible and even forever. Immortality is the ultimate goal: we are made to want eternity, but how we get there is important.
Unfortunately for “immortalists,” as they are called, we will not naturally or artificially evolve to become immortal. And what about some of the main ways in which we die: violence (war, crime), accident (incidental or risk oriented), environment (natural or created disasters)? Do they just disappear when we reach an artificial state of immortality?
God created man in a mortal state, every human being has an appointment with death and only God can grant immortality after that. According to the narrative at the very start of the Holy Bible, mankind was created to appear in the form and likeness of God with the purpose of being immortal.
God, in casting the first man and woman from their first residence, was compelled to bar their way from re-entering and said this in Genesis 3:22:
“Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever…”
Unfortunate for all of us since, but it is within God’s plan to bring immortality to humans, as Jesus Christ expressed in John 3:15-16:
“…that whoever believes in Him, should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
When God’s plan for humanity is fulfilled, the only form of life that exists will be immortal because nothing – not flesh, not machines, or a combination of those, will exist; nothing of the physical realm, no “cloud” of stored information, no technology of past ages will survive; and death, the last enemy will be abolished.
