Volume 50 | Number 1 | January—March 2022

Inglés Español

The End Times: The Growing Powers of Transhumanism


By Dr. H. T. Spence

Having entered the year 2022, we continue to witness draconian political powers ever escalating in America and throughout the world. Since the entrance into a new millennium, man has politically and ideologically endeavored to willfully leave a world of sanity and logic and enter a newly self-created world of illogical thought. The present growing leadership of America is not only forcefully destroying our nation (birthed and established by sane, sound, sensible, God-fearing men) but also willfully erasing the very memory of those former better days. History is being intentionally rewritten, either by altering historical facts of former days or by completely erasing the memory of that history itself. In turn, the very honorable symbols portraying history are defaced in shame or aggressively torn down in disdain; even the visual and audio remembrances are being wiped away from public society. Truly the New World Order is set to obliterate every known vestige of honor from the past; it is bent on destroying every sacred memory that could become a conscience attacking anything that they are determined to do in the present. In such wreckage of history, we have entered a “post-”era that is now controlling and dominating the earth ideologically, philosophically, politically, economically, religiously—all that comprises humanity.

Political correctness made its tyrannical debut in the days of Obama (although we experienced somewhat a reprieve from its choking oppressiveness in the days of President Trump). Today, paradigm shifts are redefining words and ideologies, escalating tensions to intimidate, manipulate, and discard the past. What is now the new definition of gender, sexuality, marriage and even the concept of human? Can a person of a certain genetically determined gender decide to change that gender and mandate personal identification by other pronouns and terminology? Everywhere mankind is being forced to embrace antithetical perspectives of reality with a satanic hope of redefining the world and the humanity of this world.

The “Post-” Generation and Posthuman

These dark, pervasive powers of the End Time have birthed a multitude of radical changes to historic paradigms that define standards or templates of human living. These changes are called paradigm shifts. In the liberal public arena, the days of Obama’s presidency witnessed the rise of the prefix post- applied to established terms. Post America spoke of the decline and overthrow of America as a superpower. Post Constitution spoke of the redefining and overthrow of the Constitution of the United States in pursuit of the global agenda of the Deep State. Post Modernism pursued the overthrow of reason with the senility of existential thinking forced upon man. Post Truth proposed the overthrow of all past truths in our society in order to create a new replacement truth. Post Capitalism anticipated the overthrow of economic capitalism in the desire to replace it with a new socialism and communism.

As more “post-“ terms arise in our contemporary, we seem to be arriving at the final frontier of the “post-” era: posthuman. Men are seeking to rethink and redefine what it means to be human; men are now searching for a reality they imagine to be on the other side of humanity: posthumanism. There is a growing excitement, almost a giddiness, that is taking over the inner circle of science and technology. These men believe we have crossed a threshold at a most critical hour in history and have entered a totally new concept of being “human.”

Additionally, we are witnessing the rise of another prefix trans-; it is in a variety of contexts including transgender, transsexual. However, we are now seeing the term transhuman arising in the public arena. Our historic perspective of “human” has entered a transitional season in the so-called “evolutionary scope of things” that leading thinkers are calling transhuman. Transhumanism is believed to eventually lead mankind into a posthuman era of evolution. How will society fully embrace this new evolutionary concept of humanity? Their convoluted reasoning is to force mankind through the corridor of transhumanism. This passion and public saturation of transhumanism will bridge the evolutionary gap to usher us into a posthuman reality.

The evolutionists believe the species of man has been in an evolutionary “rut” for tens of thousands of years; mankind has remained the same in the understanding of what it means to be a human. They now believe man has entered such advanced knowledge in science and technology that he may be in a position to jump-start a transitional evolutionary leap toward another species of the human. Man has become so advanced that perhaps he is now ready to enter the driver’s seat and take charge of the process of evolution that basically has been running merely by chance and randomness for millions of years. Man has evolved to believe that he can climb out of this evolutionary rut of sameness. This urgency, they claim, is evidenced by the rapid decline man is experiencing through weakness and disease. It is now time to “accelerate” the evolutionary process with the hope to bring man into another dimension of existence called posthuman.

What has precipitated this surge of desperation for man to get out of what he is? Transhumanists dislike what humanity presently is, its weaknesses, its flaws, its sicknesses, and its limitations. With advancements in science and technology, especially in artificial intelligence, it is time to create a new species of comparatively superhuman proportion and perspective. To the transhumanist this is not just a plausible goal; it is a goal within his reach. Thus, society now finds itself caught without hope and without God in the confusion of transhumanism.

The Transition Within Transhumanism

This radical atheistic view of transhumanism has forced man into an equally radical paradigm shift of worldviews. Modern philosophies in science and technology are ushering man toward reconsidering the very purpose of the existence of things. Although God created man a limited creature possessing some natural weaknesses, He did create him to be a perfect creature. All other weaknesses that have come to mankind over the centuries are the result of the fall of man into sin back in the Garden of Eden. The millennia of human history have proved all aspects of man continue to decline. The Second Law of Thermodynamics (regarding increased entropy) states things over time become more disordered rather than more ordered (as the evolutionist declares). This entropy is equally a part of fallen man. Even the prophecy of Daniel 2 declares that humanity’s government will continue to get worse, not better. Yet man still believes that the acceleration of his epistemology is the proof that he is capable of controlling his sinful problems and alleviating all his weaknesses.

God made man from the dust of the earth to ever show man that he is weak; this continual consciousness should cause him to turn to God in his weaknesses. But man wants to prove to God that he does not need Him; through his own advancement he will accomplish the task of eliminating all frailties of mankind. This lofty goal not only includes eliminating physical weaknesses, disease, and sickness, but also the proclivity of emotional weaknesses in anger, hostility, and sadness. But perhaps the greatest desire of the transhumanist is to eliminate the final enemies of aging and death.

Contemporary man hypothesizes his evolutionary track has been meandering for millions of years with little progress over the last ten thousand years. Therefore, man must now transcend into what he believes is the next evolutionary phase of humanity. In his thinking, if evolution has lifted the first primal life form up to the complexity of the species of man, then it stands to reason that humanity, somewhere out in the future, will evolve into a more complex species. Prideful man is impatient to wait millions of years for this hope. The transhumanists believe it is possible to interfere into these powers of evolution and manipulate them, thus producing a human species far beyond anything that evolving nature could ever produce. They imagine a mankind with an accelerated evolution toward immunity from all physical and mental diseases and abounding in knowledge and capabilities toward immortality! Their flirtations with cyborg (a cybernetic organism, i.e., a bionic man or woman) has given them confidence to pursue a new species of man, perhaps reachable within the next few years.

Transhumanism has become a cultural and intellectual movement that believes “we can, and should, improve the human condition through the use of advanced technologies.” One of the obvious motivations for such a possibility is the pursuit of human immortality. Through genetic engineering, nanotechnology, cloning, and other emerging technologies, man is convinced that eternal life may soon be possible. This hope is augmented by massive amounts of money poured into such dreams by billionaires and their major global corporations. They are firmly committed to a new humanity; they want it now!

There are myriads of sources now on the internet that provide various definitions of transhumanism. Max More, a graduate of Oxford University and noted philosopher and futurist, speaks much of the emerging technologies of our contemporary. He defines transhumanism thus:

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 by means of science and technology, guided by life-promoting principles and values.

Transhumanists advocate for any technologies that heavily promote the physical, intellectual, and psychological capabilities beyond what humans are naturally capable of. The result is their longed-for transhuman. The United States military has already been experimenting with “super” human technologies such as Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (TDCS). This area of technology speeds up reaction times and learning speeds by “running a very weak electric current through the brain.” This technology has been used by our military to train snipers. Transhumanists have also become obsessed with the hope of uploading computers into the human brain.

Science Fiction and the Hope of Reality

One of the matrixes of inspiration to transhumanism has been the “science fiction” written over the many decades if not centuries. The superhuman powers of fictional stories like Superman and The Incredible Hulk have motivated modern sciences and technologies. The ongoing series of Star Trek introduced a multitude of humanoids with a variety of superhuman powers. Superman became one of the early “sci-fi” stories of a superhuman with multifaceted powers. The story tells of a baby being sent in an intergalactic spaceship from the planet Krypton (which was being destroyed by a natural catastrophe) to the planet Earth. The spaceship landed in a field; the child was found by a farmer and his wife, who became his foster parents and named him Clark Kent. Being on earth greatly enhanced his natural powers to a superhuman proportion.

The Incredible Hulk presented the fictitious story of Dr. Bruce Banner who was part of an experiment claiming to make humans immune to gamma radiation. Exposure to the radiation caused Dr. Banner to transform into the character that would be known as the Hulk. His transformations took place whenever his heart rate rose above 200 beats per minute. At his first transformation into the Hulk, he destroyed the laboratory, killing several people. The story follows his superhuman life as a fugitive from the government. From the 1930s to the present sci-fi world, there has been a plethora of superheroes with diversities of superhuman strength who confront enemies of superhuman strength.

One of the prominent films that drew from the Marvel Comics was The Amazing Spiderman (2012). This adaptation depicted the fictional story of Curtis Connors, a former scientist at Oscorp Industries. He and his colleague Richard Parker were working on a lizard serum. After Parker’s death, Connors befriends Parker’s son, Peter (Spiderman). Connors, whose arm was deformed, injects himself with serum from a lizard with the hope of rejuvenating his arm. Instead, the serum turns him into a lizard. The depiction of Connors becoming the arch-enemy Lizard is presented as science gone awry. Woven into the story is the transhuman thinking of Dr. Connors that his becoming a lizard with great powers is a life “better” than what he had before. Thus, in the movie he disowns his previous humanity. He expresses his thoughts about this to Peter:

I spent my life as a scientist trying to create a world without weakness, without outcasts. I sought to create a stronger human being, but there’s no such thing. Human beings are weak, pathetic, feeble-minded creatures. Why be a human at all when we can be so much more? Faster, stronger, smarter. This is my gift to you.

Such a statement made in this movie truly reveals the full essence of the emerging Transhumanist movement. Is this one of the many precursors ideologically presented in the entertainment world to condition us to be willing to cast off the species of humanity and lay hold of our destiny in the creation of a faster, stronger, smarter species? The transhumanists call such a creature posthuman. But the movie suggests we do not know what the posthuman world and its species will finally become.

Another transhumanist website reveals more of the thoughts surrounding the movement:

Many transhumanists wish to follow life paths which would, sooner or later, require growing into posthuman persons: they yearn to reach intellectual heights as far above any current human genius as humans are above other primates; to be resistant to disease and impervious to aging; to have unlimited youth and vigor; to exercise control over their own desires, moods, and mental states; to be able to avoid feeling tired, hateful, or irritated about petty things; to have an increased capacity for pleasure, love, artistic appreciation, and serenity; to experience novel states of consciousness that current human brains cannot access.

Transhumanism literally receives tens of billions of dollars annually from the global wealthy financiers and many of the top Forbes 500 corporations. A simple summary of its mission statement is that it seeks to utilize technology to facilitate the evolution of a human into a transhuman and into a posthuman. As previously observed, a transhuman is the transitional species between a human and a posthuman.

What Is a Human?

Transhumanism unashamedly declares itself a bold movement of atheism, with a hatred for the very concept of a Supreme Being higher than man. It is important to ask what it means to be human. Science distinguishes human by the analysis of DNA. From the Christian worldview we must go beyond mere DNA analysis. A human was created by a fiat act of God on the sixth day of the creation week, with the Creator God forming the body from the dust of the adhamah ground (Gen. 2:7), breathing into this creature the “breaths” of life (both his natural and spiritual lives). God made this singular creature in His image and likeness, whom He called both Ish and Adhama. And God formed and fashioned the woman from one of the twenty-four ribs of man, including the flesh surrounding that rib. Of all the natures God created, the human nature was more complex than any other. Human nature included personality, the reality of possessing intellect, will, sensitivity (emotions), and consciousness of self. All four aspects of personality were in the soul of the man. God made man for Himself, to know communion and fellowship with his Creator. Contemporary society does not believe that a supreme, sovereign God created this universe, this world, and the human race.

Evolution supposes that through a great quantity of time, a great undefined force, and a chance event, man evolved from a single-cell protoplasm (eventually through an ape) to finally arrive at humanity. Following their line of thought, can we not also ask the question at what point does this evolutionary process take us from human to no longer being human: posthuman?

The Potential Travesty of Transhumanism and Posthuman

When God first made the earth, He made it for the residence of a perfect creature, man. When man fell into sin, God had to adjust the earth to accommodate for fallen man. If the earth had remained in its utopian perfection with fallen man, he would have experienced no suffering, no sorrow, no trials, no troubles, or afflictions to draw man back to God for help, comfort, and salvation. Even death must also become a part of the existence of fallen man. For if every man in history had lived eternally in his fallen, sinful state, there would have eventually been an overwhelming problem of over-population. It has taken from the post-Flood days of Noah to the year 1900 for the population of the world to reach one billion. By 1960, it grew to two billion assisted by advances in science and medicine. World population has accelerated to nearly nine billion as of 2022. Ironically, the very ones who are strongly supporting the transhumanist hope of immortality are the very ones who are the strongest for abortion. Who would be the controller of life if man was able to live eternally in his sin? What would the world be like if Adolf Hitler had lived forever? If there were no deaths, would contemporary man mandate a childless society out of necessity to diminish the population problem of the earth? God knew that man in a fallen state must know the cycle of life and death.

If the elite of society were the only ones to receive assistance with enhancing drugs for a super brain, and technology was limited to that elite making the superhuman ones to live and rule over the world, who would be the one to decide who would be the Einsteins of the world and those of imbecility? If these choices would happen through the present leadership of our country, who would be the controlling ones forever and who would be the controlled ones forever?

There is still the one factor that paralyzes everything that man does. It is that which man himself chose to be an integral part of himself: the destructive principle of sin! And no matter what man does to better himself, even in altering his DNA or mechanically restructuring his body or super-energizing his brain, man will always be a creature of sin, pride, and destruction ever alienated from his Creator. And the longer man lives, the deeper the propensity of sin becomes in him and throughout humanity. This sin principle cannot be removed from man, no matter how he may be able to alter his mind and body; man will never evolve from the sin principle.

Conclusion

Only the death of the Son of God on the cross some two thousand years ago can bring the hope of eternal life to fallen man. Only Jesus Christ can bring the hope of man one day receiving a glorified body fashioned like unto the Son of God’s glorified body that will exist forever. Our only hope for the future is found in God’s Son to reconcile us unto God. Man without God is nothing, but God without man is still God. As the high archangel, Lucifer (fallen to become Satan, the Devil) has tried to convince man that he too can become like God (Gen. 3:5). Yet the Bible is very clear that the only true avenue through which man can become like God is the appointed way in which God has declared for such a miracle to be possible—through His Son, Jesus Christ. The only way that man can become like God is through the submissiveness of heart and life to God through Christ, in godliness, or God-likeness. And such likeness must include righteousness and true holiness. This is the only way that man will ever become like God, through God Himself. Lucifer chose through the power of his pride and ego to attempt to become like God with a hopeful overthrow of God and exaltation of Himself above God (Isa. 14:12–17). But he was cast out of heaven and became the archenemy of God. Man through Christ has been given the potential of becoming like God through the miracle of the New Birth in Christ, and God dwelling in the believer, and the believer in God. Any other attempt will lead to destruction of man—eternally.

In our next article we must view the ideologies of the transhumanists and what they hope to gain through their theories.