Transhumanism, Posthumanism, … Antihumanism

We’re continuing the Biblical Anthropology series (full index here) on the topic of technology. And it’s just so important to think about all of this together in context, instead of just thinking superficially about each topic.

Last time we started talking about transhumanism – basically, the desire to build new humans with new abilities using technology – beyond humanity. But let’s back up a little bit before we go on, and check the foundations. If the foundations are biblical, we can go on to think about how these things may apply to things like transhumanism and posthumanism (which we’ll get to shortly).

1. We should help others to alleviate suffering and reach their God-given potential. This fits with the Creation Mandate – “have dominion”.
2. We should recognize that complete salvation comes only from Christ, not from technology. And so – we share the gospel! The Great Commission.
3. We should not use technology to ignore or avoid God’s commandments, or to try to change humanity to become our own gods. Don’t forget about the principle of dependence. And our purpose – the praise of our Creator.

Genetics is another thing that we can play with in this modern world. And today, we can sometimes even correct genetic errors. Thank God! But – we can also begin to redesign humanity. Today, with CRISPR technology, we can edit someone’s genetic makeup, edit in a way that these changes will be passed on to future generations.

Yes, we can correct errors, but also fundamentally redesign humanity for future generations! But – should this really be our great hope, that we can “save” humanity by changing the genetic makeup of future generations? Is it CRISPR or Christ?

Lord willing we’ll go on to talk more about environmentalism in future posts. But we need to understand that many people actually believe that it is humanity itself that is the problem (clarification – not sinful humanity, but the human race itself). And so our ultimate hope is that we can redesign our own species.

Experts from the University of Oxford and New York University published an article in 2012 entitled “Human Engineering and Climate Change”. In the article, they suggest that we make certain genetic changes to the human race. For example, introducing a “meat intolderance”, so that we wouldn’t want to eat meat. Why? Because some believe that fewer cows will mean less harmful climate change.

This could be accomplished by activating the immune system against certain bovine proteins.

Now, whether you agree or disagree that humans should be eating so much beef, here’s another important reality. What this would mean is a few powerful people changing the human race genetically to adjust them to their beliefs. (By the way, this was published in the Ethics, Policy and Environment journal).

Now of course, it’s very unlikely that anything of that kind would ever happen. Why? Because you would have to find a way to convince a huge amount of the world population to take a medical injection. And you would have to have a massive system to get these injections to people all around the world. Impossible.

Sorry – did a little sarcasm creep in there? 😉 Listen carefully, I’m not saying anything for or against any particular injection at the moment! And I’m not commenting on any particular vaccine that may be in the news as you read this. So what’s the point?

We need to understand that many academic and political leaders have their own plans and their own ideologies (doesn’t everyone?). In fact, they write about them, in online articles and in professional journals. And we could cite many more similar examples! And generally speaking – and it’s no surprise – the ideologies of the world don’t tend to be biblical.

And so we need to learn to connect our biblical worldview to what is actually happening in the world. If there is so much sin mixed in even with our own actions, do we really believe that there is no sin involved in the apparently “good” things that governments, scientists and academics do?

Remember, “even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). “…we are not ignorant of his designs” (2 Corinthians 2:11). But we share Paul’s calling. What was it that Jesus said to him? “I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness … delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God” (Acts 26:16-18).

We need to connect the Bible to the real world. This is not a game, or something to only ponder on Sundays.

Transhumanism leads to posthumanism. Many people believe that we need to evolve into something completly new. That is, into a new species.

As Christians, I believe that we are far from our potential, yes. I believe that we should grow and improve.

But as we learned earlier, something happened in history that confirmed the incredible value of humanity. God became man in Jesus Christ.

And remember the imago dei. We are made in God’s image. I don’t believe that we should become something beyond humanity. We should instead grow in Christ, and enjoy all of the eternal potential and incredible value of every human life.

Under Satan’s control, posthumanism sometimes even leads to antihumanism. There are scholars who actually argue that we should gradually eliminate the human race completely. Yes, seriously.

And abortion is a good thing to them in part because it can help reduce the human population. And if an abortion is hard on the woman’s body, and if she has issues with fertility down the road, perfect. Because some people truly hate the human race.

But there are many more sides to this issue. Next time we’ll look at the extension of human life, and even the goal to create new life with artificial intelligence.