Abstract
The transhumanist (H+) train has pulled out of the station and is now racing toward its destination: technoutopia. Via GNR--Genetics, Nanotechnology, and Robotics--the H+ engineer is guiding us toward posthumanity where our descendents will enjoy superintelligence in digital, disembodied, and immortal form. How far will the Christian want to ride this train? I recommend that the Christian board the H+ train and ride the rails of technological progress as far as improved medical therapies, increased longevity, advanced robotics, and other enhancements in human well-being and flourishing. But, I further recommend disembarking before the unrealistic and even undesirable posthuman utopia which would amount to the end of the line for humanity.
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Notes
- 1.
Bill Joy, “Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us,” Wired (April 2000); https://www.wired.com/2000/04/joy-2/ (accessed 11/28/2016).
- 2.
Michael Latorra, “What is Buddhist Transhumanism?” Theology and Science 13:2 (2015) 219–229, at 219.
- 3.
Lincoln Cannon, “What is Mormon Transhumanism?” Theology and Science 13:2 (2015) 202–218, at 212. An Orthodox Christian departs from the Mormon eschatology by denying multiple gods in favor of the one Trinitarian God. “Deification does not transform us into independent deities but rather frees us from our pretensions to autonomy so that we may participate in the blessed, communal life of the triune God.” Ian Curran, “Becoming godlike? The Incarnation and the Challenge of Transhumanism,” Christian Century 134:24 (November 22, 2017) 22–25, at 25.
- 4.
James Hughes, “Transhumanism and Unitarian Universalism: Beginning the Dialogue,” http://changesurfer.com/Bud/UUTrans.html (accessed 9/6/2018).
- 5.
Nick Bostrom, “Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant,” Journal of Medical Ethics, 31:5 (2005) 273–277; https://nickbostrom.com/fable/dragon.html (accessed 9/6/2018).
- 6.
Ronald Cole-Turner, “Introduction,” Christian Perspectives on Transhumanism and the Church: Chips in the Brain, Immortality, and the World of Tomorrow, eds., Steve Donaldson and Ronald Cole-Turner (New York: Palgrave, 2018) 1–16, at 5.
- 7.
https://www.christiantranshumanism.org/ (accessed9/6/2018).
- 8.
https://www.christiantranshumanism.org/ (accessed9/6/2018).
- 9.
Ronald Cole-Turner, “Going beyond the Human: Christians and Other Transhumanists,” Theology and Science 15:2 (2015) 150–161, at 150.
- 10.
Edward O. Wilson, The Meaning of Human Existence (London: W.W. Norton, 2014) 14.
- 11.
Natasha Vita-More, Transhumanism: What is it? (published by author, 2018) 31.
- 12.
“Transhumanist Declaration,” http://humanityplus.org/philosophy/transhumanist-declaration/ (accessed 10/7/2015).
- 13.
Ibid.
- 14.
Simon Young, Designer Evolution: A Transhumanist Manifesto (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2006) 32, italics in original. One the one hand, we must grant that within the Christian tradition we have many examples of disembodied salvation not unlike the H+ vision. According to St. Symeon (949–1022 AD), “the whole creation, after it will be renewed and become spiritual, will become a dwelling which is immaterial, incorruptible, unchanging, and eternal. The heaven will become incomparably more brilliant and bright than it appears now; it will become completely new. The earth will receive a new, unutterable beauty, being clothed in many-formed, unfading flowers, bright and spiritual. The sun will shine seven times more powerfully than now, and the whole world will become more perfect than any word can describe.” St. Symeon the New Theoloogian, The First-Created Man, tr. by Fr. Seraphim Rose (Platina CA: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1979) 104. On the other hand, we have within the Christian tradition a strong affirmation of embodiment embraced by resurrection. “We should be deploying the Christian belief in the resurrection of the body against these anti-human technological aspirations, just as the Fathers did against Platonic dualism.” Richard Bauckham, The Bible and Ecology (Waco TX: Baylor University Press, 2010) 149.
- 15.
John Wesley, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection (London: Epworth Press, 1952) 30.
- 16.
Ibid., 52.
- 17.
The current debate over virtue enhancement via genetic technology has been prompted by Mark Walker, “Enhancing Genetic Virtue: A Project for 21st Century Humanity,” Politics and the Life Sciences 28:292009) 27–47. Walker expanded the scope by including deification in “Genetic Engineering, Virtue-First Enhancement, and Deification in Neo-Irenaean Theodicy,” Theology and Science 16:3 (2018) 251–272. “The sheer complexity of the genome...makes the transhumanist hopes for genetic enhancement unlikely to be achieved in practice.” Denis Alexander, Genes, Determinism and God (Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press, 2017) 294.
- 18.
Alison Benders, “Genetic Moral Enhancement? Yes. Holiness? No.” Theology and Science 16:3 (2018) 308–319, at 308.
- 19.
Ibid., 316.
- 20.
Braden Molhoek, “Raising the Virtuous Bar: The Underlying Issues of Genetic Moral Enhancement,” Theology and Science 16:3 (2018) 279–287, at 279
- 21.
Lisa Fullam, “Genetically Engineered Traits versus Virtuous Living,” Theology and Science 16:3 (2018) 319–329, at 319. Geneticist and theologian Celia Deane-Drummond doubts the very capacity to engineer future evolution. Hyperhumanism is the belief that humanity is in control of its own history and its own evolutionary future. “It would be a mark of intense hubris marked with political overtones of eugenics to expect that humans can control their own evolution.” Celia Deane-Drummond, Christ and Evolution (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2009) 285.
- 22.
Alan Weissenbacher, “Defending Cognitive Liberty in an Age of Moral Engineering,” Theology and Science 16:3 (2018) 288–300, at 297.
- 23.
Panayiotis Nellas, Deification in Christ: the Nature of the Human Person, tr., Norman Russell (Crestwood NY: St. Vladimir Seminary Press, 1997) 39.
- 24.
Gayle E. Woloschak, “Can We Genetically Engineer Virtue and Deification?” Theology and Science 16:3 (2018) 300–307, at 306.
- 25.
Ian Curran, “Becoming godlike? The Incarnation and the Challenge of Transhumanism,” Christian Century 134:24 (November 22, 2017) 22–25, at 25.
- 26.
Brian Alexander, Rapture: How Biotech Became the New Religion (New York: Basic Books, 2003) 51.
- 27.
Hava Tirosch-Samuelson, “In Pursuit of Perfection: The Misguided Transhumanist vision,” Theology and Science 16:2 (2018) 200–223, at 207.
- 28.
Redemption is the final act of creation. Instead of trading in the Old Adam for the New Christ, the New Christ becomes the goal toward all humanity since Adam has been directed. “The image of the coming Reign expresses not at all the regret for a lost golden age, but the expectation of a perfection the like of which will not have been seen before.” Paul Ricoeur, The Symbolism of Evil, tr. Emerson Buchanan (Boston: Beacon Press, 1969) 265.
- 29.
Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, 4 Volumes (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1936–1962) III/2: §47: 512.
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Peters, T. (2019). Boarding the Transhumanist Train: How Far Should the Christian Ride?. In: Lee, N. (eds) The Transhumanism Handbook. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16920-6_62
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