By Deanna Huff, Ph.D., Th.M. | October 8, 2023
Why do we desire to overcome death and strive for the eternal? The Ecclesiastes author attests that God has set eternity in our hearts (Eccl 3:11). God has made man distinct with knowledge, sensing that there is something more than just the here and now. For years, scientists have been developing medical advancements to repair the body and extend life. On a daily basis, marketers are offering to erase your wrinkles and improve your living with one superpower nutrient. Some of these suggestions could be beneficial, but the point is that most are seeking to repair the failing body. But some in the movement of transhumanism are seeking to advance humanity into a new era, striving to merge technology with bodies to make them stronger, and faster, and to live longer. Some transhumanists aim at overcoming death. Yuval Harari claims, “an increasing minority of scientists and thinkers consequently speak more openly these days, and state that the flagship enterprise of modern science is to defeat death and grant humans eternal life.”[1] Transhumanism seeks to improve human intelligence, physical strength, and the five senses by technological means.”[2] Christianity claims there will be restoration and eternal life for Christians because Christ has already overcome death. Some Transhumanists have an ache for the eternal to overcome death, but Christianity offers a better answer for eternal restoration than technology.
People desire to make life better for many who have been injured, and their desire is to repair the body. Some people are born with debilitated bodies, some are sick, and others live with declining bodies. With artificial intelligence (AI), there are new possibilities for repair. We are observing some great discoveries, from repairing hearing loss with cochlear implants to heart patients utilizing AI in pacemakers. The story of baby Aida stirs up joy for most who watched her hear for the first time.[3] More recent surgeries use implants to help paralyzed people attain arm and leg movement.[4] These are things to celebrate.
For many people, future innovations in technology will offer more than repair to the body; it will offer enhancements for a better life. Forbes recently shared new technology for people in the near future. Enhancements like “the arrival of contact lenses that can take pictures or video, universal language translator earbuds that allow us to communicate anywhere in the world. We will also see increased use of implants like subdermal RFID chips that allow users to access things with the wave of a hand. However, the most powerful body augmentation will come from biological augmentation as a result of increased insight into our genomes, and powerful CRISPR gene-editing technology may one day give us the ability to eliminate all heritable diseases.”[5] Many of these things could be beneficial to humanity, but with every new innovation, there are unintended consequences. People have in their hearts to prolong life, but is it really possible to enhance bodies and extend life to reach an eternal state? Is it possible to eliminate suffering, disease, and death through technology, or does Christ offer a better way to eternity?
It is not wrong to do good and ethical things to make the world a better place. We want to save lives and help people reach their potential. But ultimately, technology will continually fail at fully restoring humanity and developing eternal life. Why will it fail? Because the world is bent. What is it that bent the world? Genesis 3 records that something drastic happened to change the world. John Lennox writes, “This momentous event, called the Fall, happened when human beings begin to think of themselves as more than an image of God and desire to be a god: ‘you will be like God’.”[6] Death entered the world due to Adam and Eve disobeying God (Rom 5:12). However, God had a plan to redeem and restore humanity through Christ Jesus.
Many people were following Jesus to receive His miraculous healing. Who would not want to be healed or repaired if the possibility was laid before them? But Jesus came to recover more than the physical, even though He cared for the immediate physical impairments. John 9 describes the story of a blind man whom Jesus heals. But the report reveals more than Jesus repairing the body; it testifies to Jesus’ miraculous work as God in the flesh. God has the power to heal and restore His people beyond this world. God relentlessly pursues people because of His deep love for humanity. But the world is tarnished by sin, and although the sciences are wonderful in extending life today, it will fail at some point.
God is eternally healing through the cross, not technology. Death is the result of Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden, yet Christ paid for that sin on the cross. After three days, He rose, and He conquered death. All who put their faith and hope in Him have the sure hope of their own bodily resurrection one day. Lennox states, “Christians need to think hard about the implications of these fundamental doctrines of the resurrection and return of Christ for AI and the race to create Homo Deus (man-god). For if the Christian teaching is true, the race to conquer death as a technical problem will prove to be ultimately futile, although the technology developed along the way may help ease old age and solve many outstanding medical problems. However, humans were not made to live indefinitely on this planet”.[7] The desire to live forever in health and happiness is a signpost pointing us to the one who overcame death. John the apostle wrote, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16).” The feeling of eternity in our hearts is true; we were made for so much more, and that is found in Christ. One day, Christ will return and receive Christians to give a new body to reunite with our souls that will live with Him in eternity. The ache for eternity will be healed in Christ.
About the Author
Deanna Huff, Ph.D.: Associate Vice President of Spiritual Care and Outreach, Assistant Editor, Publisher, and Contributor
She has been teaching and training for the last twenty years equipping people to know their Christian faith and share it with others. Deanna has led many seminars for the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, Oklahoma Ladies Retreat, and the State Evangelism Conference. She taught high school students for ten years at Christian Heritage Academy, in Bible, Universal History, Apologetics and Philosophy. Deanna earned a Ph.D. in Theology and Apologetics at Liberty University. She holds a Master of Theology in Apologetics and Worldview from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, a Master of Divinity with Biblical Languages from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Oklahoma.
Deanna is an active member of Capitol Hill Baptist Church where she participates with her pastor in a worldview podcast called The Analysis. She also participates with her daughter in a podcast called but why should i care. She and her husband teach an adult Sunday school class discipling others in the faith.
Notes
[1] Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus (UK: Penguin Random House, 2015), 27.
[2] Jacob Shatzer, Transhumanism and The Image of God (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press Academic, 2019), 40.
[3] Vivian Williams, “Baby Hears for First Time with Cochlear Implants,” News Network Mayo Clinic, November 13, 2018, https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/baby-hears-for-first-time-with-cochlear-implants/.
[4] Nick Watt, “AI, Implants Form ‘Digital Bridge’ to Help Paralyzed Man Move Arms, Hands,” CNN, September 27, 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/27/health/digital-bridge-implants-paralysis/index.html.
[5] Sarwant Singh, “Transhumanism And The Future Of Humanity: 7 Ways The World Will Change By 2030,” Forbes, accessed September 27, 2023, https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarwantsingh/2017/11/20/transhumanism-and-the-future-of-humanity-seven-ways-the-world-will-change-by-2030/.
[6] John C. Lennox, 2084 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2020), 140.
[7] Lennox, 187.
© 2023. Bellator Christi.
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