Science Fiction and the Rise of
Technocratic Posthumanism
By Dr. Martin Erdmann
Medicine is no longer restricted to
healing. Biotechnology’s popular uses constitute a long list, among them weight
loss, hair growth, birth control, teeth straightening, and sex selection of
children.[1]
Transhumanism takes human enhancement further, in morphing the vision of
perfect man into a human-machine complex properly called “posthuman”. This is
an effort to break every human limitation and redefine personhood. Nick
Bostrom, Oxford philosophy professor and co-founder of the World Transhumanism
Association, writes that posthumans will realize eternal youth and health, gain
complete control over their minds and emotions, and “experience novel states of
consciousness” that present human minds cannot imagine.[2]
Posthumans may even choose to discard their bodies in favor of life as
“information patterns on vast super-fast computer networks”.[3]
Though this sounds bizarre, human-mechanic existence has entered mainstream
movies as a radical potential – and many scientists, doctors, and philosophers
call it attainable within decades. As the President’s Council on Bioethics wrote
in their final report “Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of
Happiness”, bioethics demands a current and public discussion of “what it means
to be a human being and to be active as a human being.”[4] Asked
whether transhumanism tampers with nature, Nick Bostrom replies: “Absolutely,
and it is nothing to be ashamed of. It is often right to tamper with nature.”[5] According
to Bostrom, the attempt to retain “humanness” would be bad. Instead, all what a
posthuman would need to be is to act humanely.[6]
Transhumanists
distinguish the value of human life from biology and creation, to place its
value in human ideals and experiences. This is because values “come from
minds”.[7]
Since a man’s values are but the ones he chooses, opting for a new ethical paradigm
would allow him to redefine all aspects of life.[8] In
its “Transhumanist Declaration”, the World Transhumanism Association affirms
“the feasibility of redesigning the human condition” in areas including “aging,
limitations on human and artificial intellects, unchosen psychology, suffering,
and our confinement to the planet earth.”[9]
These scenarios and many more could all become reality
in this new century with the proper investments in technology, according to a report
issued by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Commerce of the
United States government. Titled “Converging Technologies for Improving Human
Performance: Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information Technology, and
Cognitive Science,” the 405-page report could one day be remembered as a
seminal road map to the future. It calls for more research into the intersection
of these fields. The payoff, the authors claim, isn’t just better bodies and
more effective minds. Progress in these areas of technology also could play a
key role in preventing a societal “catastrophe”. The answer to human brutality
and new forms of lethal weapons, it suggests, is a kind of technology-triggered
unity: “Technological convergence could become the framework for human
convergence.”
The “Converging Technologies” report stems from a
workshop which was convened in Washington, D.C. at the end of year 2001
involving scientists and technology leaders in government, academia, and
private industry. Major themes at the seminar ranged from expanding human
cognition and communication to improving human health and strengthening
national security.
The final report, edited by Mihail Roco, senior
adviser for nanotechnology at the National Science Foundation, and William Sims
Bainbridge, acting director of the Foundation’s Division of Information and
Intelligent Systems, includes papers submitted by various participants as well
as an overview by Roco and Bainbridge. In the overview, the editors argue that
a host of advances can be achieved in the next 20 years alone. Among these are
wearable sensors that send health alerts, much more useful robots, invulnerable
data networks, and direct broadband interfaces between our minds and machines.
The report thinks big when it comes to peering beyond
the next two decades to the rest of the 21st century. Taking
visionaries such as Ray Kurzweil – “The Transcendent Man”[10] –
seriously, it imagines robots so advanced they may deserve political rights,
building surfaces that automatically change shape and color to adjust to the
weather, and the prospect of personality uploads that make death itself
ambiguous.
Merging human consciousness with machines is tied to
another nearly incredible concept: brain-to-brain connections. The report
discusses the possibility of “local groups of linked enhanced individuals” as
well as “a global collective intelligence”.
In his article “US Report foretells of Brave New World,”[11]
Nathan Cochrane explains how this plan of converging technologies would be
instrumental in the unification of mass consciousness:
People
may download their consciousnesses into computers or other bodies even on the
other side of the solar system, or participate in a giant “hive mind“, a
network of intelligences connected through ultra-fast communications networks. “With
knowledge no longer encapsulated in individuals, the distinction between
individuals and the entirety of humanity would blur,” the report says. “Think
Vulcan mind-meld. We would perhaps become more of a hive mind – an enormous,
single, intelligent entity.”[12]
Of course, preparations must be made for humanity’s
comfortable acclimation to this new “hive mind”, as Cochrane reminds us:
comfortable acclimation to this new “hive mind”, as Cochrane reminds us:
The
report says the abilities are within our grasp but will require an intense
public-relations effort to “prepare key organisations and societal activities
for the changes made possible by converging technologies”, and to counter
concern over “ethical, legal, and moral” issues. Education should be overhauled
down to the primary-school level to bridge curriculum gaps between disparate
subject areas.[13]
Roco and Bainbridge suggest further that creating such
a networked society could play a vital role in overcoming today’s social and
political crises. “The 21st century could end in world peace,
universal prosperity, and evolution to a higher level of compassion and
accomplishment,” they write at the end of the report’s first chapter concluding
it with an imaginary vista into what they like to see happening a hundred years
from now: “It is hard to find the right metaphor to see a century into the
future, but it may be that humanity would become like a single, transcendent
nervous system, an interconnected ‘brain’ based in new core pathways of
society.”
a networked society could play a vital role in overcoming today’s social and
political crises. “The 21st century could end in world peace,
universal prosperity, and evolution to a higher level of compassion and
accomplishment,” they write at the end of the report’s first chapter concluding
it with an imaginary vista into what they like to see happening a hundred years
from now: “It is hard to find the right metaphor to see a century into the
future, but it may be that humanity would become like a single, transcendent
nervous system, an interconnected ‘brain’ based in new core pathways of
society.”
Religions for a Galactic Civilization
In his article “Religions for a Galactic Civilization”, sociologist
William Sims Bainbridge encourages the creation of new faith communities in
America, embracing some kind of UFO mythology. He envisions that these newcults will be instrumental in establishing a theocracy, premised upon the
technocratic faith in “progress”. The appealing aspect of Ufology, once it will
have been turned into the new civic religion of America, is, according to
Bainbridge, its political and social expediency of emphasizing unfettered
technological development. Commenting on the supposed centrality of this
scientistic faith to progress, the author states:
William Sims Bainbridge encourages the creation of new faith communities in
America, embracing some kind of UFO mythology. He envisions that these newcults will be instrumental in establishing a theocracy, premised upon the
technocratic faith in “progress”. The appealing aspect of Ufology, once it will
have been turned into the new civic religion of America, is, according to
Bainbridge, its political and social expediency of emphasizing unfettered
technological development. Commenting on the supposed centrality of this
scientistic faith to progress, the author states:
Religion
will continue to influence the course of progress, and creation of a galactic
civilization may depend upon the emergence of a galactic religion capable of
motivating society for the centuries required to accomplish that great project.[14]
Scientistic
cults are the purveyors of this new religious consciousness. They are contributing
an essential religious element to the creation of a new Technate. Bainbridge actually
suggested in the following that the social sciences should augment the efforts
of scientistic cults in the formation of this new theocratic order:
cults are the purveyors of this new religious consciousness. They are contributing
an essential religious element to the creation of a new Technate. Bainbridge actually
suggested in the following that the social sciences should augment the efforts
of scientistic cults in the formation of this new theocratic order:
J.
Gordon Melton’s monumental Encyclopedia
of American Religions reports the histories and doctrines of thirteen
flying saucer cults: Mark-Age, Brotherhood of the Seven Rays, Star Light
Fellowship, Universarium Foundation, Ministry of Universal Wisdom, White Star,
Understanding Incorporated, The Aetherius Society, Solar Light Center, Unarius,
Cosmic Star Temple, Cosmic Circle of Friendship, and Last Day Messengers. These
groups mix together various supernatural notions from many other traditions,
but a common thread is the idea that the Earth is but a small part of a vast
inhabited galaxy. Some, like The Aetherius Society, contend that our planet is
the pawn in an unseen interstellar war, and if such a cult became influential
our society might invest in cosmic defenses which incidentally would develop
the planets as bastions. Others feel we must perfect ourselves in order to
qualify for membership in the Galactic Federation of enlightened species, and
if such a cult became influential our society might invest much in the attempt
to contact the galactic government. These flying saucer cults are all quite
insignificant, but one like them could well rise to prominence in a future
decade. We need several really aggressive, attractive space religions, meeting
the emotional needs of different segments of our population, driving
traditional religions and retrograde cults from the field.[15]
Bainbridge conducted a five-year ethnographic study of
The Process Church. His scientific study was later published under the title of
Satan’s Power. A Deviant Psychotherapy
Cult.[16]
The Process Church originated as a therapy service business called “Compulsions
Analysis”, after it had split off from Scientology. It aimed at expanding
self-awareness for what Bainbridge stresses were normal, intelligent
individuals desirous of moving beyond what their polite middle-class society
offered them or would tolerate. The author believes that their particular
therapeutic system fostered especially intense relations among individuals,
leading to a “social implosion” turning the group in on itself and away from
the larger society. Such profound intimacy stimulated mystical feelings[17],
thus setting the stage for the gradual transformation of the fledgling
psychotherapy group into a full-blown satanic cult. As the cult grew, it became
hierarchically structured, and the middle and lower ranks were not allowed “to
invent their own social customs, experimenting with alternate schemes in search
of the highest personal gratification. Only the leaders of the cult were
permitted such freedom. The cult existed for the sake of its founders, and
therefore the social system functioned to channel wealth, power, and pleasure
in their direction.”[18]
During his examination of the Processeans, Bainbridge
developed a strong of affinity for the cultists’ penchant of re-conceptualizing
the roles of God and Satan. As for Satan, she
is only one in a pantheon of four deities which includes Lucifer (male god of
the air), Jehovah (female god of earth), Christ (male god of water) and Satan
(female god of fire). This
case of Biblical revisionism inspired Bainbridge, who revelled in being a
principal instructor of satanic lore and proud possessor of a huge collection
of satanic paraphernalia. Since then, he has encouraged sociologists to take an
active part in the re-conceptualizing of traditional religious concepts. It is
his hope that such religious experimentation will eventually result in the
creation of a “Church of God Galactic”. In “New Religions, Science, and
Secularization,” Bainbridge presents the following mandate:
It
is time to move beyond mere observation of scientistic cults and use the
knowledge we have gained of recruitment strategies, cultural innovation, and
social needs to create better religions than the world currently possesses. At
the very least, unobtrusive observation must be supplemented by active
experimentation. Religions are human creations. Our society quite consciously
tries to improve every other kind of social institution, why not religion?
Members of The Process [Church], founded mainly by students from an
architecture school, referred to the creation of their cult as religious
engineering, the conscious, systematic, skilled creation of a new religion. I
propose that we become religious engineers.[19]
Evidently, Bainbridge feels that the sociologists
should play a role in the creation of a new religious consciousness.
Ethnographic analyses of scientistic cults, such as The Process Church and Scientology,
will no longer suffice. What will be required is “active experimentation”.
Working in such a capacity, social scientists would cease to be observers.
Instead, they would become active promulgators of the different scientistic
cults comprising Technocracy. The latter would become the only acceptable civil
religion of America, probably called, in deference to Henri Saint-Simon, the
“New Christianity”. Bainbridge elaborates:
should play a role in the creation of a new religious consciousness.
Ethnographic analyses of scientistic cults, such as The Process Church and Scientology,
will no longer suffice. What will be required is “active experimentation”.
Working in such a capacity, social scientists would cease to be observers.
Instead, they would become active promulgators of the different scientistic
cults comprising Technocracy. The latter would become the only acceptable civil
religion of America, probably called, in deference to Henri Saint-Simon, the
“New Christianity”. Bainbridge elaborates:
Sociologists
of religion are among the most ethical and high-minded of scholars, and there
is no reason why they should not apply their knowledge to the creation of new
religions. The world needs them. We have roles to play as consultants to
existing new religions, helping them solve problems that our research has
permitted us to understand. But we must also be prepared to launch new cults of
our own invention, a task I admit that is both hazardous to one’s own welfare
and outrageous in the eyes of people who refuse to admit that all religions are
human creations. But it is far better for honest religious engineers to
undertake the creation of new religions for sake of human betterment than to
leave the task to madmen and wealth-hungry frauds.[20]
In
essence, Bainbridge’s proposal for social scientists to become religious
engineers merely reiterates the technocratic concept of Henri Saint-Simon’s “New
Christianity” and Auguste Comte’s sociocracy.
Apparently, the notion of a “New Christianity” did not
die with Saint-Simon in 1825. Modern scientistic cults, whose religious
engineering efforts are being increasingly augmented by the technocratic social
sciences, proffer a “New Christianity” of their own. Many scientistic cults
derive their “New Christianity” from science fiction.
Science Fiction
William
Sims Bainbridge feels the literary genre of science fiction is the most
promising source for the “edifying” theology of a new galactic religion:
Sims Bainbridge feels the literary genre of science fiction is the most
promising source for the “edifying” theology of a new galactic religion:
New
cults tend not to be very creative, but draw their practices and doctrines from
other groups and traditions. If they are to get galactic visions, the best
source is probably science fiction. Not only does science fiction offer grand
images of galactic civilizations and specific notions of how to achieve them,
but it is drenched in occult and pseudoscientific ideas which might well serve
people’s religious needs if packaged in new churches.[21]
While
science fiction venerates science and presents worldviews that are ostensibly
secular, the genre still promotes religious concepts. Bainbridge observes the sci-fi
genre’s continuing preoccupation with religion:
science fiction venerates science and presents worldviews that are ostensibly
secular, the genre still promotes religious concepts. Bainbridge observes the sci-fi
genre’s continuing preoccupation with religion:
Religion
is a common topic in science fiction, and sci-fi writers have considered it
from several perspectives. In The Gods of
Mars and in The Master Mind of Mars,
Edgar Rice Burroughs sharply criticized religion for enslaving believers – for
murdering the scientific spirit as well as offering human sacrifices. Sometimes
religion has been seen more sympathetically, even though in conflict with
science, as a humane corrective for the excesses of technology gone mad.
Examples include “A Canticle for
Leibowitz” by Walter M. Miller and “The
Quest for Saint Aquin” by Anthony Boucher. Still other stories have been
essays in theology and theodicy for a scientific society, for example “The Star” by Arthur C. Clarke and “A Case of Conscience” by James Blish.[22]
From Bainbridge’s vantage point, science fiction
provides a rich repository for the provision of socially and culturally
expedient myths: “More relevant for those who might want to engineer a Church
of God Galactic are stories which sketch newly invented religions, cults which
might actually come into existence and if successful shape public policy toward
science and technology.”[23] Bainbridge
views sci-fi myths as a potential self-fulfilling prophecy. He contends that
when such stories have embedded themselves within human consciousness, they
shall actuate themselves. Supposedly, the tangible enactment of this myth will
result in the creation of a Church of God Galactic. This new theocratic order
will preside over the emergent galactic civilization that has been the dream of
futurists for years.
These “socially and culturally expedient myths”,
however, are purely scientistic in character. That is, they exalt the
epistemological imperialism of scientism. Yet, because they present
metaphysical claims (e.g., transcendence, unio
mystica, physicalism, etc.), the scientistic myths of science fiction still
qualify as religions. These religions are developed according to the
sociological demands of those seeking to re-sculpt the dominant
religio-cultural milieu. Bainbridge’s religious engineers would seek to
condition effectively the public mind to accept a technocratic form of
governance. The same goal is being pursued by a group of progenitors of a
technology-driven post-human future: the Transhumanists.
William Sims Bainbridge is one of the most influential
proponents of Transhumanism, described by Katherine Hayles as an ideology which “promotes the breeding of ‘genetically enriched’ forms of ‘post-human’ beings.”[24]
According to Hayles, “… in this post-human [being], there are no essential
differences, or absolute demarcations, between bodily existence and computer
simulation, cybernetic mechanism and biological organism, robot technology and
human goals.”[25]
As Hayles makes abundantly clear, the “post-human”
condition is man’s transformation into a machine. This could be the intended
outcome of self-directed evolution, a goal which Transhumanists share with
Freemasons. As a matter of fact, the similarities between Transhumanism and
Freemasonry are too numerous to be ignored. In his book The Meaning of Masonry, W. L. Wilmshurst provides a summation of his
Craft-brothers’ highest aspirations:
This
– the evolution of man into superman – was always the purpose of the ancient
Mysteries, and the real purpose of modern Masonry is, not the social and
charitable purposes to which so much attention is paid, but the expediting of
the spiritual evolution of those who aspire to perfect their own nature and
transform it into a more god-like quality. And this is a definite science, a
royal art, which it is possible for each of us to put into practice; whilst to
join the Craft for any other purpose than to study and pursue this science is
to misunderstand its meaning.[26]
Just like the Freemasons, Transhumanists openly
express their derision for the human condition. For instance, British scientist
of robotics Kevin Warwick candidly renounced his humanity: “I was born human.
But this was an accident of fate – a condition merely of time and place.”[27]
This prompts a disturbing question. If the human condition was some sort of
biological accident, then what is mankind’s ultimate evolutionary destiny? Bart
Kosko, a professor of electrical engineering, reveals the final destination on
the evolutionary map: “Biology is not destiny. It was never more than tendency.
It was just nature’s first quick and dirty way to compute with meat. Chips are
destiny.”[28]
Transhumanism advocates the enthronement of an elite.
This new post-human elite is called the “GenRich” class. According to the
Transhumanist, Lee Silver, the end of this century will witness the ascendancy
of the “GenRich” elite: “All aspects of the economy, the media, the
entertainment industry, and the knowledge industry [will be] controlled by
members of the GenRich class … Naturals [will] work as low-paid service
providers or as laborers….”[29]
In their promotional literature Transhumanists freely claim their “ability and
right” to “plan and choose their own lives.”[30] This is their ploy to deceive the unwary.
Transhumanism is totalitarian to the core. Only to a small group of “posthuman
scientists” (cultural and economic elitists) is “total freedom” granted. Their
goal is clear: in order to dominate humankind they want to remake creation,
including man, to suit their own purpose. C. S. Lewis’s question bears asking.
He wrote that “human nature will be the last part of Nature to surrender to
Man. The battle will then be won…. But who, precisely, will have won it?”[31]
Considering all the odds, it is rather
doubtful, if transhumanism will finally succeed in its stated objectives to
overcome human frailty and achieve paradise on earth. As a matter of fact,
viewed from a premillennial perspective, Christians know that the very opposite
will happen. The Bible calls the seven year period preceding Christ’s Second
Coming “the Great Tribulation”. In the Gospel of Matthew we read, for example:
For
then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning
of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were
shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be
shortened. Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’
do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and show
great signs and wonders, so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I
have told you beforehand. (Matthew 24:21-25)
Utopians of all shades have, in the past, embraced
pursuits similar to those found in Technocracy and Transhumanism. As Jean B.
Quant observes, “This secularization of the postmillennial tradition in the
late 19th and early 20th centuries cut across the lines
which divided theology and social science, clergymen and intellectuals.”[32] Already
a hundred years ago technology played a rather large role in helping to develop
man’s pursuit of utopian goals. Referring to the clergymen and intellectuals of
the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Quant states
that, “Technological developments were particularly significant for hastening
the arrival of the new era. Man’s progress toward the kingdom [of God] had
heretofore been slow because individual development and social solidarity
always worked at cross-purposes.”[33] Quant
suggests that the “believers in a this-worldly utopia did belong to the
mainstream. And these modern postmillennialists lent to reform thought much of
its optimism, its perfectionism, and its faith in the ability of brotherhood,
united to the modern scientific spirit, to conquer all the evils of the world.”[34]
A
large contingent of contemporary evangelicals has embraced some aspects of the technocratic
ideals of Transhumanism and is drawn by its motivations. They embrace the
belief that Christians are Christ’s “on-going incarnation in the world”. Their
new focus is on an earthly inheritance for the church. In concrete terms this
means that Christians are called upon to usher humanity into a new stage of its
existence. Through individual Christians’ labor, all the evils in society will
slowly be conquered until they are no more. Only after the Kingdom of God will
have been established on earth by human effort, they believe, will the Second
Coming of Christ occur. The evangelicals who pursue these and similar goals are
called Dominionists. They belong to a diverse conglomerate of movements, covering
the entire theological spectrum of evangelicalism from the charismaticManifested Sons of God to the neo-Puritan Reconstructionists.
Emerging from these peculiar enclaves of the religious
communities is a myth that could be the “New Christianity” of Bainbridge’s
sociocratic “Church of God Galactic”. The new scientistic paradigm proffers
what can be called an “exotheology.” Seraphim Rose explains:
Contemporary
Protestant and Roman Catholic “theologians” – who have become accustomed to
follow wherever “science” seems to be leading – speculate in turn in the new
realm of “exotheology” (the „theology of outer space“) concerning what nature
the “extraterrestrial” races might have (see Time magazine, April 24, 1978). It can hardly be denied that the
myth behind science fiction has a powerful fascination even among many learned
men of our day.[35]
In his final assessment of science fiction, Rose
concludes that this ostensibly “scientific and non-religious genre” is, in
truth, the “leading propagator (in a secular form) of the ‘new religious
consciousness’” that is gradually supplanting biblical Christianity.[36]
Laced with occultism and intimations of an emergent pagan spirituality, science
fiction’s propagation of Technocracy could be facilitating a paradigm shift in
religious thinking. Of course, an exotheology requires an exotheological
Christ. Science fiction is already paving the way for a new scientistic
messiah.
Conclusion
Technocracy
has infiltrated nearly every segment of western society. Instead of vigorously
opposing the mythical, elitist, and totalitarian machinations of this rival
religion, evangelicals, by and large, are eager to abate the encroachment of technocrats
on their churchly terrain. They pride themselves on being the vanguard of a
utopian future, euphemistically called the “Kingdom of God on earth”. What is
missing in their thinking is the critical realization that while transhumanism
aims at posthuman perfection through technology, it misses the true nature of
moral “perfection” (progressive sanctification) in its rebellion against God.
The transformation Christians should be seeking is not the physical or
psychological enhancement found in science, reason, or technology, but rather
the transforming work found only in God’s supernatural work through His Spirit
(2 Corinthians 3:18). Romans 12:2 says, “And do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the
will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” This is the
ultimate kind of transformation; and the only kind that can be truly attained
with God’s help in this world. The goal is the post-judgment
attainment of perfect humanity in heaven, not the attainment of full
technological perfection on earth, as a quasi-divine being (Phil. 3:20-21).
Christians
need to be aware of Transhumanism and its various forms, but they need not
concern themselves with seeking something they cannot and should not attain –
autonomous perfection in a utopian world society. Man’s salvation is found only
in the perfect and complete atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ and his promise
of eternal life, as a free gift, to those who believe in Him.
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth
to be a propitiation through faith in His blood,
to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past,
through the forbearance of God;
To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness:
that He might be just,
and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
(Romans 3:23-26)
Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth
to be a propitiation through faith in His blood,
to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past,
through the forbearance of God;
To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness:
that He might be just,
and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
(Romans 3:23-26)
For by grace are ye saved through faith;
and that not of yourselves:
it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast.
(Ephesians 2:8-9)
and that not of yourselves:
it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast.
(Ephesians 2:8-9)
Endnotes:
1. President’s
Council on Bioethics, Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of
Happiness, chapter one, footnote three, (October 2003); http://www.bioethics.gov/.
2. Nick Bostrom,
“The Transhumanism FAQ,” #1.2, World Transhumanism Association,
http://www.transhumanism.org/.
“The Transhumanism FAQ,” #1.2, World Transhumanism Association,
http://www.transhumanism.org/.
3. Ibid.
4. President’s
Council on Bioethics, Beyond Therapy, chapter one, section two.
Council on Bioethics, Beyond Therapy, chapter one, section two.
5. Nick Bostrom,
“The Transhumanism FAQ,” #4.2.
“The Transhumanism FAQ,” #4.2.
6. Ibid., #4.3.
7. Nick Bostrom,
“Transhumanism and the True Nature of Mind: Creation and Discovery!” World
Transhumanism Association, http://www.transhumanism.org/.
8. Nick Bostrom,
“The Transhumanism FAQ,” #1.1.
9. World
Transhumanism Association, “The Transhumanist Declaration,”
http://transhumanism.org/.
10. http://transcendentman.com/
11. Nathan Cochrane, “US report foretells of brave new world,“ July 23, 2002;
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/07/20/1026898931815.html
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. William
Sims Bainbridge, “Religions for a Galactic Civilization,“ in Eugene M. Emme,
ed., Science fiction and Space Futures
(San Diego: American Astronautical Society, 1982) 187-201. Paper given at
the Nineteenth Goddard Memorial Symposium of the American Astronautical
Society, Pentagon City, Virginia, March 26-27, 1981.
15. Ibid.
16. William
Sims Bainbridge, “Social Construction from Within: Satan’s Process,“ in James
T. Richardson, Joel Best, and David G. Bromley, eds., The Satanism Scare (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1991) 297-310;
William Sims Bainbridge, Satan’s Power: A Deviant Psychotherapy Cult (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978).
17. Ibid., 56.
18. Ibid.,169.
19. William Sims
Bainbridge, “New Religions, Science, and Secularization.“ in Religion and the Social Order, Volume
3A, 1993, pp. 277-292.
20. Ibid.
21. William
Sims Bainbridge, “Religions for a Galactic Civilization.”
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid.
24. Quoted in C.
Christopher Hook, “The Techno Sapiens Are Coming.“ Christianity Today 19
December 2003.
25. Ibid.
26. W.L. Wilmshurst, The Meaning of Masonry (New York:
Gramercy, 1980) 47.
27. Quoted in C.
Christopher Hook, “The Techno Sapiens Are Coming.“ Christianity Today 19
December 2003.
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid.
30. Nick Bostrom,
“The Transhumanism FAQ,” #1.1.
31. C. S. Lewis, The
Abolition of Man, (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, [1944] 2001) 76-78.
32. Jean B. Quant,
“Religion and Social Thought: The
Secularization of Postmillennialism” American Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 4 (Oct.,
1973) 390-409.
33. Ibid.
34. Ibid.
35. Seraphim
Rose, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the
Future (Platina, CA: Saint Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, [1975] 1996) 74.
36. Ibid., 77.
“Transhumanism and the True Nature of Mind: Creation and Discovery!” World
Transhumanism Association, http://www.transhumanism.org/.
8. Nick Bostrom,
“The Transhumanism FAQ,” #1.1.
9. World
Transhumanism Association, “The Transhumanist Declaration,”
http://transhumanism.org/.
10. http://transcendentman.com/
11. Nathan Cochrane, “US report foretells of brave new world,“ July 23, 2002;
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/07/20/1026898931815.html
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. William
Sims Bainbridge, “Religions for a Galactic Civilization,“ in Eugene M. Emme,
ed., Science fiction and Space Futures
(San Diego: American Astronautical Society, 1982) 187-201. Paper given at
the Nineteenth Goddard Memorial Symposium of the American Astronautical
Society, Pentagon City, Virginia, March 26-27, 1981.
15. Ibid.
16. William
Sims Bainbridge, “Social Construction from Within: Satan’s Process,“ in James
T. Richardson, Joel Best, and David G. Bromley, eds., The Satanism Scare (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1991) 297-310;
William Sims Bainbridge, Satan’s Power: A Deviant Psychotherapy Cult (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978).
17. Ibid., 56.
18. Ibid.,169.
19. William Sims
Bainbridge, “New Religions, Science, and Secularization.“ in Religion and the Social Order, Volume
3A, 1993, pp. 277-292.
20. Ibid.
21. William
Sims Bainbridge, “Religions for a Galactic Civilization.”
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid.
24. Quoted in C.
Christopher Hook, “The Techno Sapiens Are Coming.“ Christianity Today 19
December 2003.
25. Ibid.
26. W.L. Wilmshurst, The Meaning of Masonry (New York:
Gramercy, 1980) 47.
27. Quoted in C.
Christopher Hook, “The Techno Sapiens Are Coming.“ Christianity Today 19
December 2003.
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid.
30. Nick Bostrom,
“The Transhumanism FAQ,” #1.1.
31. C. S. Lewis, The
Abolition of Man, (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, [1944] 2001) 76-78.
32. Jean B. Quant,
“Religion and Social Thought: The
Secularization of Postmillennialism” American Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 4 (Oct.,
1973) 390-409.
33. Ibid.
34. Ibid.
35. Seraphim
Rose, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the
Future (Platina, CA: Saint Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, [1975] 1996) 74.
36. Ibid., 77.
Copyright 2010, Dr. Martin Erdmann, adapted slightly for blog posting. Permission to publish granted by the author. Original paper titled: “More Than Human: The Transhumanist Agenda of Transforming Humans into
Posthuman.” This was one of the topics of Dr. Martin Erdmann’s presentations to a Discernment Ministries conference in Bowling Green, Ohio, October 2010, “The Rise of Dominionism in the Church.” MP3s of the talks available for $15.00 MP3C241 at http://home.etcable.net/hestervanboven/MP3%20Format%20CD’s.htm
Dr. Martin Erdmann is the author of The Millennial Controversy in the Early Church and Building the Kingdom of God on Earth: The Churches’ Contribution to Marshal Public Support for World Order and Peace, 1919-1945. For four years he lectured in the NT department of the STH Basel (State-independent Theological Seminary). As a senior scientist he was involved in a research project (Clinical Nanomedicine) at the University Hospital in Basel for five years. He the founding director of the Verax Institute, a global expert in researching the rise of technocracy in our culture, and a member of the Discernment Research Group.
GRAPHIC from: http://apprising.org/2011/08/12/nephilim-sighting/