{"id":45087,"date":"2009-05-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/new-quest-for-immortality\/"},"modified":"2009-05-25T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-05-25T00:00:00","slug":"new-quest-for-immortality","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/new-quest-for-immortality\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Quest for Immortality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A new movement has emerged from California&#39;s Silicon Valley. It&#39;s a combination of philosophy, faith, and science known as transhumanism. An article in <em>The Futurist<\/em> magazine describes transhumanism as &quot;radical life extension and life expansion.&quot; Those devoted to the movement &quot;perceive the human body as a work in progress.&quot; They believe that &quot;evolution took humanity this far&hellip;and only technology will take [humanity] further.&quot; As for sickness, aging, and death? Adherents call all three &quot;unnecessary hindrances that we have the right and the responsibility to overcome. &hellip; Our bodies, frail and unpredictable, are just another problem&hellip;to solve.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>The goal of the World Transhumanist Association is to transcend all human limitations. They believe the body is a machine; the brain, a computer. With quickly advancing technology, then, man can be &quot;upgraded.&quot; Transhumanists are convinced that one day artificial limbs will be more efficient than real limbs. Our brains will be vastly superior, too. Researchers have theorized that Einstein&#39;s brain had no gap between the frontal lobes. Transhumanists hope to use technology in such a way that his &quot;advantage&quot; can be engineered for everyone.<\/p>\n\n<p>It probably isn&#39;t surprising to learn that transhumanists are also staunch supporters of cryonics. Ralph Merkle, a board member of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, says, &quot;People think cryonics is freezing the dead. That&#39;s incorrect. We&#39;re freezing the terminally ill. We want a second opinion from a future doctor.&quot; In the future they hope to unleash the power of nanotechnology to repair failed organs and dying cells. They are convinced that these billionth-of-a-meter robots will be able to &quot;go into a deceased body, repair the dead cells, and reboot the brain.&quot; Merkle insists that &quot;once we get the technology in place, dying goes away. It just doesn&#39;t happen.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>Inventor Ray Kurzwell forecasts that right around the year 2030, cybernetic implants will greatly augment human intelligence, and all of the world&#39;s common diseases will have been cured. By 2040, we will see the rise of an artificial intelligence that is thousands of times smarter than all of humanity combined.<\/p>\n\n<p>The overwhelming majority of transhumanists are atheists. Still, Tyler Emerson, a leader in the transhumanist movement, says, &quot;For those of us who don&#39;t believe in God, this is a sort of religion.&quot; Another leader, Peter Thiel, adds, &quot;Every myth on this planet tells people that the purpose of life is death. It rationalizes death. It helps them deal with it. Every temple is a tomb and every tomb a temple. If you have a set of technologies that radically changes the meaning of death, then that has repercussions for religion. These questions touch on our very humanity.&quot;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3436,3446,3450,3478,3711,3713,3737,3886,3889,3906,4180,4186,4223,4486,4493,4704,4891,4929,4992,5129,5202,5303],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-45087","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-arrogance","tax_ctp_tags-assumptions","tax_ctp_tags-atheism","tax_ctp_tags-belief","tax_ctp_tags-creation","tax_ctp_tags-creator","tax_ctp_tags-death","tax_ctp_tags-eternal-life","tax_ctp_tags-ethics","tax_ctp_tags-evolution","tax_ctp_tags-human-limitations","tax_ctp_tags-humanism","tax_ctp_tags-immortality","tax_ctp_tags-modernism","tax_ctp_tags-mortality","tax_ctp_tags-pride","tax_ctp_tags-science","tax_ctp_tags-self-reliance","tax_ctp_tags-skepticism","tax_ctp_tags-technology","tax_ctp_tags-unbelief","tax_ctp_tags-worldview"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A New Quest for Immortality - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/new-quest-for-immortality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A New Quest for Immortality - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A new movement has emerged from California&#039;s Silicon Valley. 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