The object of my desire was both gloriously complex and orderly at the same time. Just as the balance of order and diversity in a beautiful nature scene reveals God’s omnipotence so too the object of my desire reflected the powerful intellect that had conceived it. A marvelous array of buttons, sliders, and knobs and right in their midst such a novelty for its time – an LED screen.
The Appeal of Transhumanism
It was the early 1990’s and that was a Kurzweil k2500. A world-class digital keyboard and synthesizer, and impossibly expensive (approaching $4,000) for a ramen-noodle-eating grad student. But ever since then I have followed its creator, Ray Kurzweil, with great interest. That stunning keyboard was the product of little more than the weekend’s tinkering for Mr. Kurzweil’s lively mind, the fruits of which have transformed many different technological frontiers.
That same lively mind anticipates the technological “singularity” (the point of explosive technological growth) is right around the corner and will bring a melding of man and machine. Mr. Kurzweil founded the Singularity Institute to quicken the arrival of that future.
Mr. Kurzweil also hopes to live forever.
And he currently works for Google.
Just like that keyboard, the promises of transhumanism are dazzling – live a smarter, healthier, longer, and more peaceful, meaningful life. Our brains, fallen as they are, are wired to respond, “I want that.” But if we listen closely, our spirit sounds a warning.
Transhumanism Is Upon Us
Transhumanism is the utopian fantasy of enhancing and evolving the human being, intellectually and physiologically, through a range of technologies such as biological, cognitive, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence. Will we be more man or more machine or an indistinguishable melding of both? None can say but if the futurists achieve their dream, we will no longer be human. On a not-so-side note, you’ll find scant discussion of what this transformation would mean for our spiritual soul.
Like most evils, transhumanism won’t arrive all at once. It will be injected into society a little at a time; incrementalism is the delivery method of choice. As an example, Dr. Ellen Wright Clayton, JD (who specializes in medical ethics) provides a hypothetical that could soon be a reality in a neighborhood near you.
She describes Alex, a slender adolescent with well-to-do parents, and who desires to be more muscular. They find a doctor willing to provide a form of gene therapy that is known to increase muscle mass.
Alex’s request might be a product of the social and cultural environment. The request might reflect issues with self-image. The desire to be stronger could reveal a psychological problem that needs to be resolved. Or a physician could conclude that Alex is suffering, thereby making the case for gene therapy more compelling.
What is a physician to do in this case? And should the physician limit the therapy to “confer only traits within the normal range of human characteristics?” And how is that even determined?
As a general Christian principle, we should accept the body that God has given us. Rather than changing our physique to suit our preferences, we should allow God to use our physique to reorder and sanctify our self-image and psyche. In Alex’s case, learning to be grateful for the body God ordained for him is part of working out his salvation, as St. Paul would say.
Now, this is all a tremendous over-simplification. To be sure there is room for rich and meaningful conversation around medicine and the human body. There are many aspects of human health where we gratefully receive the God-given benefits of scientific enhancement (just ask anyone who’s had Lasik eye surgery).
But wherever the gray line is that separates legitimate medical science from Frankensteinian madness, in a few years we’ll be ready to hurdle right over it.
Who will protect society from leaping into that self-destructive future?
Medical Science Won’t Protect Us from Transhumanism
At every turn, science has proven unable to withstand the cultural pressures of a fallen world. And why would it be otherwise? Secular science (unhinged from Christendom) is part of that fallen world. Here’s a sampling of the ethical failures of medical science:
Transgenderism. The psychiatric community has steadily moved to normalize homosexuality and transgenderism, notably through changes to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) to purge any negative framing of homosexuality and gender dysphoria. This has advanced to the point that we now have widespread acceptance of permanent surgical procedures to “transition” prepubescent children.
Embryonic Research. It has been a long-held standard in medical research to halt the gestation of embryonic human beings at 14-days. We now have significant pressure from the Biden Administration and scientific community to lift this standard and open the door, particularly, to “chimera” research – combining human and animal cells in a developing embryo. Sit back and think about that for a minute.
Abortion. How swiftly we’ve moved from “safe, legal and rare” to “shouting abortions.” And now with the so-called success of the covid vaccines, there will be ever greater pressure to harvest new cell lines from aborted babies.
Speaking of covid, look at how science has been corrupted to propel the global takeover. The anti-science and anti-human masking and lockdowns only increased suffering with no demonstrable benefit to public health. Then there was the literal re-writing of scientific definitions of herd immunity and vaccine. And, the ever-moving targets of PCR testing and statistics of cases, hospitalizations and mortality, to best support the desired narrative. And, the suppression of effective early therapies (which would have saved hundreds of thousands of lives) to pave the way for the emergency use authorization of experimental vaccines, which are now being pushed on children, pregnant women, and the covid-recovered (who already have a much superior natural immunity).
Bottom line – the scientific community has shown itself incapable of ethical restraint. They, and the cultural elites who hold their leash, won’t safeguard us from the transhumanism lunacy.
Don’t Count on the Church Either
The Church is our spiritual home and safe harbor. She is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. There is no question that the Holy Spirit guides the Church and will keep Her from dogmatically proclaiming evil. That said, it is a different matter whether we can depend on clarity from the human Church hierarchy in response to unfolding world events.
Let’s see, for example, how the Church hierarchy has fared in response to recent medical issues:
Abortion. The official Church teaching on abortion as intrinsically evil has remained clear and consistent. But we see increasing confusion in the hierarchy on bringing this truth into the world. Look no further than inconsistent and mostly weak response to the scandal of many political leaders’ stunningly aggressive expansion of abortion, while claiming to be devout Catholics. And there is increasing pressure within the hierarchy to deemphasize abortion, claiming it is counterproductive.
Transgenderism. The Church hierarchy has failed to provide a unified, truthful, inviting response to transgenderism. Mostly the emphasis has been on accompaniment with no mention of conversion for those living outside of Christian truth. How many parishioners are even aware of the Courage and Encourage ministries?
Covid and Stem Cell Research. The Church has, at best, been caught flat-footed on this. The Church’s approval of the abortion-tainted vaccines (for the record, they’re all tainted) is at odds with the depth of abortion evil connected to the vaccines and the degree of medical dishonesty that has been perpetrated to advance the myth of the necessity of universal vaccination. For my part, I stand with the countervailing opinion of the likes of Bishops Strickland and Athanasius Schneider and Dr. Peter McCullough and Dr. Lee Vliet, as do many other prelates and faithful.
More about those vaccines The USCCB’s statement on vaccines, besides being ethically questionable, goes so far as to imply that vaccination is a moral responsibility – undermining the conscience rights of Catholics who have good reason to refuse being injected.
The bottom line on the issues of the day, you can find a range of opinions held within the Church hierarchy, and it’s not a given that on any specific issue the hierarchy’s majority (or at least, most vocal) opinion is correct. In the author’s opinion, on the examples of abortion, transgender and covid, the majority opinion seems to be mostly incorrect.
Will our hierarchy provide sound, unambiguous ethical guidance on transhuman enhancements and therapies? Do not rely on it.
Your Only Answer
To paraphrase George Bailey confronting Mr. Potter, “Well, Steve, what’s your point?”
My point is this: transhumanism is upon us and your only answer to it is “no, thank you.”
There. That wasn’t so hard.
Except there’s one tiny, little catch. By saying “no, thank you” you are saying “yes, I agree to be a second-class citizen.” Or, in the words of Davos-darling Yuval Noal Harari, part of the “useless class.”
Seriously. Everyone else will be smarter and stronger than you. They’ll probably even smell like ocean breezes and cedar forests without using deodorant.
How will you have the strength of will say “no” to that? And, why should you? Why say “no” to that simple little “cognitive enhancement”? All it does is increase your working memory a little and boost your IQ a few points. What’s so bad about that? I can barely remember where I put my glasses, and they’re always on my head. A little extra memory would be nice.
And who wouldn’t want to be as fit as an Olympic champion? And without doing a blessed thing but undergoing a little painless gene therapy.
And it’s not just you we are talking about. It’s your children. Who doesn’t want the best for their kids? Who can live with watching their kids become part of the “useless class?”
The pressure is going to be overwhelming. Satan is unmatched at pushing his goods and services on people.
And yet we must say “no”. Because each little therapy and enhancement will make it that much harder for us to commune with God in our spiritual soul (we’ll look more at why that is in a future article).
The Answer to Your Only Answer
So where will we find the strength to say “no?” Where we always do. The Lord.
This is a big “no.” So we must be closer to the Lord than ever before.
That is why we all must become mystics. We all must be spending daily time in mental prayer (Christian meditation) as well as remaining close to the Sacraments and doing our best to grow in holiness (growth in virtue and denial of self).
Now is not the time to be lulled into complacency. The opening invitations to transhumanism will be making their way to you and your loved ones before you know it.
Well, that’s enough darkness for now. Let’s step back into the light. We’ve recently celebrated Pentecost. That’s a good reminder of the true and only source of Human Enhancement. So let’s close with that reminder. Here’s how Fr. Garrigou-LaGrange describes it:
By degrees the spirit of Christ will take the place of our spirit’s way of thinking, feeling, judging, loving, willing, doing, and suffering, a mental outlook which is extremely cramped and superficial since it is materially dependent on our physical temperament, on our heredity, on the influence of our surrounding circumstances and on the ideas of our time and locality. It is this spirit which must slowly yield ground to the spirit of Christ, to his way of looking at things, of judging, feeling, loving, acting, and suffering. Only then is Christ truly living within us.
15 thoughts on “Your Only Answer to Transhumanism”
Steve Smith outlines an approach that would have indicted Pope Pius XII of practicing transhumanism. The Pope secretly-allowed his personal physician (an Italian quack who botched the Pope’s embalming) to give him injections of experimental drugs.
A hierarchical set of moral standards and precepts, reinforced by Papal and Councilar Catholic Tradition, makes more sense than Smith’s flat, reactionary, luddite rejection of medical science advancements.
The same free-will that can say “no”, may, at times, say “yes”.
https://www.truthforhealth.org/your-only-answer-to-transhumanism/
Dear Greg –
The only answer to transhumanism (attempting to become something “beyond” human”) is NO.
The answer to valid, ethical and moral medical interventions (preventative and curative) is YES.
The key is knowing the difference. This article is focused on transhuman technologies.
You might be interested in my recent article on the same subject: https://catholicstand.com/the-trans-issue-that-matters-most/
Pay particular attention to the section titled “The Ethical Paradigm.” To wit:
“However, the ethics of transhumanism requires making a key distinction. The distinction is between medical technologies that restore health and those that promise “enhancements” beyond normative human functioning.
To be sure, making that distinction means sorting out subtle and important questions. But who will do that sorting? Thus far, the Catholic Church has made no meaningful inroads on the subject. There have been the occasional meetings and symposia, but no concerted effort to prepare the faithful.
Commenting on the recent meeting of Cardinals in Rome (the 2022 consistory) Cardinal Muller commented “there was no opportunity to discuss the burning issues, for example, about the frontal attack on the Christian image of man by the ideologies of posthumanism and gender madness…”
If you’re aware of the Vatican working out a reliable “hierarchical set of moral standards and precepts” any time soon, please speak up – I’m genuinely interested.
At the same time the prevailing culture is aggressively grooming us to accept whatever ill-considered “therapies and enhancements” the powers-that-be concoct.
As new technologies roll out that push into ‘transhuman’ territory – the burden of proof is for them to be shown to be in keeping with a Christian anthropology. Of course it will be complex and multi-faceted to sort that out. But short of meeting that bar, the answer should be “no.” That’s not flat, reactionary, or luddite (trite word these days, my friend) – just good use of prudential judgement.
God bless – Steve
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You are right, I believe, to focus on the interior life. There – in that Life infused at Baptism yet so commonly thereafter neglected and forgotten – there, in the supernatural realities and potencies infused into our souls – there we encounter the Living God. He waits there (so to speak) for us! Yet commonly the baptized, and confirmed, and fully initiated into the Faith, return more commonly to the “old life” than entrust and embrace the new life He has given us.
Only in the holy supernatural virtues and gifts inherent in a growing, maturing, strengthening Interior Life in Christ can we find the resources to overcome the demonic supernatural forces of evil being released and to be released upon us, in the last of the last days. I find that most Catholic laity know little or nothing of these things – the interior life, the supernatural gifts and virtues, infused contemplation, mysticism and mystical prayer, and so on. I find many priests similarly know little or nothing of these things, and seem content to keep it that way. God have mercy on us!
Very well put, Thomas. It seems to me you have reflected the warning of the Parable of the Sower in our time.
In all humility, but all truth, when you encounter Catholics who are unaware of the richness of our faith, you might suggest my book – 30 Days to Christian Meditation. While it is, obviously, about meditation – it is much more an introduction to the beauty and meaning of our Catholic faith (we can’t meditate on God if we don’t know Him as he revealed Himself). God bless – Steve
https://www.amazon.com/Days-Christian-Meditation-Mysticism-Authentic/dp/1735818402/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1QYS71WR5CNMR&dchild=1&keywords=30+days+to+christian+meditation&qid=1623161192&sprefix=30+days+to+christian+meditation%2Caps%2C146&sr=8-3
But our desire is supposed to be that we desre to be with God, rather than to stay here on the earth. Our love for God our Father, and for our Lord Jesus, and for the Holy Spirit is supposed to fill our whole being, along with loving our neighbor as our own self.
We ought not even to be tempted to use any transhumanism offering, especially since the majority of it all appears to involve murdered baby parts. Even donation of organs can be circumspect due to, was the patient really dead when the organ was removed?
Plus, the tracking and probable obeisance involved when one does receive anything of this sort, must be factored in, but the murders of the babies, fully outweigh everything.
In Heaven we will be perfected. Now is the time to become wholly strengthened in Jesus Christ, for the times are upon us, and God has us each, here in the earth, now, for His purposes.
“11Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb and he spoke as a dragon.
12He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. And he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed.
13He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men.
14And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life.
15And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed.
16And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, 17and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.
18Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six.” Revelation 13: 11-18.
God bless, C-Marie
Thank you again, C-Marie – more great points and scripture. And yes – God should be our “all in all”. Come Holy Spirit!
Loved your article on the dangers of trans humanism I’ve also noted very few talking about points in your article. Looking forward to your next writing on this subject. Godspeed
Thank you very much, Elaine – and for the encouragement for future articles. Please pray for me to be receptive to the Holy Spirit in what I write! Godspeed to you as well – Steve
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Well done!!! And here is lovely Scripture to support all of us, as St. Paul says:
“11And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
14As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, 16from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
17So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
20But you did not learn Christ in this way, 21if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, 22that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” Ephesians 4: 11-24.
God bless, C-Marie
Thank you C-Marie – that is a beautiful lesson from scripture on how we are made new in Christ!
Makes you wonder if Sampson in Judges or those giants in Genesis: 6-4 beat us to it.
Dear O.P. – you put your finger on an interesting connection – a number of scientific, athropologic and religious thinkers have connected the Nephilim (and Nimrod) with transhumanism. Those echoes of the promise of becoming like god drive this madness (just look at the push for chimera research). A quirky but informative discussion of exactly that is given in “Religion and Human Enhancement” (Trothen and Mercer Eds.). Weekend blessings to you – Steve
Thank you, Steve. And those Patriarchs who lived hundreds of years set the stage for this
quest to live long – and prosper. In any case, salvation is open to everyone.