Transhumanism: Where Will It Lead?

Many foresee the convergence between humans and machines in coming decades to augment man’s physical limitations. Business entrepreneur, Elon Musk, started a company called Neuralink. It implants a chip into the skull with several threads directly into the brain to monitor and stimulate brain activity. The first human participant is able to play games on computers using just his thoughts. 

While people with disabilities would be near-term recipients of these innovations, some believe technologies like this could be used to enhance abilities in everyone.

What is the ultimate goal of these technologies? It is to enhance human abilities and life extension. The true believers in this new frontier of transhumanism think it will enable man to take on a god-like role of designing our own evolutionary futures. There is much more to the story. As modern-day Christians, we ponder how we should view these new potential innovations in the world of science.

Super soldiers are not science fiction anymore

The United States and many other countries are always striving to stay one step ahead of their competition in weaponry technology. The development of more advanced soldiers is no exception. On the battlefield infantrymen often carry heavy gear that must be put on quickly if under fire. Fatigue is often an issue. A stronger soldier with much greater endurance is needed—a man must run faster and jump higher. He must deal with pain in the event of injury and heal fast. Then there are the added limitations of sight, hearing and mental capacity.

The world is constantly announcing medical and scientific discoveries regarding many aspects of the human body—such as implanted artificial retinas to give blind patients partial sight and computer chip implants linked to the brain of a paralyzed man to help restore partial movement of previously non-responsive limbs. Still others have created synthetic blood substitutes which could soon be used in human patients.

One of the most important new discoveries involves a new gene-splicing technique known as CRISPR, an acronym meaning, “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats.” This new technology method allows a skilled technician the ability to precisely “edit” the human genome in both embryos and adults.

Interestingly, CRISPR is one of the first steps to creating Super Soldiers. Communist China, unfettered by ethics, is charging ahead:

“China has conducted human testing on members of the People’s Liberation Army with the ambitious goal of developing soldiers with enhanced biological capabilities. Though it may sound like something out of science fiction, emerging technologies capable of augmenting the human body paired with the rapidly evolving world of genome-editing could arguably spawn the dawn of super-humans” ("China is Creating Biologically Enhanced Super Soldiers, Says US Spy Chief," Dec. 4, 2020, (interesting engineering.com)).

The article further says:

“In a report published last year in Jamestown, the authors Elsa Kania and Wilson VornDick offer insight into China’s interest in gene editing. While the potential leveraging of CRISPR to increase human capabilities on the future battlefield remains only a hypothetical possibility at the present, there are indications that Chinese military researchers are starting to explore its potential,” states the scholars, Elsa Kania, an expert on Chinese defense technology at the Center for a New American Security, and Wilson VornDick, a consultant on China matters and former Navy officer.

According to the authors, the Eastern country has a newly found interest in using biotechnology to tackle infectious diseases, explore the military potential, and even the offensive applications of biotechnology. Augmented soldiers are the future in some form or the other.

During the height of the Cold War, the U.S. military tried to create a “Warrior Monk Soldier” with paranormal abilities. Now the Pentagon is looking at a host of technologies, like pain immunizations, telepathy, exoskeletons and wearable robotics, to improve their soldiers’ effectiveness.”

Inserting animal genes

Chinese military scientists are exploring the use of animal DNA, specifically from water bears, to create super soldiers. Such super soldiers would be able to withstand nuclear warfare and have increased resistance to chemical and biological attacks.

In the South China Morning Post, March 29, 2023, an article titled, “Chinese team behind extreme animal gene experiment says it may lead to super soldiers who survive nuclear fallout” stated:

“A team of military medical scientists in China says it has inserted a gene from the microscopic water bear into human embryonic stem cells and significantly increased these cells’ resistance to radiation. They said success in this unprecedented experiment could lead to super-tough soldiers who could survive nuclear fallout.”

Transhumanism also may include animal genes incorporated into a human. Imagine inserting animal genes into a human being to take on animal characteristics! If this is man’s possible future, where does it all end? If human beings aspire to take the place of God and lay claim to having dominion over nature and the body, then one must ask the question: “If the human body has been radically altered from what God created it to be, when does a person cease to be human?”

Although it is relegated to mythology, there have been legendary creatures which were a hybrid of man and animal. The Centaur, the horse-man of Greek legend, is one of the most famous hybrid creatures. The first legend of the mermaid, a creature with the head and upper body of a human woman and the lower body and tail of a fish, comes from an ancient Assyrian goddess, Atargatis. In Greek stories, and later Roman, the Minotaur is a creature that is part bull, part man. Its name is derived from the bull-god, Minos, a major deity of the Minoan civilization of Crete, as well as a king who demanded sacrifices of Athenian youths to feed it.

These creatures were composed of parts from different animals, including humans, and appear in the folklore of various cultures as legendary creatures.

We don’t know what kind of perverse experimentation could have been going on prior to the biblical flood, nor the depths of the wickedness. Satan and the demons could have been involved in experimenting with genetics. God saw the perverseness, and He had to destroy all human life and begin again with Noah’s family. Whatever perversions of creation were going on, Jesus gave a prophecy indicating they would return in the last days, “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:37).

God has a better plan with benefits

God created man and woman in His image—male and female (Genesis 1:26-27). He created Adam and Eve with great potential, but in this temporary physical-chemical existence He gave them limitations of the body and mind. He didn’t give our first two parents infrared sight, super hearing, super strength or the ability to fly like Superman. He made them vulnerable to injury and even premature death.

Human beings lived much longer before the flood of Noah, but man proved he could not handle it. The world was overwhelmed by wickedness and corruption. There came a time when God passed a judgment that the length of a person’s life would be around 120 years (Genesis 6:3). Later in Psalm 90:10 it states, “The days of our years are threescore years and ten.”

However long our days, if we live a life pleasing to the Eternal, He will give us eternal life as a gift. He will bless us with happiness and joy and so many incredible abilities we cannot even imagine: “But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him’" (1 Corinthians 2:9).

God offers a much brighter future than man could ever offer. Mankind would be wise not to cross the line into God’s territory. Let our great God be God, and us His humble servants. It works better that way!