A local newspaper guest columnist, John Crisp, asked, “What’s to become of human beings?” He then proceeded to paint a very bleak picture regarding the questionable continuation of the human race. For him, even the belief that we were “created by an all-powerful God” offers him no comfort because in his estimation of creation, “humans were never inevitable and their continued existence is not assured.”
He cited a recent Atlantic Magazine article entitled, “The End of Us”, in which it was claimed that there are “two emerging schools of thought about the future of humanity.”
One is that, “Anthropocene anti-humanism,” which “holds that humans have thoroughly despoiled the only place in the universe that’s fit for them to live and that their elimination, suddenly by, say, nuclear war or gradually, then not-so-gradually, by climate change, is inevitable. But for anti-humanists, this is nothing to be regretted; the Earth will get along just fine without us. To imagine otherwise is a “symptom of human arrogance.”
The other view, “‘Transhumanism’… is embraced by thinkers who are more interested in the future of the human mind than of the human body. Transhumanists picture the brain as a carbon-based computer that creates our experiences according to patterns that can be emulated by silicon-based computers. With enough computing power, the “mind” part of human beings can be uploaded and sustained by sophisticated artificial intelligence that has learned how to perpetually improve itself, erasing the need — or burden — of the human body entirely.”
The Biblical creation account presents a very different picture. On the sixth day, “God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness… So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them… God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it’” (Genesis 1:26-28). Therefore, humans were indeed “inevitable.”
Being in God’s image meant that Adam and Eve were perfect reflections of God’s transmittable attributes, including His moral perfections. They were meant to be pristine showcases of God’s glory. Their continuation in that state meant life eternal, but it was conditioned on sustained moral obedience. However, they chose to be lawbreakers, and therefore, corruption and death were introduced into this world. These things continue to characterize human behavior, as anybody with a newspaper could tell you.
In spite of man’s rebellion, the “continued existence” of man is “assured” because God has provided a means of recovery through the sending of His Son to do all that was necessary in order to redeem sinful humans, such that those who by God-given faith avail themselves of this means of reconciliation with their Creator, are freely given eternal life (John 3:16).
However, the continued existence of the unbeliever is also assured in that “He who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18), and as Jesus said, “will go away into everlasting punishment” (Matthew 25:46).
The columnist went on to offer his own solution. He wrote, “…traveling a sustainable middle path between the extremes described above would require profound modifications in our behavior. We would have to be satisfied with less. We would have to fly less or not at all. We might have to sacrifice the freedom and comfort of a personal automobile. We might have to live in smaller houses. In order to preserve humanity, would we be willing to have fewer children and dispense with the pleasures produced by an economy that depends on continuing growth?”
Referring to the two above-mentioned “emerging schools of thought” and to “his own solution”, he concluded with, “One leads to the annihilation of the humanity; another imagines that the human mind can somehow be uploaded to the cloud and transcend the need for corporeal existence; a third will require changes in behavior that will challenge the very idea of what we’ve always thought it meant to be human. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.”
“Have fewer children”—a rationale for abortion? “Changes in behavior”—like somehow all getting along and being self-sacrificing? We’ve had thousands of years of pride, greed, selfishness, et al, on a personal level, in families, in nations, in the world… and even in churches! No, we have proven that we can’t just get along!
Pray for wisdom as Crisp urges? “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10). And true wisdom is to know and believe that there is one God who created man and woman in His image, and that He is holy, righteous, and just.
Further, its wisdom to know that, “‘There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one’… But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:10-12, 21-24).
And for all who truly believe, life in Jesus Christ is inevitable and continuing, even forever. Amen?
He cited a recent Atlantic Magazine article entitled, “The End of Us”, in which it was claimed that there are “two emerging schools of thought about the future of humanity.”
One is that, “Anthropocene anti-humanism,” which “holds that humans have thoroughly despoiled the only place in the universe that’s fit for them to live and that their elimination, suddenly by, say, nuclear war or gradually, then not-so-gradually, by climate change, is inevitable. But for anti-humanists, this is nothing to be regretted; the Earth will get along just fine without us. To imagine otherwise is a “symptom of human arrogance.”
The other view, “‘Transhumanism’… is embraced by thinkers who are more interested in the future of the human mind than of the human body. Transhumanists picture the brain as a carbon-based computer that creates our experiences according to patterns that can be emulated by silicon-based computers. With enough computing power, the “mind” part of human beings can be uploaded and sustained by sophisticated artificial intelligence that has learned how to perpetually improve itself, erasing the need — or burden — of the human body entirely.”
The Biblical creation account presents a very different picture. On the sixth day, “God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness… So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them… God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it’” (Genesis 1:26-28). Therefore, humans were indeed “inevitable.”
Being in God’s image meant that Adam and Eve were perfect reflections of God’s transmittable attributes, including His moral perfections. They were meant to be pristine showcases of God’s glory. Their continuation in that state meant life eternal, but it was conditioned on sustained moral obedience. However, they chose to be lawbreakers, and therefore, corruption and death were introduced into this world. These things continue to characterize human behavior, as anybody with a newspaper could tell you.
In spite of man’s rebellion, the “continued existence” of man is “assured” because God has provided a means of recovery through the sending of His Son to do all that was necessary in order to redeem sinful humans, such that those who by God-given faith avail themselves of this means of reconciliation with their Creator, are freely given eternal life (John 3:16).
However, the continued existence of the unbeliever is also assured in that “He who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18), and as Jesus said, “will go away into everlasting punishment” (Matthew 25:46).
The columnist went on to offer his own solution. He wrote, “…traveling a sustainable middle path between the extremes described above would require profound modifications in our behavior. We would have to be satisfied with less. We would have to fly less or not at all. We might have to sacrifice the freedom and comfort of a personal automobile. We might have to live in smaller houses. In order to preserve humanity, would we be willing to have fewer children and dispense with the pleasures produced by an economy that depends on continuing growth?”
Referring to the two above-mentioned “emerging schools of thought” and to “his own solution”, he concluded with, “One leads to the annihilation of the humanity; another imagines that the human mind can somehow be uploaded to the cloud and transcend the need for corporeal existence; a third will require changes in behavior that will challenge the very idea of what we’ve always thought it meant to be human. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.”
“Have fewer children”—a rationale for abortion? “Changes in behavior”—like somehow all getting along and being self-sacrificing? We’ve had thousands of years of pride, greed, selfishness, et al, on a personal level, in families, in nations, in the world… and even in churches! No, we have proven that we can’t just get along!
Pray for wisdom as Crisp urges? “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10). And true wisdom is to know and believe that there is one God who created man and woman in His image, and that He is holy, righteous, and just.
Further, its wisdom to know that, “‘There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one’… But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:10-12, 21-24).
And for all who truly believe, life in Jesus Christ is inevitable and continuing, even forever. Amen?