Transhumanism - I: aiming to create the god-self?
Introduction
[The Contemporary Torah, Genesis Bereshit 1 31]
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
[The Old Testament, Genesis 1 31]
الَّذِي أَحْسَنَ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ خَلَقَهُ ۖ وَبَدَأَ خَلْقَ الْإِنسَانِ مِن طِينٍ
The One Who made good every thing He created, and He began (the) creation (of) man from clay.
[Al-Quran 32:7]
Abrahamic religions inform us that we are mortal creations by a God who is the Master Creator of all creation. It informs us that we are created from dust to live, work, and die, in this mortal world, and that there will be a Resurrection, a Judgement, and an Eternal Recompense. It warns against changing the creation of Allah. It warns against making changes in the human.
Abrahamic religions speak of the Nafs / Nephesh. Scripture informs us that Allah takes away the Nafs every night, and returns it to those who are to continue living. Death is the permanent separation of the Nafs from the body. In the Hereafter, the resurrected bodies in which God reinstalls their Nafs will be allowed to enter the Gardens of Eternity, to live immortal lives of luxury and bliss. The resurrected bodies which lose their Nafs, and their families, will be the greatest losers, and burn forever in Hell, neither living nor dying.
Science and philosophy have been studying the mind-body problem for millennia.
Transhumanism is a movement that aims to transform humans through technology. They hope to defy ageing, death, work, pregnancy, and reinvent systems such as family, mates, and even existence as machine hybrids or just consciousness/self, leaving behind the human body, transforming the human specie into what they call transhuman, and then, eventually, posthuman. They aim to transcend all existential barriers to become omnipotent immortal beings.
They hope to be able to make major progress within this century. Their research on the frontiers of science and technology gives them the false hope that they will somehow be well on their way to post-humanism, eventually discarding the human body and all its limitations.
Non-Abrahamic religions also place much emphasis and focus on the 'self', and speak of ways to transcend the human body. Some also claim that much of modern science and technology can be traced to their ancient scriptures, such as the theory of relativity.
Abrahamic scriptures inform us the there existed mighty civilisations in the ancient world, which were destroyed when they made changes in their Nafs. It seems like we are fast approaching a similar stand-off between science and Abrahamic faith.
Christian scripture (Luke 17:21) introduces us to the concept of 'The Kingdom of God is among you', and (Matt 4:17) 'Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near'.
Also read:
- Human: Body or Soul?
- The Mighty Ancients!
- World History & Future Implications
- The Right Religion (Deen) for basic directive against transhumanism (H+ || h+ )
- The Words of Allah, our Lord [Transhumanism - II: Natural vs Artificial]
- Natural Biology of Procreation [Transhumanism - III: bypassing the womb?]
- Prolonging Life [Transhumanism - IV: escaping death for a thousand years?]
- Human Devolution [Transhumanism - V: purposefully imperfect]
