The Quest For Immortality
Pastor Leslie Chua
“I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?””
The quest for immortality has been going on for ages. Since the beginning of humanity, mankind has always wanted to live forever.
Gilgamesh, a powerful king in ancient Mesopotamia, sought desperately for immortality. Qin Shi Huang, the third century B.C. emperor who united China, was also obsessed with living forever. He launched an extensive search for the elixir of life that went on for many years. But like all men, he succumbed to the inevitable fate of death at a relatively young age of 49.
Throughout history, death and immortality have preoccupied the minds of people, especially the rich and powerful.
This insatiable desire is gathering traction in recent years. An increasing number of scientists and wealthy elites believe that the odds for immortality are narrowing because of rapid advances in the fields of artificial intelligence and biotechnology.
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Immortality is no longer the stuff of science fiction.
It has become the focus of real science.
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In 2013, Google started a biotech firm named Calico to “solve death.” PayPal cofounder, Peter Thiel, had pledged to “fight” death. It was also widely reported that Amazon chairman, Jeff Bezos, had invested in Altos Labs, a company that does research in cell rejuvenation to “reverse disease.”
Immortality is no longer the stuff of science fiction. It has become the focus of real science. Some companies have started to pursue this objective very seriously. Alcor Life Extension is an example.
Alcor cryogenically freezes and stores the bodies of people who had just died for a price in the hope that scientific advances could revive them someday in the future. Presently, they have 190 bodies in their deep freeze storage.
The company envisions a future where these cryogenically frozen bodies will be restored to life in one of two ways. Either these dead bodies will be repaired by medical nanobots known as cryobots or the deceased’s brains will be scanned and simulated and then downloaded into synthetic bodies or devices.
Well, immortality in this second possibility is envisaged quite differently. There has been a fair bit of talk about exploring the idea of uploading an individual’s “consciousness” into a cloud for storage and later downloading it into a viable robot. In this way, a person can essentially live forever. The body will be upgraded periodically or replaced when it wears out.
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Ray Kurzweil, an eminent futurist, inventor, author, and computer scientist, predicts that humans will be immortal by 2045…
Kurzweil posits that the exponential growth in the fields of genetics, nanotech, and robotics will give humanity the ability to alter their biological makeup, cure diseases, reverse ageing, and ultimately achieve immortality.
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Yuval Harari, the noted Israeli intellectual and historian, famously said, “I think we are heading toward the upgrading of homo sapiens into gods.” On another occasion, Harari observed, “The products of the twenty-first century are going to be bodies and minds.”
Ray Kurzweil, an eminent futurist, inventor, author, and computer scientist, predicts that humans will be immortal by 2045. Kurzweil had made many accurate predictions in the past. So, people take him seriously.
Kurzweil posits that the exponential growth in the fields of genetics, nanotech, and robotics will give humanity the ability to alter their biological makeup, cure diseases, reverse ageing, and ultimately achieve immortality.
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The quest to conquer death and for eternal life has reached a new crescendo. The atheists are putting their hope in the new frontiers of science and technology to cheat death and skirt around God.
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Immortality and anti-ageing are the next big thing. Researchers estimate the size of these combined industries will reach a staggering $610 billion by 2025.
The quest to conquer death and for eternal life has reached a new crescendo. The atheists are putting their hope in the new frontiers of science and technology to cheat death and skirt around God.
The Certainty of Death
Will these humanists succeed in eluding death? Can Artificial Intelligence and biotechnology deliver on the promise of immortality? Is eternal possible without God?
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Death is the fate of all humanity because of sin. The Word of God is unequivocal in this assertion – “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Everyone sins, and therefore everyone dies.
Death is an inescapable reality.
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From the biblical perspective, the answer to all these questions is no.
The Bible is clear. Death is unavoidable. No one can escape death. Everyone will die.
Death is the fate of all humanity because of sin. The Word of God is unequivocal in this assertion – “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Everyone sins, and therefore everyone dies. Death is an inescapable reality.
While the continual advances in science and technology may help in the battle against debilitating diseases, including fatal ones, and improve the quality of health care and even retard ageing to an extent, they can never prevent death.
Death has nothing to do with science. It is a spiritual problem. It is a sin problem. Only God can address the issue, and He did so two thousand years ago when He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for the sin of humanity.
Jesus Offers Eternal Life
Death is a dreadful reality.
While physical death is frightening, spiritual death is terrifying. What many people do not realise is that physical death is not the end of human existence. Those who die without Christ enter into spiritual death, which is eternal.
As we have noted earlier, “the wages of sin is death.” However, God holds out the hope of salvation – “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
God offers the free gift of eternal life to everyone. But there is a condition attached. You have to receive Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. In other words, humans can be immortal but only on God’s terms.
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But only Jesus can offer eternal life because He had conquered death. He was crucified and He died. But death could not pin him to the grave. He rose from the dead.
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Humanists and atheists object to this. They cannot accept Jesus’ exclusive claim for attaining immortality – “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).
In the past, people turned to religion. They tried to attain eternal life by worshipping the gods and doing good deeds. Now, people turn to science and technology.
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The promise of Artificial Intelligence and biotechnology for achieving immortality is persuasive. But it will ultimately end in futility. Instead of better, healthier, stronger, and smarter humans that could live forever, the outcome will be a subpar transhuman catastrophe.
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But only Jesus can offer eternal life because He had conquered death. He was crucified and He died. But death could not pin him to the grave. He rose from the dead.
Listen to what Jesus has to say - “Because I live, you will also live” (John 14:19).
The promise of Artificial Intelligence and biotechnology for achieving immortality is persuasive. But it will ultimately end in futility. Instead of better, healthier, stronger, and smarter humans that could live forever, the outcome will be a subpar transhuman catastrophe.
The Coming Resurrection
The apostle, Paul, revealed a mystery in the redemptive plan of God. There is coming a day in the future when the believers of Jesus Christ will be resurrected just as Christ was raised from the dead. As for those who are alive at that time, they will undergo a radical and miraculous transformation. They will exchange their mortal bodies for immortal ones.
1 Corinthians 15:51-55 - Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
This is the moment when death is totally defeated for the believers. They will exchange their earthly and perishable bodies for heavenly and imperishable bodies, which will never decay and waste away.
What a glorious moment that will be! I believe that I will live to experience this awesome moment of rapture.
Which will you choose - the synthetic lifeform constructed out of Artificial Intelligence, biotechnology, and robotics, if that is ever achievable, or the immortal and glorious bodies that will be given by God?