5 highlights from John Lennox on 'Diary of a CEO': AI, transhumanism and Christ
2. Dismisses ‘transhumanist agenda’ to ‘solve the problem of death’: ‘You’re too late’
Lennox also took aim at transhumanism, a movement that seeks to use technology to dramatically extend human life and eventually overcome death itself.
According to Lennox, Christianity already offers the answer many transhumanists are searching for.
“The problem of physical death was solved when God raised Christ from the dead 20 centuries ago,” he said, adding that transhumanists are "too late" and cannot stop death.
While some transhumanists hope technology will eventually allow humans to upload their consciousness into digital forms, Lennox pointed to the Christian hope of resurrection.
“I'm waiting for the biggest uploading that's ever going to happen in history when Christ returns and raises me from the dead because that is precisely what He promises,” he said.
Lennox added that transhumanism ultimately reflects humanity's age-old desire to become divine.
Lennox said how he often asks proponents of transhumanism, “Isn’t it fascinating that your transhumanism consists [of] humans reaching out to become little gods?”
Christianity, by contrast, tells the story of “a God who became human so that He could give us life and give us a new relationship with Him.”
Lennox also asserted that both transhumanism and AI-driven visions of the future attempt to build a utopia without addressing humanity's deeper moral problem.
“They will not face the sin problem,” he said.
“What really completes the circle for me is that my relationship with God is a relationship which is based on the solution to the really hard problem,” he added. “And that is the problem that I, by nature, have not always done good and by my own standards, I have failed.”
Lennox summarized both transhumanism and AI as efforts to “build paradise, utopia without facing the problem of the damage that humans have caused to themselves and one another” that “will not face the sin problem.”
He dismissed these alternatives as inadequate: “Christianity to me doesn’t compete with … anything else because Christ offers me something nobody else offers me. Nobody else offers me peace, the peace of knowing that I have real forgiveness; the peace of knowing that I have a friend and a companion to whom I can talk all the time.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
