Ray Kurzweil Will Exist Forever
By Monte Kuligowski (02/25/05)
Have you heard of Dr. Ray Kurzweil? He’s a really smart guy. You could even say he’s a genius. The Christian Science Monitor referred to him as a “modern Edison;” he was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame in 2002; and he received the Lemelson-MIT prize of $500,000 for his innovative work. Kurzweil is the inventor of, among other things, the Optical Character Recognition reading machine for the blind that can read any typeface.
Now the blind can read his new book co-authored with Terry Grossman, “Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever.” And the spiritually blind might even believe its claim. The book’s claim is that advancing knowledge will enable us to conquer the biological problems which cause death. The day is soon coming when limitations on life spans will be no more. Humans have the potential to attain immortality through technology.
The way Kurzweil figures, if he can just live approximately 20 more years he will see the biotechnological revolution. With the decoding of the total genetic content and biological engineering, scientists will be able to introduce new genes to stop the aging process. And nanotechnology will enable doctors to send forth microscopic machines called “nanobots” into the bloodstream to repair organs and to eliminate disease from the body. Brain cells will not only be maintained, but all known limitations of intelligence will be removed. Kurzweil believes we will someday engineer our bodies much like we program computers for diagnostics and repair.
This hope for immortality in 20 years explains why the 56-year-old inventor consumes 250 dietary supplements, eight to 10 glasses of alkaline water and 10 cups of green tea every day.
Dr. Sherwin Nuland, a Yale bioethics professor, believes Kurzweil is a genius, but also believes he’s part of a growing cohort that is obsessed with avoiding death. “They’ve forgotten they’re acting on the basic biological fear of death and extinction, and it distorts their rational approach to the human condition,” Nuland noted.
Nuland’s above statement raises three interesting themes: (1) The fear of death; (2) Distorted rationality; and (3) The human condition.
These are great points to elaborate on from a religious perspective. I would suggest, first, that the fear of death is not biological, but spiritual. In our natural state, all men fear death, and rightly so. The relevant question is, why? If we are merely the product of existence-by-chance, then there is no good reason to fear non-existence or extinction. There is nothing in chance biology and impersonal matter to make us fear death. But if something within your soul tells you that you’re not right with God and hell is real, then the fear of death makes sense. It’s not extinction men fear, but impending judgment. Thoughts of non-existence don’t cause feelings of horror, but an eternally tormented spiritual existence is an entirely different proposition.
Next, the fear of death doesn’t lead to an irrational approach to the human condition; rejecting the true spiritual state of the human condition leads to irrational thinking. The human condition on a larger scale has nothing to do with biology. The bodily condition is such that all will die. The spirit (the real substance of a person), however, is eternal. Although Kurzweil’s approach to the bodily condition is irrational; the true source of his irrationality lies in his approach to the condition of the human spirit.
Kurzweil will never attain physical immortality on earth, but he – like the rest of us – will exist forever in a timeless, spiritual dimension.
The only question is whether we will spend eternity in paradise with God or separated from the light and glory of heaven for all eternity.
Rejecting the truth of one’s spiritual condition is the natural result of rejecting the knowledge of the living God. The apostle Paul informs us in Romans that the unthankful, “became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools.” (1: 21-22). As such, they end up worshiping creation instead of the Creator.
Kurzweil is not alone. Many modern intellectuals have become too smart for God. It has pleased God, however, to choose “the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.” (1 Cor. 1: 27). The simple Bible message on the sinful condition of man is foolishness to the wise of this world. And the cross of Christ, revealing the love of God, is a stumbling block for their feet, rather than an anchor for their soul.
Before the great flood, it wasn’t uncommon for people to reach the ripe old age of 800 or even 900. But even if scientists could restore conditions to pre-flood days, men would still nevertheless die. The physical can’t last forever. At the appointed time, every man will stand before the sovereign Lord.
All the particulars that Kurzweil looks to for meaning will someday pass away; including our bodies and the physical universe. Even Plato knew that without a higher absolute, the particulars of biology have no meaning. So rather than studying the codes (in hopes of finding immortality) written into the particulars by God, we would do better to study his message to man which has been written clearly for all to see.
“It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” (Hebrews 9: 27).
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