The Religion of Transhumanism

We must oppose this counterfeit religion:

Christians know that there are such things as false religions and fake gospels. But various worldviews also have religious elements. For example, socialism, Marxism and secular humanism all promise a heaven on earth – among other things. And secular ideologies such as transhumanism and aspects of AI even promise eternal life – or at least various forms of immortality. I have written about the transhumanist religion before, as in this piece: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2025/03/24/technology-transhumanism-and-religion/

But given how it is growing in popularity and acceptance, leading many astray – as all false religions do – it is worth looking further at it. Let me cite just a few authors who seek to sound the alarm about where we are heading with these pseudo-religions. In Rod Dreher’s new book, Living in Wonder: Finding Mystery and Meaning in a Secular Age (Hodder & Stoughton, 2024) he speaks to this.

He notes how the vacuum in the West caused by the decline of Christianity IS going to be filled: “The point is this: readying the world for these new religions required scraping the Western mind clean of traditional Christian metaphysics. That clearing operation began hundreds of years ago with the abandonment of the medieval model. Our post-Christian world is being re-enchanted; the question now is, By what, and by whom?” (p. 126)

We know the answer. He continues:

It is clear that AI will be a machine that goes beyond the idol and becomes a portal of communication with what many people will treat as divinity. Neil McArthur, director of the University of Manitoba Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics, foresees the arrival of AI religions. He says that generative AI (AI that can create new information) possesses qualities associated with divine beings:

 

1. “It displays a level of intelligence that goes beyond that of most humans. Indeed, its knowledge appears limitless.
2. “It is capable of great feats of creativity. It can write poetry, compose music and generate art, in almost any style, close to instantaneously.
3. “It is removed from normal human concerns and needs. It does not suffer physical pain, hunger, or sexual desire.
4. “It can offer guidance to people in their daily lives.
5. “It is immortal.”

AI will be able to answer complex moral and philosophical questions. Many people will cease to read on the assumption that wisdom is nothing more than the accumulation of information and that asking AI is the most efficient, friction-free way to solve problems. The ways of thinking that established religious and philosophical traditions have taught us will disappear. Indeed, the creation and adoption of AI technology could happen only in a culture that had been cleared of any serious obstacle to its embrace. (pp. 133-134)

Rana Fazale with Kenneth Samples says this in Humans 2.0: Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Perspectives on Transhumanism (Reasons to Believe, 2019):

Both Christians and transhumanists see death as an enemy. It is unnatural. And we both long for a day when death is vanquished. Christians and transhumanists see value to human life and believe that human dignity can be undermined by pain and suffering. We yearn for the freedom to become who we are meant to be – throwing off the shackles of our human limitations. Transhumanists see these limitations as biological; Christians see them as arising from the effects of sin. We both sense a purpose and destiny for humanity that extend beyond the here and now….

 

Christians also recognize that humanity’s ultimate hope can never be found in what we can achieve through technology, but only through God’s grace (unmerited favor). As Christians, we acknowledge that it is through God’s grace that all of our yearnings will be satisfied. Through His grace, we will transcend this reality and enjoy an intimate relationship with our Creator – one made possible by Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross. We will overcome death through the resurrection and humanity will achieve its ultimate purpose and arrive at its final destiny. Through God’s grace, we will be freed from our limitations as human beings and attain the freedom to become all we are meant to be. (pp. 220-221)

Religions deal with who we are, where we are heading, what ails us, and what can be done about it. Christianity of course deals with this, as does transhumanism. There are some similarities, but of course there are many differences.

Brent Waters, writing in Transhumanism and Transcendence: Christian Hope in an Age of Technological Enhancement edited by Ronald Cole-Turner (Georgetown University Press, 2011) says this:

Transhumanism represents a late modern religious response to the finite and mortal constraints of human existence. It is not a religion in a formal sense, but as Martin Luther suggests, wherever one places one’s confidence is necessarily one’s god—or, more broadly, one’s object of faith or ultimate concern.’ In this respect, transhumanism and Christianity appear to have a number of similarities, particularly with regard to soteriology and eschatology. Transhumanists and Christians agree, for instance, that the finite and mortal human condition is far from ideal. For transhumanists humans have fallen short of achieving their true potential, whereas for Christians humans have not yet become the kinds of creatures God intends them to be. In response both agree that humans require release from their current condition. For transhumanists this release is attained through technological transformation, whereas for Christians humans are transformed by their life in Christ. Both agree that death is the final enemy; transhumanists conquer this foe by achieving the immortality of endless time, whereas Christians are resurrected into eternity, where there is no time….

 

These similarities, however, are more apparent than substantive, for transhumanists draw their core beliefs and convictions often unwittingly from what Christians would regard as heretical sources…. (p. 164)

And Noreen Herzfeld in The Artifice of Intelligence: Divine and Human Relationship in a Robotic Age (Augsburg/Fortress Press, 2023) wrote the following:

Is transhumanism a new religion? Unlike the Christian notion of salvation through Christ’s death and resurrection, transhumanists see overcoming death as a “do-it-yourself” project, something we can accomplish through our own efforts and agency, making the transhumanist project closer to magic than religious belief….

 

Transhumanists want to live forever in the here and now. This desire contrasts with the Christian belief that true immortality must lie beyond the limitations of our current space-time continuum. Reinhold Niebuhr writes, “The Christian faith insists that the final consummation of history lies beyond the conditions of the temporal process.” Niebuhr sees this final consummation as a fulfillment rather than a negation of our current life. Eternity takes us out of the spatial-temporal framework, while simultaneously embracing the fulfillment of life within that framework. . . .  Here we note a major difference between the Christian hope for resurrection and the transhumanist project. Only resurrection promises true immortality and release from the limitations of this world. Bodily improvement or cybernetic uploading promise more time in the present world. But more time is not eternity. No matter how well we fix our bodies or our computers, they remain finite creations of a finite planet within a finite universe. (pp. 138-139)

In Reaching for Immortality: Can Science Cheat Death? A Christian Response to Transhumanism (Wipf & Stock, 2022) Sandra Godde says this about further differences between biblical Christianity and the transhumanist gospel:

The value of the human body and its integration in one’s personhood is a central point of connection between the Christian and transhumanist ideologies. For the transhumanist, the future leads to a post human species that includes the demeaning and disparaging of the flesh-and-blood body. In this view, we are biological machines that can be tampered with, improved upon, and even surpassed. In contrast, Christianity emphasizes a sanctification of the soul, physical embodiment in the world to come, and a continuity of personal identity into the afterlife. Depending on what view one takes (biological machine vis-a-vis imago dei), the ethical implications for the future of humanity are momentous. (p. 51)

(See my full review of her helpful book here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2022/10/26/a-review-of-reaching-for-immortality-by-sandra-godde/ )

And early on in his important volume, Dark Aeon: Transhumanism and the War Against Humanity (War Room Books, 2023), Joe Allen makes this stark assessment:

Every culture weaves a psychic word around its inhabitants. Loaded as the term “religion” may be, these are ultimately religious worlds. The underside of each sacred canopy is etched with a map of the cosmos, rooting a people in their past, establishing a moral framework for the present, and orienting them toward the future. Our era’s cultural chaos has provided fertile ground for a new religious system to emerge. Even though various sects are still vying for influence in the initial phase, an orthodoxy is coming into focus. Its mythos is science. Its ethos is calculation. Its salvific principle is technology….

 

Humanity 2.0 will be transnational, transcultural, transgender, transracial, transspecies, and at its extreme edge, transhuman—the final merger of man with the Machine. Our digital creations are to come to life and we are to become our own digital creations. As awareness of this situation has grown, “transhumanism” now carries much the same stigma that “satanism” did in decades past. For that reason, the term is generally avoided by those promoting the concepts. But there’s no more fitting label for the zeitgeist of our age. (pp. 4-5) 

Lastly, something my online American friend and poet Tom Graffagnino recently penned is worth sharing here. It makes for a good summary statement of where we are now at:

Welcome to the grand, hip-Gnosis…

Mindless matter’s in demand!

We imagined it was “progress”.

Little did we understand.

 

Babel Towers high arising.

(In this bedlam that we’ve made…)

It’s the Mess, Lord, we’ve created

And The Piper WILL be paid.

 

We’ve embraced Reductionism…

Mindless Storage Units reign!

We’re amassing Information

In The Cloud…Big Brother’s Brain.

 

God’s no longer really needed

(We’ve downloaded Deity!)

Humanism outsmarts Wisdom

And we’ve done so at Mock Speed.

 

Scientism’s Golden Calf Class

Now matriculates with Pride.

The mechanics are impressive,

And The Dark is amplified.

Thanks so much Tom. And beware of the transhumanist religion.

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