experience His resurrection power. We read in John 11, before Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead:
25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.
26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?"
27 She said to Him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world."
We have the promise of new life in Jesus Christ - once we accept Him as our Lord and Savior, we enter into eternal life; our spirits are regenerated and our souls saved. We have the promise that when we die on earth, we make the transition into heaven. The Bible teaches that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord - we will live forever in His presence. We can have that assurance that we are alive in Christ now and will be alive with Him forever by accepting the salvation He has provided for us.
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2nd Corinthians chapter 5 gives some insight into the nature of the life that God has in store for us in the place that Jesus is preparing:
1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven,
3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.
4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.
I came across an article recently on the Techspot website that indicates there is an Australian company that wants to enable human beings to, in a sense, cheat death. This startup is called Humai and it claims to be working on a way to transfer a person’s consciousness into an artificial body after they’ve died.
The article quotes a piece from Australian Popular Science, in which CEO Josh Bocanegra is quoted as saying: “We'll first collect extensive data on our members for years prior to their death via various apps we're developing.” Then, after death, the company will cryogenically freeze members’ brains until the technology is fully developed, at which point the brains will be implanted into an artificial body. He continued: “The artificial body functions will be controlled with your thoughts by measuring brain waves. As the brain ages we'll use nanotechnology to repair and improve cells. Cloning technology is going to help with this too.”
Bocanegra believes, somewhat optimistically, that his company will be able to resurrect the first human within the next 30 years.
1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven,
3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.
4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.
I came across an article recently on the Techspot website that indicates there is an Australian company that wants to enable human beings to, in a sense, cheat death. This startup is called Humai and it claims to be working on a way to transfer a person’s consciousness into an artificial body after they’ve died.
The article quotes a piece from Australian Popular Science, in which CEO Josh Bocanegra is quoted as saying: “We'll first collect extensive data on our members for years prior to their death via various apps we're developing.” Then, after death, the company will cryogenically freeze members’ brains until the technology is fully developed, at which point the brains will be implanted into an artificial body. He continued: “The artificial body functions will be controlled with your thoughts by measuring brain waves. As the brain ages we'll use nanotechnology to repair and improve cells. Cloning technology is going to help with this too.”
In a story on the IGN website, Bocanegra is quoted as saying, "I think the body has limitations and I don't believe the body has evolved with the best possible functions", adding, "I think an artificial body will contribute more to the human experience. It will extend the human experience. So much so, that those who accept death will probably change their mind."
This reminded me of an article I wrote for River Region's Journey magazine in 2013. In it, I referenced this fascination with living forever that is expressed in the movement toward singularity, or "digital immortality," referencing a story on the U.K. Daily Mail website. I mentioned Google director of engineering Ray Kurzweil, who had said that in just over 30 years, humans would be able to upload their entire minds to computers. He also claims that the biological parts of our body will be replaced with mechanical parts and this could happen as early as 2100.
Well, I thought I'd check in on Dr. Kurzweil to see what he's been saying recently. CNN Money did a story this past June on his predictions. He had spoken at a conference in New York. He predicts that humans will become hybrids in the 2030's, meaning our brains will be able to connect directly to the cloud, where there will be thousands of computers, and those computers will augment our existing intelligence. He said the brain will connect via nanobots -- tiny robots made from DNA strands. He said, "Our thinking then will be a hybrid of biological and non-biological thinking." Kurzweil maintains that in the late 2030's or early 2040's, our thinking will be predominately non-biological. And, the bigger and more complex the cloud, the more advanced our thinking.
That's right - there are those who believe that you can cheat death, that it is not inevitable, and that the blend of technology and humanity can lead to immortality.
I accept that fact that there are life-saving technologies that can enable us to fix broken pieces in our bodies, but to merge the human brain with computer technology in order to sustain life, to me, offers a number of ethical and spiritual questions. But, today, I want to concentrate on the nature of life and what the Bible has to say about living forever.
The fact is, based on the Scriptures, is that when we leave this world, when we die, then we move into another realm, commonly called the "afterlife." So, you will be dead in an earthly sense, but you will be residing in another place. As believers in Christ, we know that we have eternal life that we have entered into because of what Jesus has done for us, and the Bible contains a number of descriptions of that life. And, those that do not accept Jesus as their Savior will experience spiritual death - separation from God - but they will be residing consciously in a place of eternal punishment called hell.
It does seem to me that people want to live forever. But, sacrificing humanity by blending it with artificial intelligence is not the answer. God offers insight into the nature of life and death in His Word. Even though we may depart this earth, we can experience life that is eternal - really, a higher form of life than we ever have had in this world. We will have new bodies - glorified and energized by the presence of God. Singularity or artificial intelligence may promise a "resurrection," but the true resurrection is the passage through death in this life into the next life. Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life." Man's futile attempts to recreate a resurrected experience will only pale by comparison to what He has in store for us.
And, keep in mind, we have already been raised - our dead spirits, separated from God by our sin, have been raised up and brought to life. We have been ushered into a new life, a resurrected life, in Christ. Our death in this world will then represent a transition into an existence where our bodies are replaced, our souls are renewed, and we are in the constant presence of the Almighty, experiencing what He has in store for us - that cannot be computer-generated.
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