Perhaps you have seen the term accelerationism used by some members of Team Reality. The idea, simplified, is that the system is lurching toward a leftist singularity, and that “If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly”. Assist events to get us to The End quickly and reduce our overall pain.
The idea is not unknown elsewhere. Even among Christians.
There is one form of active Christian accelerationism that is familiar. But there is another that I’m betting most of you haven’t heard before. I’ll spend only a moment on the first as a reminder.
Every Christian, defined here as one who believes Jesus is God, is obliged to believe that Jesus will return. Some day. The day is not known.
Some think they can hasten The Day by their activities.
The best known example are certain evangelical Christians who have developed the theory that the modern day country of Israel best fits scriptural passages about the End of the world. A prime example was (is?) Hal Lindsay, whose book, and later movie narrated by Orson Welles, The Late Great Planet Earth assured believers that after the modern state of Israel was founded there would only be “one generation” of men left.
Since it’s been 77 years since the founding of the modern state, and 77 years is surely at the outer limit of a “generation”, and the End has not yet come, the term “generation” has had to undergo substantial modification.
In any case, devout—really, too weak a word—support for that foreign country persists in the hope that prophecy can be juiced if only enough donations are sent.
But enough of that. Let’s turn from active accelerationism to passive accelerationism.
In two lectures, the great Peter Kreeft gave us an intriguing thought. That genetics may hasten the Second Coming.
Now wait. His is not some hot-take limited-information panicked shallow view. He has devoted serious thought to this.
In a lecture contrasting the science of Pascal with (what I could call) the scientism of Decartes, Kreeft said (about 30 minutes in):
[Through Descartes’ science] we might rid ourselves of an infinity of maladies both of body and mind and perhaps also of the enfeeblement brought on by old age, if one were to have a sufficient knowledge of their cause.
Well we know today that their cause is genetic and we have broken the genetic code and we are learning how to replace God’s and Nature’s encoding with our own. And if we do that by eliminating not just diseases but also death, we will have radically reinterpreted John Dunn’s pious poetic prophecy “Death thou shalt die” so as to put the conquest of death under our control, not Christ’s.
That would be playing God in almost exactly the same way as a mother who justifies aborting her own child when she plays God, and radically reinterprets Christ’s Eucharistic words. “This is my body,” she says. Those same words, but to take life rather than to give it.
…Frankenstein is one of the most popular stories ever written although it is far from a literary Masterpiece. Why is it so popular because we instinctively know that science fiction inevitably comes scientific fact.
Why should the technology of artificial immortality be an exception to that rule?
Descartes tells us to doubt everything but he writes in a letter to Burnham that it should not be doubted that human life could be prolonged if we knew the appropriate art…Why should there be any end at all? Why not complete man’s conquest of nature by conquering death itself?
…But once that apple is eaten it cannot be uneaten, and when death’s door is closed, the door to Heaven is closed, and if that happens Pascal will prove to have been much too naive and optimistic.
Let us pray that it does not happen.
And more explicitly, again comparing Descartes but this time with Bacon (at 24 min), he says:
Descartes hopes…to return to Eden or progress to Utopia through the unlimited potentialities of future technology.
He says this is advisable not only for the sake of an infinity of devices that would enable us to enjoy without pain the fruits of the earth and all the goods one finds in it, but that we might rid ourselves of an infinity of maladies both of body and mind and perhaps also of the enfeeblement of old age, were one to have a sufficient knowledge of their cause and of all the remedies that nature has provided for us.
In a private letter Descartes confesses his most radical dream of the conquest of Nature’s trump card death itself. He writes, “It should not be doubted that human life could be indefinitely prolonged if we only knew the appropriate art.”
Here Descartes predicts exactly what [C.S.] Lewis warns against in the Abolition of Man. That this conquest of nature can become the conquest of human nature and the abolition of all diseases and perhaps death itself. Thus prophetically forecasting the dark dreams and devices of the so-called transhumanists in Silicon Valley, who are seriously working on the conquest of Nature’s trump card on artificial immortality by genetic engineering.
If this ever actually happens I think that would elicit the Second Coming and the end of the world.
Because of race of immortals living in this fallen world by their own fallen foolish prideful flesh would be like rotten eggs that never hatched. They would close the door to their own teleology, their own end.
This is obviously only the bones of an idea, and needs flesh. Maybe we can add some.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says in part:
Before Christ’s second coming, the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers (Luke 18:8; Mt 24:12). The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the “mystery of iniquity” in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of His Messiah come in the flesh (2 Thess 2:4-12; 1 Thess 5:2-3; 1 Jn 2:18-22) (CCC # 675).
Now everybody has problems. The roof needs replacing, money is low, what was the noise the car is making, this hangnail is inflamed, and on and on. These are all problems, and all different. There are at least as many problems are there are men. Clearly, no one man will ever offer to solve all of them, for everybody, at once.
But there is one problem every man shares. Death.
If a man offered to solve death, and could, well, the adulation he would receive would no doubt be substantial. And that is putting it lightly.
Who could refuse such a gift as the End of Death? Only religious fanatics who believe its sting was removed on the Cross. Only those who believe death is, as Kreeft said, the purview of Christ.
Those who refuse such a gift—perhaps it might be called Life Treatment, or, better, the Death Vaccination—would indeed face persecution. Doubt it? How soon you have forgotten the last four years! “Where is your Life Passport, bigot?” “Why aren’t you wearing the Life Mark? You’re fired.” Recall how you were told your vax didn’t work when you were within six feet of an unvaxxed person.
Kids would be removed from fanatical parents. Doubt it? How soon you have forgotten yesterday!
Yet is this science plausible? I am skeptical. Death is built into all of Nature. Everything dies. Overcoming it by technological means might be impossible. I do not say it is impossible. I’m guessing. At the least, the state science is in now makes it exceedingly unlikely to happen in the present moment. Yet things change.
What makes this passive accelerationism, and not active, is that nearly everybody is for this kind of “progress” in science. They support it, want to see it supported monetarily. We must needs have our toys. And of course many Christians take part in science. Only a scant handful warn against, or are nervous about, “advances” in medicine. But these critics are dismissed as Luddites, and cruel. After all, who can be against curing disease? In children. It seems inhuman.
An apt word here, as Kreeft hints.
Suppose Kreeft is right—you have to imagine you did not have breakfast now—and that the advent (a carefully chosen word) of scientific immortality would bring about the Second Coming. Would you, as a Christian, consider working in genetics?
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Given the baleful history of humanity why would anyone in their right mind want to eliminate death. ”
Oh death, where is thy sting”.
You assume that human nature will change with earthly immortality.
My guess is that immortality will be intolerable to most as life as we know it changes in unexpected ways. It will not all of a sudden make everyone love each other forever. That is a necessary condition for immortality. Will life would become increasingly boring and the ending of others immortality become common.
Read Asimov’s “Foundation and Earth” to see how he envisioned immortality among humans.
The value of life is cheap, and getting cheaper by the day. No genetic tinkering is going to inoculate against the knife or bullet of the godless man who covets.
“Every Christian, defined here as one who believes Jesus is God, is obliged to believe that Jesus will return. Some day.”
I’ll take issue with this definition. James 2:19 … even demons believe and shudder…. Belief is not sufficient to be counted a Christian – although I am sure this definition is used by many. The demons referred to in James do not count themselves as Christians. The definition of one who is Christian is acceptance, through grace, of Christ’s sacrifice of atonement for one’s sin. Acts 16:31 uses the phrase “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ”… this is quite different than, “Believe in…”
Since we’re being biblical:
“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matthew 24:36”
So why is there even debate or discussion about when?
Briggs:
Great point. I have not forgotten that appalling lesson. The crazy has been relaxed a bit now but it will be back. If not a “death vaxx” then something just as stupid and monstrous. And credulous people will once again become a mob of frightened fools. But we’ll get through their next manufactured crisis, too. A lot more people are on to their game. Briggs and many others did fine work helping keep people sane during the covid deception. Covid was our “Event 201”, helping us prepare mentally and spiritually for the next satanic psyop. And we’ll have a good time suffering through it — “Be of Good Cheer”, and all that.
As a Christian, the timing of the second coming is immaterial to me. Jesus says no one knows the day or the hour. “Only the Father knows.” If He wanted me to devote a lot of my time trying to figure out what He says only the Father knows, I doubt he would have taken that approach.
In any case, in Genesis 3:22, “And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.””
I’m pretty sure trying to metaphorically eat of the Tree of Life after God has forbidden it is something Christians should definitely not do, for any reason.
Cloudbuster–good comment: “I’m pretty sure trying to metaphorically eat of the Tree of Life after God has forbidden it is something Christians should definitely not do, for any reason.”
Not everyone is going to be able to afford immortality. It will be an ongoing
process of increasingly expensive medical interventions over time. You’ll stay
alive until the money runs out. There is a history of people living much longer which given
our high levels of intellectual development has been dismissed as fiction. Then there’s time dilation
over velocity as you approach the speed of light which any presumptive god can do.
The Sumerian King List
https://www.bibleblender.com/2011/bible-stories/old-testament/genesis/from-adam-to-noah-genealogy-genesis-5-1-5-32
From Adam to Noah – the genealogy of Adam (Genesis 5:1 – 5:32)
https://www.bibleblender.com/2011/bible-stories/old-testament/genesis/from-adam-to-noah-genealogy-genesis-5-1-5-32
The popular belief among Evangelicals is that the present events, including the state of Israel, are not the beginning events that point to the end of the world. The end of the world would happen after the millennial rule of Christ on this present earth along with other events that precede and follow the millennium. The end of the world would be more than one thousand years into the future (cf. Revelation 19:11 through 20:10).
“There is a history of people living much longer…”
Mythology, not history.
Cary D Cotterman writes: “Mythology, not history.” Well for the incurious that would be the
most comforting terminology that allows you to pretty much pick and choose what you want to
believe from antiquity. Call it what you will writing was an exclusive skill of a very small handful
of people in these periods. The fact that someone took the time to set it down for the edification
of future generations deserves more than a cursory glance and a little thought given the paucity
of material. Much of what has been dismissed as myth has now been proven at various archeological
sites to be conclusive fact. The long held belief in The Immortals throughout antiquity set down
as direct experience in the diverse writings of many cultures from continent to continent forms
a corpus of material that has become increasingly difficult to dismiss as mere mythology. Given
recent advances in medical technology and genetics only now are we as a nascent species able to
entertain the possibility of life extension and immortality for what once seemed like science fiction
or mythology. Odd the close resemblance of the Caduceus the traditional symbol of Hermes, the
Sumerian tree of life, and Crick’s double helix discovery of 1953.
Earthly life will end for every human being when God determines their time is up. Some will be alive at the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ …. whether they go through death as we know it, or are just changed by God, God knows.
And … “For this we say unto you in the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them who have slept. 15 For the Lord himself shall come down from heaven with commandment, and with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God: and the dead who are in Christ, shall rise first. 1 Thessalonians 4: 14-15.
God bless, C-Marie
I think it would be easier to make everyone live to 120 than to substantially extend life beyond that point. When people get over about 110, they’ve already outlived most of what will kill them. And they just wear out.
Difficult thought it might be, we could potentially preserve an individual from conditions that might kill him, so his lifespan reaches its maximum length. But after that, how do you keep people from just wearing out. Despite lots of speculation, I don’t think anyone really knows how to do that, nor how successful such methods would be. Even making someone live to 130 would be extraordinary. But even if you could accomplish that, it might be all that the method can do.
In terms of what is theoretically possible, who knows, but I don’t see us close to people living even 150 years, to say nothing of immortality.
People are already working on this, and quite successfully. I think eliminating the huge suffering caused by ageing is a noble pursuit, and I seriously doubt it will cause a second coming of Christ.
https://www.lifespan.io/road-maps/the-rejuvenation-roadmap/
https://www.levf.org/
https://forever-healthy.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvWtSUdOWVI
Sorry I posted the same link twice here’s the Sumerian King’s list:
A truly astonishing find with a time line of 385 thousand years that coincides
proximally with the coincident fossil records of Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon man.
https://www.livius.org/sources/content/anet/266-the-sumerian-king-list/
Briggs, what are you doing? Trying to divert money from Israel??? Halliburton has a contract to rebuild Solomon’s temple! There is still a lot more work to be done before we can all be raptured into immortal life in the Matrix, until then you need to get used to VR goggles that help simulate the never-ending lives of fallen human nature frozen in their sin and rebellion with no escape brought to you by Apple-Meta-Microsoft. Google might’ve been there too but it’s AI was too woke and chose the thermonuclear option of doing nothing least it offend the death industry of a woman’s right to choosetheir infant’s mortal end.
Anyway, here is the accelerationist hero we need!
https://nypost.com/2024/02/27/us-news/chicago-cop-sues-city-for-right-to-change-his-race-after-department-allows-officers-to-change-genders/
Kreeft made a valiant effort to make sense of the world, and I applaud him for it, but I disagree with almost everything he said. Starting with “genetic code”. Unless a person admits our genetic code doesn’t contain genes, that person can not be considered as having the slightest clue about the human genetic code. You heard me.
> when death’s door is closed, the door to Heaven is closed
First and foremost, the immortality after ressurection is not merely the absence of death. It is the *impossibility* of death. A ressurected human can not be harmed in any way, period. They can’t even be trapped, as in a prison or under a rock slide because they can teleport, like Jesus did when he entered a closed room. No “medical immortality” will ever be able to match that, not in principe, not in practice.
> If this ever actually happens I think that would elicit the Second Coming and the end of the world.
Conjecture. We know there will be one last generation of people who will be living when Christ arrives. They will be changed in an instant. They will have been ressurected without dying first. That’s because Christ’s ressurection isn’t merely rising from the dead. People rose from the dead before and after the ressurection. No, Christs ressurection is a remaking of the body. It doesn’t require the death of the body and truth be told it isn’t limited to the body. Eventually, all of Creation will get ressurected. Well, all of it except Hell, but even Hell will get a major workover. Therefore Kreeft can sleep and be at ease, knowing that even a race of medically immortal humans will in no way inconvenience God nor will they force his hand.
Really, that last bit is probably worth pondering. Do you REALLY belive you can force God to do something? Do you actually belive you can “accelerate” the arrival of Christ? And what makes you think Christ wants to arrive ASAP? What if Christ wants to ensure the maximum number of people has the maximum number and diversity of lives and experiences so as to make Heaven as richer as possible? If so, he’d postpone his arrival as much as possible.
> Before Christ’s second coming,
Before Christ’s second coming, Moon will be at two places at once and “the celestial forces will be shaken”. It will be a world of wild RPGs, more akin to the video game DOOM or any epic fantasy/science fiction crossover than what we currently have. Rest easy people, we’re still so early in the history of the Universe we’re still playing the Universe 1.01 version of the game. I’ll be LIT before Christ arrives, and I’m pretty sure his arrival won’t be quite so simple and one-act as it’s been traditionally understood. Consider the following as a very low-key low-intensity introduction on the idea: https://barsoom.substack.com/p/make-demon-slaying-great-again
> Suppose Kreeft is right and that the advent (a carefully chosen word) of scientific immortality would bring about the Second Coming. Would you, as a Christian, consider working in genetics?
You didn’t specify the moral weight and alignment of these actions. I myself don’t see them as having any, I consider them neutral. With that in mind, yes I would work on genetics and I’m a Catholic who goes to Mass every Sunday, for about two decades now. However if said actions were judged as being evil then I wouldn’t do them. But I’m *SURE* they wouldn’t provoke Christ into arriving. We can’t accelerate the arrival and we shouldn’t. Let the Big Guy figure it out on his own. Unlike all the rest of us, he actually knows what he’s doing.