Tag: Soul

Transhumanism and the Abolition of Free Will

What is free will?

It is the ability to act at one’s own discretion, to make choices of one’s own volition.

Within the earthly realm, it is actually a prerequisite to human rights, to the pursuit of happiness, and to true liberty.

In America we have oftentimes taken the gift of free will for granted. However, when we experience the loss of this treasure, in ways great or small, we are suddenly cognizant of how crucial it is for us to safeguard it always.

Elite leaders, who are part of influential global organizations, dream of a future in which the world is no longer populated by human beings as they are currently known.

Instead “new human beings” would consist of an amalgam of human as well as high-tech components. This would likely result in the manufacturing of synthetic creatures devoid of the remnants of free will.

The notion of a super-humanity, i.e., one that is theoretically enhanced via the merger of people with technological parts, is known as transhumanism.

Transhumanists are supposedly looking to convert human beings into creatures with amplified intellects and increased vigor.

More than anything, though, transhumanists seek to extend human life indefinitely.

In other words, they are on a quest for immortality.

Transhumanists see their form of eternal life being brought to fruition via the uploading of themselves into Artificial Intelligence hardware.

Oxford professor Nick Bostrom wrote that transhumanism is “a loosely defined movement…that can be viewed as an outgrowth of secular humanism and the Enlightenment.”

Many transhumanists are actually enamored with the whole notion of an immortal cyber-being, one in which the human intellect has been separated from the physical body and the “person” has been uploaded into computer hardware to achieve the ultimate end-goal.

Transhumanists refer to this state as the “posthuman” one.

Ray Kurzweil, a leading transhumanist, forecasts a world in which humans are extinct and the only “life” on earth will be computers.

Like many other transhumanists, Kurzweil’s view is that the universe is merely matter in motion. Our souls and minds are nothing more than bio-computers.

He further posits that his perspective leads to the logical conclusion that there is no essential difference between human brains and computers.

“We’re going to become increasingly non-biological, to the point where the biological part isn’t that important anymore,” Kurzweil stated at a conference about the coming 2045 world.

“Even if the biological part went away, it wouldn’t make any difference,” he remarked.

The pursuit of immortality is happening in plain sight.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and others are spending enormous amounts of money on anti-aging technology and treatments that they purportedly believe will allow humans to live forever.

In order to reach their goal of living forever, transhumanists are willing to give up everything it means to be human, including free will.

Yuval Noah Harari of the World Economic Forum stated, “Humans are now hackable animals. You know the whole idea that humans have this soul or spirit or free will, and nobody knows what’s happening inside me, so whatever I choose, whether in the election or whether in the supermarket, this is my free will – that’s over.”

The idea of humanity devoid of free will was featured in the 1948 novel, Walden Two, written by father of behaviorist psychology B.F. Skinner.

Skinner’s utopia was inhabited by people who were completely under the control of operant conditioning. In this fictional community, everyone is content because all have been fully conditioned to respond to their constraints with pleasure.

Individuals are ruled by elite experts who program them to pursue entertainment and leisure in controlled harmony. Of course, it is a world that is devoid of free will as well as representative government.

Similarly, Brave New World, the 1932 dystopian novel by Aldous Huxley, imagines a global government whose citizens are environmentally engineered into a blissful servitude. This is accomplished through reproductive technology, bioengineered drugs, and psychological conditioning.

Skinner’s Waldensians and Huxley’s 26th Century Londoners lack some very basic human attributes. Since they have become automatons they no can longer experience the transcendence of friendship, courage, self-sacrifice, love, and more.

Ironically, the folks who are pushing the transhumanist agenda are engaging in an intellectual sleight of hand.

They substitute a counterfeit faith in place of a genuine one.

Transhumanists desire to scan and transfer human consciousness into a machine. But in order for this to be accomplished, they must first come to believe in what could be called “a digital soul.”

Somehow a machine would have to possess the spiritual cognizance that human beings instinctively understand are not a part of the physical world.

Transhumanists have channeled their hope for salvation into an irrational belief.

Contrary to the religious wisdom of the ages concerning the sacredness and dignity of life, they cling to the idea that all of the mysteries of human consciousness can be reduced to mere algorithms.

Caution: If you go down this path, there’s no turning back.

Instead I recommend following the road where free will is the norm, happiness abounds, and life everlasting is waiting for you.

Dark Night of the Soul for America

The phrase “The Dark Night of the Soul” originally came from 16th century Spanish poet and mystic St. John of the Cross.

These words capture and convey the spiritual experience that a soul undergoes as it strives to reach union with the Almighty, despite temporal discouragements.

The now-popularized expression has been referenced over the years by a diverse array of authors and artists, including poet T.S. Eliot, writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, and singer-songwriter Van Morrison.

There is an additional application of the phrase that has been adopted by the entertainment industry.

In his best-selling book, titled “Save the Cat,” author Blake Snyder divides the pacing of storytelling into structural components that take place over time. Snyder even pinpoints the specific page of a film script at which the appropriate dark night moment should take form.

The cinematic moment should materialize at the end of the second act of a story, the point of desperation at which the protagonist is in a hopeless situation and all appears to be lost.

I contend that at this present moment in time—those of us who have held fast to our founding documents, to the virtues and ideals that are embodied therein, and to the knowledge that we are entrusted with the responsibility to preserve for our families, friends, and loved ones the treasure we have been given in our beloved America—we are at the end of the second act of one of the most intense dramas our country has ever endured, and the stakes are monumental.

In the scenes that preceded this critical point, powerful interests worked in unison to engage in a wide variety of illicit activities, both in the lead-up to Election Day and in the days that would follow.

The chairman and CEO of a Big Tech company donated hundreds of millions of dollars to a non-profit organization, which represented that the money was intended to assist with the voter turnout effort.

However, activities of the entity appear to have favored the encouragement of the voter turnout of one party in particular, the Democratic Party. This entity appears to have also encroached upon the constitutional powers of state lawmakers, and may have used money to manipulate certain aspects of state elections, including the counting of ballots.

Additionally, some state officials appear to have changed ballot security rules on their own, discarding the notion that the power to do so is in the specific purview of state legislatures.

When it came to the content that was published and/or distributed in the lead-up to the election, Big Media and Big Tech at times distorted and at other times lied outright. Highly relevant news stories were never investigated, were completely ignored, or were censored altogether.

The polling industry, too, disgraced itself with exaggerated polls that were specifically designed to suppress voter participation of those with opposing ideas.

In essence, half the population is now being told to reject what they have seen with their own eyes, heard with their own ears, and know in their own hearts; that on election night, the vote counting of several states was halted, with no explanation given. When it once again commenced, suddenly there were massive quantities of votes that came in for the Democratic presidential candidate.

In congressional, state, and local races, voters turned away from Democratic candidates, yet they still managed to vote for the Democratic candidate for president.

In record numbers, African-Americans chose the Republican candidate. Nevertheless, the Democratic presidential candidate somehow received 11 million more votes than former President Barack Obama did in 2008.

Then there were observers who were not allowed to watch mail-in ballots being opened and counted. There were those who were dead but who came back to life to vote. And there were those who were outside their various jurisdictions but who were allowed to cast ballots anyway.

While feebly calling for unity, the Democratic candidate also established a sham entity that his campaign called “the office of president-elect.” And the same people who spread false information about Russia-gate and Ukraine-gate are now urging folks to move on, claiming that there is nothing to investigate and that the American people should graciously accept their candidate of choice.

That all of this might make the almost 74 million voters and supporters of President Donald Trump feel less than hopeful is an understatement.

But my admonition is simple. This is not the time to give up or even grow weak. Rather, it is the time to take heart.

In the “Save the Cat” pacing of storytelling, “The Dark Night of the Soul” leads to a conclusion that makes for an epic saga. What follows the lowest of low points is an unexpected breakthrough that enables the protagonist to overcome seemingly impossible odds and secure victory.

I like to think of it as “The Bright Light of the Spirit.”