TrueChristian® Hypocrisy
Lincoln Cannon is an American philosopher and technologist who co-founded the Mormon Transhumanist Association in 2006, serving as its president from 2006 to 2016. He is a leading advocate of technological evolution and postsecular religion, combining software engineering expertise with degrees in philosophy and business. ¶ Cannon is also a founder and board member of the Christian Transhumanist Association. He formulated the New God Argument, a logical argument for faith in God that has become popular among religious transhumanists. His academic work includes “Mormonism Mandates Transhumanism” published in Religion and Human Enhancement: Death, Values, and Morality (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) and “Transfigurism: A Future of Religion as Exemplified by Religious Transhumanists” published in The Transhumanism Handbook (Springer Verlag, 2019). ¶ Mormon transhumanism, as articulated by Cannon, holds that humanity should learn how to be compassionate creators. This idea is central to the Mormon theological tradition, which provides a religious framework consistent with naturalism and supportive of human transformation. Cannon’s work bridges religious faith with scientific advancement, advocating for the ethical use of technology to extend human abilities in ways consistent with a religious worldview.
I received a Google Alert for “[Christians Only] WDYT of Christian Transhumanism Association? : r/TrueChristian - Reddit.” Christians only? Okay. I’m Christian.
So I clicked on the link and read the thread. The “Christian” originator tells of going down the proverbial “rabbit hole” and learning about Christian Transhumanism. Although confused and inviting thoughts, he’s “pretty sure” that the common Christian Transhumanist idea of resurrecting the dead is “heresy.”
An “Eastern Orthodox” commenter confirms, “just by seeing their name I know they’re at least heretics or not even Christians.”
Whitewashed Tomb
A “Christian non-nationalist” shares, “My first concern is their participatory technological language around resurrection.” He continues, “I don’t read the Bible as suggesting that this is anything other than a work of our awesome creator.” Oh, and by the way, “I’m also concerned about the apparent composition … including Mormon Transhumanists and secular-adjacent futurist writers …”
And “Non-Denominational” concludes, feigning imitation of a Christian Transhumanists, “We want to disrespect God’s image by enhancing human bodies essentially mutilating our own bodies that are made in the image of the God we do claim to love!”
Hmm. So much nonsense. Maybe I should respond, I thought. So I tried.
Jesus: Raise the dead.
TrueChristian: Heresy.
But it didn’t work. A bot quickly informed me that my comment had been removed. Why? I was commenting “without flair identifying [me] as a trinitarian believer.”
The bot also explained how I’m not a Christian. I “may not utilize a Christian flair,” it informed me, if I “deny the Trinity or other beliefs expressed in the Nicene Creed.” And even if I choose to use the flair to identify myself as a Christian, I’m “still not allowed to post in a Christians Only thread.”
The bot concluded with instructions about how to add flair below “__ followers of Christ are online.”
So here we are. TrueChristian® won’t receive my message. But you, dear reader, you’re receiving it now, whether you like it or not.
Of course it’s nothing new. TrueChristian® has been demonizing me for decades. And they’ll probably continue for decades more. Not so secretly, I hope so because it’s free advertising.
But I do wish to call special attention to this particular exchange. It encapsulates, so well, the fundamental hypocrisy of TrueChristian®. They claim to be Christian, which above all connotes reverence for Jesus and the Bible. And yet their words implicitly reject both to an extent that would be surprising if it weren’t so common.
“Do the works you see me do,” says Jesus in the Bible, as he raises the dead repeatedly. But the first concern of TrueChristian® is participatory language around resurrection.
“Raise the dead,” says Jesus in the Bible, as if his example isn’t enough. But TrueChristian® is pretty sure that’s heresy.
“Touch me and see,” says Jesus in the Bible, appearing bodily as if from nowhere after having been crucified. But enhancing human bodies is mutilation for TrueChristian®.
So much hypocrisy.
Meanwhile, I’m not a Christian because Mormons don’t revere the Nicene Creed. And Transhumanists are just yuck. Too little Nicea. Too much Jesus, Bible, and yuck.
No wonder “__ followers of Christ are online.”
Syndicated from Lincoln Cannon.