This weekend, Christians around the world will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and enjoy the hope of resurrection. This is not the only time we celebrate it. When the early church moved the day of worship from the Sabbath to Sunday, the Lord’s day, each Sunday became a memorial and reminder of the resurrection. Christians not only celebrate Jesus’ victory over death, but also the hope of “bodily resurrection and eternal life” as stated in the Apostles’ Creed.
But there’s another vision of immortality that fascinates many, including some of Silicon Valley’s tech billionaires who are spending billions to reverse aging and even cure death. People like Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Bill Gates (Microsoft), Peter Thiel (PayPal), and Sam Altman (OpenAI) are investing huge sums of money in longevity ventures. This includes funding for a number of new biotech companies, groundbreaking awards for scientists who discover ways to extend lifespans, and other efforts to “solve death” by stopping or slowing the aging process. Contains projects.
This search for a new fountain of youth is exploring a variety of avenues, from parabiosis (transfusion of young blood into old veins) to stem cell therapy, telomere lengthening, and nanotechnology. Transhumanists are even trying to find ways to preserve brains by uploading them to computers or freezing them after death in the hopes of bringing them back to life one day.
The literature promoting this new quest for self-manipulated immortality can make predictions as great as those of Christians attempting to predict the day of the Messiah’s return. Some claim that we will somehow achieve immortality by 2030, 2045, or even 2050.
You may be surprised to find that these human-made attempts at biological immortality share some similarities with the Christian vision. For example, both visions see death as an enemy. Both show a longing for eternal life. Both of us are interested in good habits that extend our healthy lives. Most Christians have no problem slowing down the aging process and extending their lives. In fact, they are grateful for the development of antibiotics, improved sanitation, and the defeat of once-deadly diseases, all of which have increased our average life expectancy.
But we must not overlook the vast difference between the technological vision of immortality and the hope of an Easter resurrection.
Christians argue that our problem is bigger than aging and human death. Significantly extending lifespans or defeating human death (if that were even possible) would not solve the problem of living in a fallen world. It cannot cure the sins that cause wars between nations, nor can it stop the sun from burning out.
Scientific solutions are not enough because we are not alone in our exhaustion. In the New Testament’s Epistle to the Romans, Paul says, “The whole creation is groaning while waiting for the day of salvation.” Death, he says, came as a judgment for man’s sin, and this curse spread to all creation.
If technology allowed you to live forever, or even to the age of 150, would you want to live that long in a broken world still plagued by sin? There would still be suffering and misery. Things still wear out. For example, dental crowns have a lifespan of 5 to 15 years. How many visits to the dentist can you endure? Only half of knee replacements last longer than 15 to 20 years. How many knee replacement surgeries would you like to have?
These scientific advances do not give us the answer to the meaning of life. If life has no meaning, why live another 50 years, much less 100 years, much less forever? To find purpose in life, we need to look outside of science. Eternal life without meaning is hell.
And then there’s the question of who will benefit from these expensive life-extending technologies. Even today, there are issues of equity when it comes to things like clean water and antibiotics. If high-tech billionaires succeed in these life-extension projects, how many people will be able to afford these treatments? The divide between elite “haves” and “have-nots” will undoubtedly worsen. will do.
I’m not denying the science of longevity. My point is that while applied science is a great blessing, it also has its limitations. There are some things that science can’t solve.
Ultimately, this new vision of immortality is a worldly attempt at self-help through human manipulation. It is driven by an arrogance no different than the builders of the Tower of Babel. We look to science and technology as our worldly saviors. In doing so, it indicates unreliable and misplaced hope.
This Easter, I am reminded that the Christian vision is much grander. The gospel of Jesus Christ doesn’t just give us years, it gives us hope and meaning. It is not simply an extension of earthly life, but an answer to human sin and the brokenness of this world; it is not simply the immortality of our bodies, but the promise of a new heaven and earth.
That is what we celebrate this Resurrection Sunday.
Dr. Donald Sweeting (@DSweeting) serves as president of Colorado Christian University.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.
