Category Archives: Transhuman News

Were you red pilled on Saturday?

For months, some social media channels (Im looking at you, TikTok), were pushing the idea that 7% of us were going to exit the Matrix. Specifically, all would supposedly be revealed to those who saw the code 001011 in their social media feeds.

This was (allegedly) some kind of activation codea numerical Red Pillthat was distributed to people ready to go all trans-humanist, It all had something to do with digital immortality. The anointed were told to expect a man in a red coat who would scream words of truth at them, And then aliens were supposed to figure into everything. Sure, Perfect.

If youre reading this, its because you were not part of the chosen 7%. And for those who were digitally raptured, theyre probably too busy dealing with their new plane of existence to bother with those left behind in the simulation.

Once again, I must emphasize that everything I know about 0010110 story has come from TikTok, easily the most reliable source of information in the known universe.

If you can provide any further light on the mattersay, one of your friends has suddenly disappeared and become their own singularitylet us know in the comments section.

Its all quite the mystery. At the very least, itll give Matt Bellamy something more to write about for the next Muse album.

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I have to ask: Did anything happen to you with the 0010110 social media mystery? Are you still with us? - Alan Cross - A Journal of Musical Things

Some 14 years ago I published a satire, a funny piece meant to point up a deadly serious subject. A leader of the official ob-gyn organization in Canada had publicly denounced then-Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Why? Because she had said that she was glad she hadnt aborted her Down Syndrome child. And the Canadian doctor worried that she might influence Canadian parents to do the same. To welcome the child God had sent them, instead of killing it. She ought to be silent, this Canadian doctor demanded.

So I wrote a piece called Kill More Canadians. In it, I pretended that I wished to empty Canada of all its current inhabitants, so the U.S. could annex it and make it a theme park. And I praised the abortion-happy doctor for helping us get a start on culling the herd in the Great White North:

The process of gradually clearing out the blank space on the map which lies to our North Ive always called it The Annex should be accomplished in classic Canadian style: with deference, almost with diffidence. There is no call for broken windows or blood on the ice. As we gain for our overcrowded nation a measure of much-craved living space, we owe it to the brooding, bleating herds of lumbering Canucks to ensure that their last days are spent in peace and comfort.

I invite you to go read the piece.

Sadly, that piece has aged all too well. The culture of death in North America advances inexorably, a little more quickly in Canada than in America. Here as in other indicators of decline (think of the savage crackdown on the truckers protest) Canada is five years ahead of the United States, on the slippery Gadarene slope that leads down to the sea.

My old friend, the intrepid conservative journalist Richard Poe, called my attention to whats happening more quickly in Canada than here. The facts are appalling, if not exactly surprising. I beg you to go through the whole of this sobering Twitter thread which Richard posted:

Do you think the U.S. is immune to this brutal, utilitarian killing of the helpless and the innocent? Far from it. Leave abortion aside for the moment, and the crass vivisection of unborn babies for the production of untested, dangerous vaccines.

During COVID we witnessed in practice a mass euthanasia of patients in nursing homes. Too many even on the right still tell themselves the thousands of COVID deaths in such facilities were the result of Democrats incompetence or apathy or cluelessness.

I dont believe it. Not for a second. All that death was premeditated and intentional, as I argued here back in May. Ill repeat the salient points, which I believe justify us in speaking of the Blue State Nursing Home Genocide of 2020:

An old saying goes, When someone shows you what he really is by his actions, believe him. When vaccine fascists went on social media and wished mass death on the unvaccinated, they meant it. When public officials in once-free countries like Australia and New Zealand said there was no room in society for people who didnt comply, they meant it.

When Bill Gates says he wants a global population reduction in the billions, he means it, too. Likewise when transhumanist big brain Yuval Harari says: We just dont need the vast majority of the population, I believe hes stating his beliefs quite sincerely. Here he is giving a TED talk to his fellow elites, explaining the uselessness of everyone who doesnt get invited to go to TED talks.

When I say that were facing not people confused by bad ideas, but elites possessed by demons, I mean it too.

John Zmirak is a senior editor at The Stream and author or co-author of ten books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism. He is co-author with Jason Jones of God, Guns, & the Government.

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If the US is Nineveh, Then Canada is Sodom - The Stream

One of the most exciting things about the introduction of a New Year is all the tech, trends, and games that roll out. This is a time when manufacturers, designers, and creators want to make the biggest impact on their audience. It can be a defining or breaking time for any company. This is especially true for the gaming industry, as the bar is being raised to unbelievable heights year after year.

That said, there is usually so much rolled out at the beginning of the year that it can be hard to keep up with it all sometimes. While 2022 is well over halfway over, the world has been introduced to some truly groundbreaking accomplishments. If youve already found yourself overwhelmed, here are some of the biggest that you certainly dont want to miss out on.

Elden Ring

Fully explorative gaming is nothing new these days. Designers have been creating what seems like near-endless worlds for gamers to explore and delve into. Because of this, the genre has seemed to become a bit overplayed and saturated. Perhaps a bit watered down. Well, Elden Ring changes all that and brings new light back into the genre.

Its one of the first fully explorative games in a long time that makes the act of exploration feel endlessly rewarding. Coming off his groundbreaking achievement of the legendary Dark Souls series, Hidetaka Miyazaki once again redefines what a Souls game can be.

In the dense open world of Elden Ring, deadly secrets are lurking around every corner, tucked inside nooks and crannies, and stashed in places where no one would even think to explore. It will be your curiosity that rewards the most breathtaking discoveries in this harsh environment.

True to his nature, this game will be no cakewalk and youll need to improve your skills to venture into the most rewarding of all territories.

The Quarry

There is something about a big budget that seems to accompany failure. Just look at all the previous games, designers, Hollywood producers, and directors that have sunk millions into creating something thats supposed to be so earth-shattering that it seems surreal. What usually happens when the finished product rolls out? It fails to live up to the hype!

That certainly was not the case with The Quarry. And there is one reason that it took the path less traveled. That was because it was one of the funniest and warmest adolescence games to roll out in years. There are plenty of gruesome and terrifying scenes that could easily bump this game up to an R rating, but it first draws on the players sympathy.

There is no denying that the higher budget opened more doors for a well-known and defined cast as well as access to more varied playable environments, but it mesh the perfect amount of cinematic horror with the teen slasher feel. The Quarry was 2K Games return to the industry, and it could easily be described as a triumphant one. Take a few hours away from your favorite to immerse yourself in this horrifying world of unknowns.

Sephonie

One of the things that most players enjoy about games is that they feel futuristic. That was a big part of Cyberpunk, right? Well, Sephonie doesnt match up to the graphics and cinematic experience of such games, but it does an excellent job of creating a sci-fi platform that feels like one of the most futuristic experiences possible.

Even long after you finish the experience youll be left with lingering thoughts, feelings, and doubts. How transhuman enhancements can change relationships with flora/fauna mixed with alien ecology only adds to the complexity of the characters and ideas.

Despite all this, the most impressive thing about this game is that it was largely completed by only two individuals. Thats an immense accomplishment when compared to the levels this game reaches.

Tom Clancys Rainbow Six Extraction

Although the Rainbow Six franchise has taken on a cooperative online platform over the years, Extraction goes in a completely different direction. Instead of using high-tech gadgets and gear to breach defending areas and planning out tactical assaults, it goes back to the basics.

The game does offer online play, but it feels just as rewarding to design and implement your own tactical approach to fighting zombies.

The rest is here:
Gaming Adventures You Don't Want To Miss In 2022 - Gamesreviews

There is a lot of talk about fake news and conspiracy theories which, in the past, we would have called rumours. This is where the art of cherry-picking becomes useful, because in rumours or conspiracy theories the cherries are the fruit you must find.

There have always been rumours in the news cycle. They are stories that generally come to life because someone who knows something says something to someone else and on and on it goes. The jungle drums begin beating. It has ever been thus for humans. Social media is simply the modern version that has replaced pub gossip and chatting over the neighbours fence. The medium is as old as humanity.

Rumours also tap into that great human survival mechanism, intuition. Humans are connected beyond mere words. We communicate with each other at unseen and generally unacknowledged levels. Like bees in a hive, humans know things because other humans know something That is why word spreads so easily.

Word of mouth is not necessarily reliable, but that doesnt mean it is completely wrong either. There are often elements of fact, truth, and reality scattered noisily between these whispers.

Social media works very hard to censor the drums and limit the rapid exchange of information, rumour, and what we now call conspiracy theories. They have even created a new label for it: Fake News.

There are plenty of conspiracy theories running around some more believable than others.

A few crowd-pleasing favourites that will almost certainly get you dragged off by the fact-checking police include:

There are probably more, but let us consider which, if any, hold a grain of truth.

The idea of vaccines as a bioweapon is one of the top trending conspiracies in 2022 riding off the Covid pandemic. It is the subject of endless videos on unrestricted sites and has spawned a whole sub-class of conspiracies.

There is no doubt that controversial gain of function research into viruses goes on in various labs around the world. While it is claimed that gain of function research is done with the best of intentions, any student of history knows that the best of intentions can lead to the worst possible outcomes. It occupies the same space as for the greater good, a better world, for your own sake, and no good deed goes unpunished.

Gain of function research is dangerous. It involves deliberately adding functionality to a virus or organism. It is both a natural and artificial process. For example, scientists have sought tomodifyE. colito covert plastic waste to tackle environmental problems.

Could it be used as a bioweapon? Absolutely. Even more likely are the dangerous unintended consequences, which is why the subject remains controversial. Given it is widely believed that Covid escaped from the Wuhan viral lab, the next question is, does China pursue bioweapon technology? Almost certainly, despite denials. The fact is, many nations pursue bioweapon technology, and deny it.

However, it doesnot followthat Covid is a bioweapon.

To quote Thomas Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins:

I havent seen any of the vaccine companies say that they need to do this work in order to make vaccines. He pointed out. I have not seen evidence that the information people are pursuing could be put into widespread use in the field.

Gain of function research could certainly be part of the development process in a bioweapon. Is the belief, rumour, or conspiracy theory therefore so silly? Not at all.

There is plenty of room for speculation, particularly when Covid centres around the highly secretive Chinese communist regime which locked the world out from conducting a proper and legal investigation for nearly a year. What they were up to, we may never know although the answer will likely be an accident. At the same time, it could simply be another pandemic wave the likes of which humanity has experienced every century.

As a conspiracy, Great Reset has an advantage over the others in that it is backed by the largest and most powerful closed-door lobbying group in the world the World Economic Forum.

How logical or sensible is it for people to believe that a powerful group wishes to re-organise the world, reset societies, make massive changes to how we live?

Actually, its perfectly valid. The difference here is not denial, its an open debate about whether this proposed great reset done for the sake of the environment is good or terrifying. It is a question of ethics, not existence.

There remains a great deal of scepticism, particularly in the press, regarding the ability of these global institutions to enact their printed wish to initiate a great reset (most news organisations have given up denying its existence). However, World Economic Forums projects continue to end up as domestic policy and so, like it or not, governments are falling under the influence of this organisation.

Is it by force? Probably not. This seems to be a genuine choice made by our leaders who are using the excuse of the Covid pandemic to enact Great Reset goals centred around the rise of militant environmentalism. It is a foolish act by politicians, given the soul of the Great Reset is the desire to end capitalist democracies and replace them with more sustainable socialist states controlled by a mixture of bureaucrats and businesses.

The most powerful ideas are those proclaiming to have good intentions. It is easier to drag people along if you can convince them and yourself that this is in the best interests of everyone and that ultimately it is for the greater good.

According to Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of WEF:

The pandemic represents a rare but narrow opportunity to reflect, reimagine, and reset our world.

Is the Great Reset a conspiracy or international policy? It is probably leaning toward the latter.

Population reduction holds the bizarre twin existence as both a demand from concerned eco-groups and a conspiracy by their opposition. It begins with the question, would the world benefit from reduced population? For the Climate Change alarmists (and their more rational environmental predecessors) there might be some gristle in this one. Too many humans, like too much of anything, creates a strain on global resources.

As for whether anyone is actively doing something about it, thats where the conspiracy runs thin unless it was coming from a secretive consortium of funeral parlours.

If not killing humans, is anyone stopping them from reproducing? Overwhelmingly the answer is the cost of living. This is not so much of a plot as a natural reaction to changing circumstance.

Global populations are at their highest point in history, so it is unsurprising that even in China and India, there has been a shift. Both have fallen below replacement level (which is normal, considering eternal growth is not possible or advisable for any species). Access to contraceptives will naturally reduce population levels, but the conspiracy goes much further to claim it is part of some plot by the elites. It is the perfect example of an observable fact being co-opted into a grand conspiracy that doesnt exist.

The fear over microchip implants is a logical fear given the rise (and celebration) of transhumanism (which is not a conspiracy). There are companies in Sweden that already microchip their staff as part of an experiment in augmented reality and during Covid, it was discussed whether governments should look at adding vaccine passports to these chips for ease.

Microchips in vaccines can easily be dismissed as nonsense, but the underlying fear of surgical implants linked to government systems is agenuine ethical debate so its no wonder the conspiracy gained traction.

This conspiracy theory might be fiction right now, but it hasnt been ruled out as a probable future.

Lastly, if you really want to get yourself banned from social media, casually suggest that Covid vaccines change your DNA.

Interestingly, this conspiracy hinges on definitions. It is this confusion that is expanded on to turn a grain of truth into something more sinister.mRNA vaccinesdomanipulate the human body into producing the Spike proteinto trigger an immune response. Whether this is a good thing or not remains in question, but what the vaccine does not do is permanently alter human DNA in a manner that gets passed down through the generations which is the suggestion of most conspiracies.

The conspiracy is given extra weight when the question is changed to,canhuman DNA be altered? Yes. It was only a few years ago that a Chinese scientist went to jail for splicing the DNA of children (who were born) in an attempt to make them immune to certain diseases.

Could a new genetic treatment change your DNA in some way? Yes, it could. Is it likely? We dont know. Is it possible? Yes, it is. Are the scientific answers offered to this fear a bit fluffy? Yes.

As evidenced by this selection of conspiracy theories, most revolve around a grain of truth. In essence, the most sensible thing to do in the face of what is called a conspiracy theory is to not summarily reject it, but do a bit of work and have a good, long, hard think about whether or not it is possible, if it is likely, and decide whether these outcomes are something you would support and defend.

One thing is certain, the human capacity to be suspicious, to exercise scepticism, and to communicate feelings, thoughts, theories, doubts, fears, hopes, facts is what has enabled us to survive and generally thrive for millennia.

There is also such a thing as gut instinct and we need to remember that. Humans lie and never more so than when they have powerful vested agendas. They lie even more when there are profits at risk and when they know they can sell their story to the public in the name of good intentions. These realities are recorded throughout our human history and we ignore and forget their truths at our peril.

When we stop asking questions, stop thinking for ourselves, and censor those who try, we are betraying the freedoms for which so many fought and died and squandering the future and hopes of our children.

Scepticism is needed more than ever in times like this. Not cynicism, but healthy, questioning, open-minded, clear-headed scepticism. Your government does not have your best interests at heart. It has its own. Become a questioner. Carpe Diem!

Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.

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The theory behind conspiracy - The Spectator Australia

What is Creation?NGC332. Southern Nebula Ring. Bright star in middle James Webb Telescope 2022.

What is creation? Is it the equivalent of the cosmos? Does the very word, creation, imply a transcendent Creator?

Our ecotheologians and ecoethicists tell us we should care for creation. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America once issued a Social Statement: Caring for Creation. Why should we care? What is creation, anyway?

In anotherPatheosseries of posts on economics and the common good, I give voice to the underlying anxiety that the global economic system is destroying our planets fecundity. Should we be worried? How might understanding the natural world as Gods creation affect the way we think?

If nature is a cold word, then creation is a warm word. When we study the physical world scientifically, it is nature that we study. But, nature points beyond itself. This is a major theme of Christian theologythat the natural world, while wonderful in itself, offers a way to begin to discern the glory of God, says theologian Alister McGrath at Oxford(McGrath 1998, 208).

Our term, creation, implies a Creator. More. That Creator abides with us. Loves us. Redeems us. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, says Pope Francis, the word creation has a broader meaning than nature, for it has to do with Gods loving plan in which every creature has its own value and significance.(Pope 2015).

Can Bible-based creation and science-based creation find concord? Yes, says Lorence G. Collins, when synthesizing the Bibles three tier universe with Big Bang. Collins appeals to the Two Books model just as did Galileo: nature tells us about God the creator and the Bible tells us about God the redeemer.

Still we ask: how do we put together these components: nature? Creation? Creativity? God? Not-God? Redemption? Time and Space? Eco-ethics? Well, lets look at some alternative conceptual models that we find in science, Buddhism, mythology, Big History, Hinduism, panentheism, feminism, and orthodox Christianity. Then, Ill tell you what I think.

Cosmos with No Creator: Science

For our scientists, nature is the product of the Big Bang.

When the Big Bang banged 13.82 billion years ago, both nature and history had their beginning. At the very beginning, everything in physical reality was packed densely. It was hot. Then, like a bomb, it exploded. It inflated. Then, it expanded very rapidly and became massive. Gradually, as it cooled, the universe began to differentiate into particles and eventually galaxies and star systems. The cosmos evolved. Its still expanding and still evolving and will continue to do so for another 65 or 100 billion years before it cools into a frozen equilibrium.

No divine creator belongs to this creation story.

A variant of this creation story is the multiverse theory. Deterministic cosmologists believe that every potential becomes actualized. At the point of actualization, a new universe is created. This means that we now have more universes than Florida has mosquitoes.

No divine creator belongs to this creation story either.

Creation with No Beginning: Buddhism

For the Buddhist, the key term is, co-dependent co-creation. There is no beginning. Or end. Rather, creativity is an ongoing creative co-arising of finite things in relentless process. Its called: prattyasamutpda. Individual creatures come into existence and pass out of existence. But, prattyasamutpda continues. Here are Matthieu Ricard and Trinh Xuan Thuan.

All religions and philosophies have come unstuck on the problem of creation. Science has gotten rid of it by removing God the Creator, who had become unnecessary. Buddhism has done so by eliminating the very idea of a beginning(Ricard 2001, 31).

No Creator God. No beginning. Just ongoing creativity.

Creation and Kingship: Mythology

Our pre-scientific ancestors told myths about creator gods. Here is my definition of myth: a myth is a story of how the gods created the world, or a part of it, in the beginning, in illo tempore [the time before there was any time], that explains why things are the way they are today. This definition summarizes the extensive research on myths in archaic cultures pursued by Mircea Eliade(Eliade 1957). Such a myth is clearly archonicthat is, todays reality is determined by its origin.

Conveniently, myths such as the story of the creation of Egypt by the gods Osiris and Isis concluded with justification for the Pharaohs rule on the throne. The teller of the myth typically comes out to be the crown of the creation story.

Creativity in Evolution: Big History

Proponents of the new field of Big History are willing to turn Big Bang science into a modern creation myth that explains everything of meaning to the human race. The idea of creation here is not connected to a divine creator. Rather, creation is an expression of natures creativity and, especially, human creativity.

Big History is in the myth business. The Big Bang and the history of evolution constitute Big Historys myth. Curiously, the truth of the myth is allegedly found in its belief, not in its empirical evidence. This is what big historian David Christian says. So, the strongest claim we can make about the truth of a modern creation myth is that it offers a unified account of origins from the perspective of the early twenty-first century (Christian, 2004, p.6).

There is no divine creator in this scientized myth.

Creation as Brahmans Self-Differentiation: Hinduism

The ancient Upanishadic sages asserted that all things are only one thing. That one thing is Brahman. Actually, Brahman is not a thing. To be a thing, a thing has to be distinguishable from other things. But Brahman is not distinguishable from anything. Rather, it is the underlying reality that makes thinghood possible. Brahman is fullness, the unity underlying all plurality. What we experience as the multiplicity of created things is the self-differentiation of Brahman(Peters, God in Cosmic History: Where Science and Big History Meet Religion 2017).

A Hindu can be both a pantheistbelieving all things manifest the one divine realityand also a polytheistaffirming many gods. The many gods, accordingly, are each a manifestation of the one Brahman. Hindu theologian, Rita Sherma, observes that supreme divinity is most importantly manifested in three divine figures: Shiva (iva), Vishnu (Viu), and Mahadevi (Mahdev)(Sherma 2017).

Hindus are finally mystics. Your and my spiritual task is to wake up and realize that each created thingincluding our own self or atmanis actually Brahman.

The World as Gods Body: Panentheism

The panentheist holds that the world is Gods body. In the case of process philosopher, Alfred North Whitehead, creation is like the body and God is like the mind. They are interdependent yet distinct.

On the one hand, for all panentheists the being of the world is dependent on God while the being of God is dependent on the world. Yet, there is more to God than the world alone. The world does not exhaust the being of God. Many feminist theologians like the analogy: the world is Gods body.

There is no beginning of creation in panentheism. Only creativity within an everlasting world process.

Creation as God/ess Body: Feminism

Gayle Berry

The metaphorthe world is Gods bodyappeals to feminist theologians. Feminists typically de-gender the divine. More importantly, the image of the divine becomes a prompt for ethical responsibility, especially ecological responsibility. Moral action is both creative and redemptive. Here is the late Rosemary Radford Ruether.

The God/ess who underlies creation and redemption is One. We cannot split a spiritual, antisocial redemption from the human self as a social being, embedded in sociopolitical and ecological systems. We must recognize sin precisely in this splitting and deformation of our true relationships to creation and to our neighbor and find liberation in an authentic harmony with all that is incarnate in our social, historical being. Socioeconomic humanization is indeed the outward manifestation of redemption(Ruether 1983, 215-216).

Creatio ex nihilo: Orthodox Christianity

God by the power of his Word and Spirit created heaven and earth out of nothing, exclaims the Reformer, John Calvin (Calvin 1960, I,xiv,20, 179-180). The orthodox Christian traditionboth orthodox and Orthodoxis that Gods original creation was out of nothing,creatio ex nihilo.

This means time and space came into existence at the beginning, at the moment when God spoke, and things began to happen. Heres Orthodox theologian Andrew Louth.

Creation out of nothing does indeed mean that the created order does not flow from within Gods being, as it were, as some kind of extension or emanation of his being, but it does not mean that creation is remote from the divine. On the contrary, God is intimately present to all his creatures(Louth 2013, 40).

This means, among other things, that no aspect of created reality can be fully explained without reference to its Creator God, according to Roy Clouser at the College of New Jersey.

All the entities found in the universe, along with all the kinds of properties they possess, all the laws that hold among properties of each kind, as well as causal laws, and all the precondition-relations that hold between properties of different kinds, depend not only ultimately, but directly, on God(Clouser 2006, 12).

Both deists and theists are likely to embracecreatio ex nihilo.What the deist says is that God created the world in the beginning and then went on vacation to Acapulco. The deistic deity no longer intervenes in cosmic processes. The laws of nature govern without divine intervention.

According to the theist, in contrast to the deist, God does not abandon the creation. God is not on vacation. Rather God supplements creatio ex nihilo at the beginning with an ongoing providential presence. This providential activity many theologians call, continuing creation or creatio continua.

Creation and Creationism: Answers in Genesis

Dont confuse creation with creationism. The latter adds a ism to our word, creation. Todays creationists reaffirm creatio ex nihilo, to be sure. Then they add a specific interpretation of Genesis 1:1-2:4a. Here is Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis.

God created the heavens and the earth fully formed and functioning in six days, 6,000 years ago, around 4004 BC. The context of Genesis 1, as well as other places in Scripture, makes it clear these days were ordinary, 24-hour days. Gods original creation was perfect, with no death or suffering.

How big is Gods creation? Eco-ethicists have been striving to persuade us to become geocentric rather than anthropocentric. I laud Whitney Baumans planetary thinking, for example. Our moral maxim: treat Planet Earth as our only home! There is no Planet B. So, we had better care for Planet A.

But, I ask: what about cosmic consciousness? What if we have space neighbors? What if we share our solar system with microbial life on Mars or Titan? What if we share the Milky Way Galaxy with an intelligent civilizationon an exoplanet? And, what about the cosmos beyond our galaxy? Can we transcend geocentrism? Yes, affirms theologian and ethicist John Hart. We should orient our ethics around a cosmic commons, Hart claims.

Here at the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences in Berkeley, weve been developing a new accent in the field of astrotheology. Try this for a definition ofastrotheology,namely, Gods creative and redemptive work is cosmic in scope.

Christian Astrotheology is that branch of theology which provides a critical analysis of the contemporary space sciences combined with an explication of classic doctrines such as creation and Christology for the purpose of constructing a comprehensive and meaningful understanding of our human situation within an astonishingly immense cosmos.

At the gracious invitation of the editors of HTS (Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies), an open access journal, Ive just published a manifesto of sorts on the doctrine of creation. The title? Can We Locate Our Origin in the Future? Archonic versus Epigenetic Creation Accounts.

Ive been refining the concept of proleptic creationaccording to which neither the cosmos nor you or I will be fully created until we are redeemedsince my very first work on the topic, FuturesHuman and Divine, in 1978(Peters, FuturesHuman and Divine 1978). The pivotal thesis is that God creates from the future, not the past. This thesis is refined and reiterated in the most recent edition of my systematic theology, GodThe Worlds Future(Peters, GodThe Worlds Future: Systematic Theology for a New Era 2015).

If at this moment youve become intrigued with this topic, I recommend you click over to the more detailed article, Can We Locate Our Origin in the Future? Archonic versus Epigenetic Creation Accounts. If youre lazy or partially bored, then read the summary in the next few paragraphs.

We will not be created until we have been redeemed

To be human means to be in the world, to have a history, and to share the physical life of the cosmos, contends Kristin Johnston Largen(Largen 2021, 191). There is a problem, however. The problem with this sharing the history of the cosmos is the problem of sin, evil, and suffering. This is the problem of the free human self. The problem of selfishness. The problem of emphasizing the fragmented part at the cost of harmony to the whole.

With sin and its accompanying estrangement in mind, we can view the epigenetic understanding of Gods creative process as one of complementarity, synthesis, and renewal. As Augustine makes clear, our deepest personal aim is to center our lives on God and, in turn, center ourselves in the whole. Such is the fulfillment of human destiny. To assert oneself in resistance against this destiny constitutes sin and produces evil. Evil arises, writes Reinhold Niebuhr, when the fragment seeks by its own wisdom to comprehend the whole or attempts by its own power to realise it(Niebuhr 1941, 1:168). Will evil last forever?

The creation as we know it today groans in travail, awaiting the birth of a healed cosmos and a healed soul. The end is eternal life.For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:22-23). The end is both finis as conclusion and telos as goal to be fulfilled.

This double connotation of end as both finis and telos expresses, in a sense, the whole character of human history and reveals the fundamental problem of human existence. All things in history move towards both fulfillment and dissolution, towards the fuller embodiment of their essential character and towards death. The problem is that the end as finis is a threat to the end as telos.The Christian faith understands this aspect of the human situation.it is not within mans power to solve this vexing problem(Niebuhr 1941, 2:287).

God alone saves. God saves by absorbing the estranged parts into a healing whole, a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

South African systematic theologian Klaus Nrnberger illuminates eschatological redemption by shining the light of emergent holism. The scientific theory of emergence has taught us thatany whole is something more than, and something different from, the sum total of its components. The reason is that the whole is constituted by relationships between components, rather than the characteristics of the individual components(Nrnberger 2016, 1:19). Gods promised eschatological redemption is best understood as overcoming sin through holistic healing. Christian eschatology is a protest of what ought to become against what has become and seemingly will becomeand that in the name of a powerful and loving God(Nrnberger 2016, 2:501).

Only when the whole of reality has harmoniously integrated all the self-oriented parts will we be able to say that God has finally created the world. Only when each of us individually has been freely integrated into the kingdom of God can God look at the creation and declare, Behold! It is very good (Genesis 1:1-2:4a).

As you can see, there are many conceptual models for understanding nature as creation. Both Big Bang and the Bible depict creation as having a beginning followed by a history with a future. The beginning looks pretty much the same in the two models. They are consonant.

But, this does not apply to the future. Whereas the Big Bang model forecasts a future in which all hot things will freeze into an equilibrium and die, the biblical vision anticipates an eschatological renewal of creation wrought by God. When it comes to the future, Big Bang and the Bible are dissonant.

Heres what I think. Because nature is epigenetic and historical, the present moment is ontologically open to the future. Nature and history are together open even to the future of God.

I would like to say more. I would like our systematic theologians to construct a retroactive ontology with greater explanatory power than competing archonic ontologies. The initial axiom for retroactive ontology is this: to be is to have a future. It is God who calls us into being by graciously offering us and our cosmos a future.

Gods future-giving comes in two forms. Negatively, God is releasing creatures such as you and me from the chains of our origin and from recent efficient causes each moment. Each moment God lays before us a finite set of potentials, possibilities that prompt us to deliberate, decide and take action. By taking action, we liberated free creatures play a creative role. We become one efficient cause among many in the history of creation.

Positively, God makes promises. By raising Jesus from the dead on the first Easter, God promises to raise you and me as well into the new creation. Actually, more can be said here. By raising Jesus from the dead on the first Easter, God has actually begun his eschatological work of redemption. The final advent of the kingdom of God in which all estranged parts will be taken up into a transfiguring whole defines the very quiddity of what happened at Easter. Our past Easter takes its essence from its future in Gods kingdom. The Big Bang genesis of creation gains its essence from the new creation proleptically anticipated in Jesus Easter.

Omega retroactively defines Alpha. Omega invites each of us into the everlasting future of Gods new creation.

Ted Peters directs traffic at the intersection of science, religion, and ethics. Peters is an emeritus professor at the Graduate Theological Union, where he co-edits the journal, Theology and Science, on behalf of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, in Berkeley, California, USA. His book, God in Cosmic History, traces the rise of the Axial religions 2500 years ago. He previously authored Playing God? Genetic Determinism and Human Freedom? (Routledge, 2nd ed., 2002) as well as Science, Theology, and Ethics (Ashgate 2003). He is editor of AI and IA: Utopia or Extinction? (ATF 2019). Along with Arvin Gouw and Brian Patrick Green, he co-edited the new book, Religious Transhumanism and Its Critics hot off the press (Roman and Littlefield/Lexington, 2022). Soon he will publish The Voice of Christian Public Theology (ATF 2022). See his website: TedsTimelyTake.com.

Teds fictional spy thriller, Cyrus Twelve, follows the twists and turns of a transhumanist plot.

Notes

Calvin, John. 1960. Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 Volumes. Louisville KY: Westminster John Knox.

Clouser, Roy, 2006. Prospects for Theistic Science.Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith,58:1 (March 2006) 2-15.

Eliade, Mircea. 1957. The Sacred and the Profane. New York: Harcourt Brace and World.

Keller, Catherine. 2003. The Face of the Deep: A Theology of Becoming. London: Routledge.

Largen, Kristin. 2021. Plurality and Salvation: Possibilities in Pannenbergs Soteriology for Comparative Theology. In The Enduring Promise of Wolfhart Pannenberg, by ed Andrew Hollingsworth, 183-200. Lanham MA: Lexington.

Louth, Andrew. 2013. Introducing Eastern Orthodox Theology. Downers Grove IL: IVP Academic.

McGrath, Alister. 1998. The Foundations of Dialogue in Science and Religion. Oxford: Blackwell.

Niebuhr, Reinhold. 1941. The Nature and Destiny of Man, 2 Volumes. New York: Scribners.

Nrnberger, Klaus. 2016. Faith in Christ Today: Invitation to Systematic Theology, 2 Volumes. Minneapolis: Fortress.

Peters, Ted. 1978. FuturesHuman and Divine. Louisville KY: Westminster John Knox.

. 2017. God in Cosmic History: Where Science and Big History Meet Religion. Winona MN: Anselm Academic ISBN 978-1-59982-813-8.

. 2015. GodThe Worlds Future: Systematic Theology for a New Era. 3rd. Minneapolis MN: Fortress Press.

Pope, Francis. 2015. Laudato Si. http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html, Vatican: Vatican City State.

Rahner, Karl. 1978. Foundations of the Christian Faith. New York: Seabury Crossroad.

Ricard, Matthieu and Trinh Xuan Thuan. 2001. The Quantum and the Lotus. New York: Random House, Crown Books.

Ruether, Rosemary. 1983. Sexism and God-Talk. Boston: Beacon.

Sherma, Rita. 2017. Hinduism and the Divine: An Introduction to Hindu Theology. London: IB Tauris.

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