Thursday, April 27, 2017

Improving on God? Part 3

"nothing less than the
 wholesale redesign of humans"
“Even Daniel was mystified by [the fourth creature]. He described it as exceedingly powerful, destructive, and terrifying. But he used another Hebrew word over and over again to describe it. The word is shainah. Shainah can be translated to mean different. The fourth creature is especially different from all the creatures that went before it. Thus, the civilization of the last days will be different from every civilization that preceded it. The word shainah also means changed or altered. Thus the state of the last days will be a changed state . . . an altered civilization. The first three creatures were based on the forms of nature. But the fourth creature has no clear grounding in nature. Its teeth and claws are of iron and bronze. It’s different . . . altered . . . changed.”

“Sounds more like a machine,” I said.

“The revelation of the fourth creature is this: End-time civilization will be based not on the natural, but on the unnatural. It will exist against nature. It will be of an altered or transmuted nature . . . a civilization at war with creation, with nature, and with the order of God.”1
If we only knew how much has been hidden by secret combinations; how much they have hinted at over the years, yea even revealed, in Technicolor as if ‘twere science fiction — satanic (mocking?) parables for the blind and deaf!

Here are more warning voices to awake us from a sleep of death:
It all started innocently enough. Decades ago, newspaper articles began to tell the story of scientists’ successful experiments with hybrid crops that grew faster and in harsher climates, resisted diseases better, and yielded more food per acre than previously thought possible. Later, TV programs touted artificial insemination and test-tube fertilization, which allowed infertile couples to experience the miracle of life. Not long after that, stories were popping up on the World Wide Web about monoclonal antibodies that promised cures for dreaded diseases, robots that looked and acted human, and the mysterious Human Genome Project— a massive effort to reverse engineer the very operating system of the human body.2

Science is on the verge of a quantum advance, one that will bring into existence objects and creatures we have never seen before having abilities we cannot imagine. The ultimate objective of this new science is nothing short of revolutionary— to transform and recreate mankind itself.3

Our version 1.0 biological bodies are frail and subject to a myriad of failure modes. The Singularity will allow us to transcend these limitations. We will gain power over our fates. Our mortality will be in our own hands [and] the nonbiological portion of our intelligence will be trillions of trillions of times more powerful than unaided human intelligence.4

As a result of this bridge between technology and human biology being attained this century, nothing less than the wholesale redesign of humans, including genetic integration with other life-forms— plants, animals, and synthetic creations— will be realized. This vision— the borgification (marriage between biology and machine) of man— is supported in the latest “State of the Future” report (2010) by the global think tank, the Millennium Project, founded after a three-year feasibility study with the United Nations University, Smithsonian Institution, and the Futures Group International, where synthetic biologists affirm that “as computer code is written to create software to augment human capabilities, so too genetic code will be written to create life forms to augment civilization.”5

… scientists inside Britain are comfortable now with up to 50/ 50 animal-human integration. The article implied that not all the research currently under design is kept at the embryonic level, and that fully mature monstrosities (like the creature in the 2010 movie Splice) may be under study as “some scientists in some places want to push boundaries.” National Geographic magazine speculated in 2007 that within ten years, the first of such human-animals would walk the earth[.]6

The language in this section of the document actually speaks of eliminating “cell death” through creation of “a new generation of regenerative cells that could ultimately be programmed to live indefinitely.” In other words, whatever this synthetic life application is (Wired magazine described it as “living, breathing creatures”), the plan is to make it immortal.7

[T]echno-utopians believe they will triumph over prophets of doom by “stealing fire from the gods, breathing life into inert matter, and gaining immortality. Our efforts to become something more than human have a long and distinguished genealogy. Tracing the history of those efforts illuminates human nature. In every civilization, in every era, we have given the gods no peace.” ... Such men are joined in their quest for godlike constitutions by a growing list of official U.S. departments that dole out hundreds of millions of dollars each year for science and technology research.8

Prof. Mark Walker spoke on “Becoming Godlike,” James Hughes offered “Buddhism and Transhumanism: The Technologies of Self-Perfection,” Michael LaTorra gave a “Trans-Spirit” speech, nanotechnologist and lay Catholic Tihamer Toth-Fejel presented “Is Catholic Transhumanism Possible?" and Nick Bostrom spoke on “Transhumanism and Religion.”9

[But] man is not just a series of biological functions. We are spirit and soul and vulnerable to spiritual, not just environmental, dangers.10

… we are in this war whether we want to be or not, so we need to be equipped and informed.11

There is no neutral ground in the universe; every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counter-claimed by Satan. —C. S. Lewis12
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1. Cahn, Jonathan. The Book of Mysteries, Charisma House, Kindle Edition (p. 114).
2. Horn, Thomas; Horn, Nita. Forbidden Gates: How Genetics, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Synthetic Biology, Nanotechnology, and Human Enhancement Herald The Dawn Of TechnoDimensional Spiritual Warfare (Kindle Locations 308-313). Defender Publishing LLC. Kindle Edition.
3. Ibid. Kindle Locations 304-306
4. Ibid. quoting Ray Kurzweil, Kindle Locations 1886-1888
5. Ibid. Kindle Locations 1910-1916 (bold emphasis added)
6. Ibid. Kindle Locations 1937-1938
7. Ibid. Kindle Locations 2164-2166
8. Ibid. Kindle Locations 2389-2394
9. Ibid. Kindle Locations 3507-3509
10. Ibid. Kindle Locations 2849-2850
11. Ibid. Kindle Location 400
12. Ibid. quoting C.S. Lewis, Kindle Locations 1222-1224
Additional ibid. quotes:
--Developers at Toyota and the University of Utah are also working on brain transmitters, which they hope will contribute to building a global “hive mind.” (Kindle Locations 3017-3018)
--[T]he U.S. National Science Foundation (nsf) and the Human Enhancement Ethics Group (based at California Polytechnic State University, whose advisory board is a wish list of transhumanist academics and institutions worldwide) released its fifty-page report entitled “Ethics of Human Enhancement: 25 Questions & Answers.” (Kindle Locations 3747-3749)

Monday, April 17, 2017

Martin Luther: Repeat?


As this is the 500th anniversary year of the posting of Martin Luther's 95 Theses1 on the door of the Wittenberg Church, it might be enlightening to review during this year what his observations were; and to review whether we are experiencing a déjà vu. Here is one of his observations recorded in the miraculously preserved2 book, now titled, “Table Talk.”3
LXXXVIII.
The greater God's gifts and works, the less are they regarded. The highest and most precious treasure we receive of God is, that we can speak, hear, see, etc.; but how few acknowledge these as God's special gifts, much less give God thanks for them. The world highly esteems riches, honor, power, and other things of less value, which soon vanish away, but a blind man, if in his right wits, would willingly exchange all these for sight. The reason why the corporal gifts of God are so much undervalued is, that they are so common, that God bestows them also upon brute beasts, which as well as we, and better, hear and see. Nay, when Christ made the blind to see, drove out devils, raised the dead, etc., he was upbraided by the ungodly hypocrites, who gave themselves out for God's people, and was told that he was a Samaritan, and had a devil. Ah! the world is the devil's, whether it goes or stands still; how, then, can men acknowledge God's gifts and benefits? It is with us as with young children, who regard not so much their daily bread, as an apple, a pear, or other toys. Look at the cattle going into the fields to pasture, and behold in them our preachers, our milk-bearers, butter-bearers, cheese and wool bearers, which daily preach unto us faith in God, and that we should trust in him, as in our loving Father, who cares for us, and will maintain and nourish us.4
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1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-five_Theses
2. See the account of the book's preservation in the introduction
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_Talk_(Luther)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002SB8RGI/ref=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o06_?ie=UTF8&psc=1
4. http://www.reformed.org/master/index.html?mainframe=/documents/Table_talk/table_talk.html

Friday, April 7, 2017

“The Evils Which Stalk at Home”?

(Another Voice* to US from the Dust?)

Solon of Athens (c. 638–c. 558 BC):
“The ruin of our state will never come by the doom of Zeus or through the will of the blessed and immortal gods ; ... It is the townsfolk themselves and their false-hearted leaders who would fain destroy our great city through wantonness and love of money. But they are destined to suffer sorely for their outrageous behavior. They know not how to hold in check their full-fed lust, ... . . . They are rich because they yield to the temptation of dishonest courses. . . . They spare neither the treasures of the gods nor the property of the state, and steal like brigands one from another. They pay no heed to the unshaken rock of holy Justice, who, though she be silent, is aware of all that happeneth now or hath happened in the past, and, in course of time, surely cometh to demand retribution. Lo, even now there cometh upon the whole city a plague which none may escape. The people have come quickly into degrading bondage ; bondage rouseth from their sleep war and civil strife ; and war destroyeth many in the beauty of their youth. As if she were the prey of foreign foes, our beloved city is rapidly wasted and consumed in those secret conspiracies which are the delight of dishonest men.

“These are the evils which stalk at home. Meanwhile the poor and needy in great numbers are loaded with shameful bonds and sold into slavery in foreign lands. . . . Thus public calamity cometh to the house of every individual, and a man is no longer safe within the gates of his own court, which refuse him their protection. It leapeth over the garden-(p. 141) wall, however high it be, and surely findeth him out, though he run and hide himself in the inmost corner of his chamber.

“These things my heart prompteth me to teach the Athenians, and to make them understand that lawlessness worketh more harm to the state than any other cause. But a law-abiding spirit createth order and harmony, and at the same time putteth chains upon evil-doers ; it maketh rough things smooth, it checketh inordinate desires, it dimmeth the glare of wanton pride and withereth the budding bloom of wild delusion ; it maketh crooked judgments straight and softeneth arrogant behavior ; it stoppeth acts of sedition and stoppeth the anger of bitter strife. Under the reign of law, sanity and wisdom prevail ever among men. (p. 143)

“Out of the cloud come snow and hail in their fury, and the thunderbolt springeth from the lightning's flash : so from great men ruin issueth upon the state, and the people through their own folly sink into slavery under a single lord. Having raised a man to too high a place, it is not easy later to hold him back : now is the time to be observant of all things.” (p. 145)1
How déjà vu nigh every empire, before and since, as Solon says! Can the servants (once citizens) of the latest, great incarnation of power see (and act) before it is too late? Take time to review:

TEACHINGS OF THE BOOK OF MORMON
[Hugh W. Nibley]
Semester 1, Lecture 5
(Jeremiah)
Insights from Lehi’s Contemporaries:
Solon and Jeremiah

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* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon
1. THE FRAGMENTS OF SOLON'S POEMS XIII-XIV ~ https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011212503, (p. 141-145; all bold emphasis added).
Actual page: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?view=image;size=100;id=loc.ark%3A%2F13960%2Ft0gt6fp8w;q1=towns-folk;page=root;seq=155;num=141

MORE of Solon at http://dejavu-times.blogspot.ca/2017/04/a-set-of-simpletons.html