Human Immortality and the Fear of Death: Seriously, What's Up with That?

Ray Kurzweil, a 56 year old computer scientist who has received all sorts of medical related awards, believes that in twenty years mankind will overcome death and achieve immortality. He has written a book to help people to live healthy enough to live the next twenty years and benefit from this. According to CNN, “Kurzweil writes of millions of blood cell-sized robots, which he calls "nanobots," that will keep us forever young by swarming through the body, repairing bones, muscles, arteries and brain cells. Improvements to our genetic coding will be downloaded via the Internet. We won't even need a heart.” And Kurzweil is serious about this, as he does not even tailgate when driving and he drinks ridiculous amounts of water and green tea.

Such a view and a desire stems from an atheistic worldview—one in which mankind can do not but remain a slave to death and fear it. Since in an atheistic/agnostic worldview we cannot have any idea as to what lies beyond the grave, and there may actually be nothing, death has its clutches upon our throats. Death has an incomparable sting. It is only right to hope for immortality in this life. What other possible hope is there? Everything is meaningless. Survival of the fittest ensues—morality should probably be dropped like a bad habit—its all about ‘me’ in this worldview.

Let’s consider this a little further, however. Let’s say for a moment that Kurzweil is correct, and that in twenty years mankind will have created a way that we will not die of ‘natural’ causes. Let’s consider the ‘unnatural’ causes. Car accidents will still exist, so will tornadoes, earthquakes, fires, gunshot wounds, drownings, animal attacks, terrorist attacks (take September 11, 2001 for instance, in case you have forgotten), and countless more forms of death. Nothing science can invent can stop these from occurring; and nothing can be invented to stop their effects. We are slaves to nature—currently.

Kurzweil says, “In my view, we are not another animal, subject to nature's whim.” He is correct in saying this. Humans are not just any other animal. Humans are not even merely evolved animals. Humans can think logically, ethically, and have control over the natural realm. We are the crown of God’s creation (Genesis 1:26-27). As the writer of Hebrews reminds us, God pays special attention to mankind. In fact, God has “made him for a little while lower than the angels;” He has “crowned him with glory and honor, and have appointed Him over the works of” His hands. In fact, God has “put all things in subjection under His feet. For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him” (Hebrews 2:6-8). Though man was created to be the sovereign over all living things upon the earth (Genesis 1:28), because of mankind’s disobedience in Adam in the fall, all of nature is cursed and is in a state rebellion to the proper order (Genesis 3:17-19). Thus mankind is subject to earthquakes, tornadoes, snakebites, diseases, and yes, old age.

The greatest statistic of all time is that one out of every one person dies. There has not existed a man who did not die. That is the point of Genesis chapter five. That is Paul’s point in Romans 5:14. There is not a single man who has ever lived who has not died (save Elijah and Enoch, but they ceased to exist upon the earth, nonetheless—they would have died if God had not taken them). This pattern will continue. Mr. Kurzweil, you are wrong. In twenty years (if mankind lasts that long) we will look back and laugh at the thought of us being able to attain to immortality. This will go the way of the idea that we will have flying cars by the year 2000 or that the Terminators will take over the world by 1996 (the former was actually a conceived idea, the latter was merely a movie plot). The Lord scoffs and makes clear,

Even those who trust in their wealth and boast in the abundance of their riches[,] no man can by any means redeem his brother or give to God a ransom for him—for the redemption of his soul is costly, and he should cease trying forever—that he should live on eternally, that he should not undergo decay. For he sees that even wise men die; the stupid and the senseless alike perish and leave their wealth to others. Their inner thought is that their houses are forever and their dwelling places to all generations; they have called their lands after their own names. But man in his pomp will not endure; he is like the beasts that perish. This is the way of those who are foolish, and of those after them who approve their words. As sheep they are appointed for [death]; death shall be their shepherd” (Psalm 49:6-14).

“Man's fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return” (Ecclesiastes 3:19-20). “As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone and its place remembers it no more” (Psalm 103:15-16).

However, hope does exist. Everyone of those Bible passages, in the verses after what I have quoted speak of those whom the Lord loves and those whom trust in the Lord. To those who trust the Lord (AKA Christians), death no longer has its power. The early Christians were absolutely certain that Christ was raised from the dead physically. In fact, as Paul records, 500 people saw Christ risen at one time (1 Corinthians 15:3-8). Paul does not speak of himself as merely believing or hoping that Christ was risen from the dead, but that He knew absolutely that Christ was risen from the dead (in Romans 6:9 the word Paul uses is ‘oida’; he knew for a fact that Jesus was risen from the dead). Paul’s hope and trust was that “we shall also live with Him,” those of us who trust in Christ (Romans 6:8). Today Christians are to believe, upon the witness of the Scriptures and Christ’s reigning in our hearts, that He truly did physically raise from the dead (despite what John Dominic Crossan says).

If Christ was not physically risen from the dead, Paul and the other apostles, who claimed to have witnessed physically the risen Christ, were imbeciles. They were a bunch of half-witted morons who deserved to die for their own stupidity (and they did die for the hope to which they clung). They, as well as all the Christians who unwittingly believed them through the ages, “are of all men most to be pitied,” “if we have hoped in Christ in this life only”; or in other words, if Christ is not risen from the dead (see 1 Corinthians 15:12-19). “But now Christ has been risen from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20). Christ is the guarantee of the physical resurrection of the dead for all who trust Him. This same denial of the resurrection of the dead was occurring among the “intellectual” of the first century just as it does among the intellectuals today; such as by the secularists and the Jesus Seminar. “Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer” (Acts 17:32). This is because “the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). In their ‘wisdom’, the wise of this age have written off both the need for redemption through the cross and the resurrection of the dead.

Brothers and sisters, the fear of death still plagues mankind, as Ray Kurzweil’s life testifies. Men fear death. No man will ever attain immortality in this life, for “it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). This is the Word of God and it will stand without contention. However, we, brothers and sisters, have the hope. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). And just as death comes to man, “so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who early await Him” (Hebrews 9:28). This is our hope. Study up on your apologetics of the resurrection of Christ, and go teach this world of their sin and their need for redemption in Christ, “always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence” (1 Peter 3:15). I leave you with the words of Derek Webb:

“go in peace to love and to serve
let your ears ring long with what you’ve heard
and may the bread on your tongue
leave a trail of crumbs
to lead the hungry back to the place that you are from
and take to the world this love, hope and faith
take to the world this rare, relentless grace
and like the three in one
know you must become what you want to save
‘cause that’s still the way
He takes to the world
go, and go far
take light deep in the dark
believe what’s true
He uses all, even you” (Take to the World, off of She Must and Shall Go Free)