Putin and Xi Aim for Immortality

Three world leaders walk in a parade….A Chinese man, a Russian and a Korean…

The Chinese man said to the others, “Before it’s said to be very rare to live up to 70, and now it’s said that you are still a child at 70.”

The Russian said, “Biotechnology is continuously developing. Human organs can be continuously transplanted. The longer you live, the younger you become, and you can even achieve immortality.”

The Korean man laughed nervously. 

The Chinese man then said, “Some predict that in this century humans may live to 150 years old.”

What’s the punchline you ask?

There is none because this was not a joke. It really happened a few days ago and it was (intentionally?) caught on a 'hot mic'. Putin, Xi and Kim Jung Un all attended the parade of tanks, missiles and soldiers in China celebrating the sucess of the Chinese military. As they strolled up to the stage they casually discussed organ transplants and achieving immortality through biotechnology.

For world leaders who hail from countries and lands known for their deep wisdom; think Confucius, Buddha, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky that was a very revealing exchange about their foolish trust and misguided, messianic dependence on biotechnology to save humans from our mortality. 

Today’s first reading at Mass was from the book of Wisdom. It reminds us that the misplaced desire for immortality in this world is foolish. Even world leaders preoccupied with the promise of immortality are but worldly people devoid of true wisdom...

 Who can know God’s counsel,

 or who can conceive what the LORD intends?

 For the deliberations of mortals are timid,

 and unsure are our plans.

 For the corruptible body burdens the soul

 and the earthen shelter weighs down the mind that has many concerns.

Just Because We Can Doesn’t Mean We Should

In the West we have another source of wisdom in addition to Scripture. We have the classics, fictional cautionary tales like Frankenstein, Brave New World, 1984, Farenheit451, not to mention more recent films like the Matrix and Wall-E. 

What do these 'dystopian nightmares' all have in common? They all warn us about the reliance on using technology to gain knowledge, possessions, power, pleasure or fame or in some cases immortality. Some, like the book of Wisdom above and the Tower of Babel story in Genesis, warn us about depending on human worldly wisdom rather than God’s providence. 'For the deliberations of mortals are timid and unsure are our plans.’

When it comes to transplants, prolongation of life, bionics, conducting gain-of-function, genetic engineering, abortion, transgender surgeries, euthanasia, in vitro-fertilization, artificial insemination…Just Because We Can Doesn’t Mean We Should.

Everyone should know by now that technology without moral restraint is a recipe for untold doom. We will never achieve immortality through immorality.

Post-Humans and Bionic Super-Soldiers

The casual conversation between the world leaders about organ transplants and immortality raises serious concerns given China's documented history of forced organ harvesting from unwilling donors. For Putin who just lost  220,000 to 250,000 Russian soldiers killed in the war with Ukraine, to discuss prolongation of human life seems to contradict the cheapness of the value of the lives of those men not to mention the North Korean men who were loaned as mercenaries (extra bodies) for Russia by Kim Jung Un. 

According to U.S. intelligence officials,  China is exploring human performance enhancement technologies and gene editing for potential military application. The Chinese deny that they have a "super-soldier" program. But Xi’s comments about immortality seem to jive with the Frankensteinian pursuit of transhumanism who are striving for a super-real  ‘post-human’ mode of life.

Through technology they seek to engage in hyper-eugenics by modifying human genes to a superior, healthier and more intelligent outcome. In addition they are planning on fusing human bodies with computers through something called neuro-technology in order to enhance memory and cognitive function. The bionic man used to be a sci-fi television character. Now we are entering into a new era of advanced prosthetics, sensory implants, and even exoskeletons. 

In the event that the transhumanists cannot achieve actual immortality they have a plan to transfer human consciousness from the brain to a digital format to achieve immortality of the mind.

Failures of Transmutation and the Real Transformation

Historically, we have already had the theory of alchemy, the theory of macro-evolution and now gender-theory (transgenderism) all of which have failed as theories of ‘transmutation’: how one thing could become something else. Alchemists tried their hardest to change cheap and abundant metals like lead into gold. The language discovered in DNA as well as the complex machinery found in the cell has blown up Darwin’s theory of one species transmuting into another through natural selection. The failure of gender transmutation has been quite evident since , in the end, it depends on an individual’s sense of self and not biology.

The reason humans desire immortality is not so that they can be stuck in the fallen world, carrying the cross of human misery for an extra 70 plus years or theoretically forever in this valley of tears. The only people who really think that way are the ones who plan on using life-prolongation technology to benefit themselves through profits or power or both.

We are all descendants of our first parents who chose against God and brought about the loss of the preternatural gifts of immortality, moral integrity, impassibility and infused knowledge. We have a deep- seated, universal longing for Eden as our home. This phrase that encapsulates  innate desire for God and heaven is ‘life forever’. But unlike the people of the world like Putin, Xi and the Transhumanists, we add the key prepositional phrase: ‘with God’. 

Life forever with God begins in the sacrament of Baptism where we are born anew with ‘divine life’ into a super-real dimension of reality. We are given the light of faith and the capacity to grow into a virtuous being. This abundant life that Jesus offers is what we all seek whether we realize it or not. Our hunger and thirst for God are satiated with his Body and Blood as ‘real food and drink’. This is why Jesus exhorted the desperate crowds at the synagogue…”Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you” (Jn 6:53). 

This divine life that we as Catholics participate in is the key to everlasting life.

We don’t need a fountain of youth engineered by fallen creatures to keep us trapped in a world full of lies. We simply need Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life who comes to us in the sacraments. 

The Eucharist, the 'medicine of immortality', is a key to understanding the process of transformation called theosis. Transformation from this weak, sinful life to a new super-real, everlasting life of heroic virtue. If God can change bread and wine into his own body and blood, what will he do for his own children?

The process of divinization and sanctification will be difficult and painful but what’s waiting for those who love Jesus and are in communion with Him is worth it. 

‘The promise of immortality you say?’....Yes, we already got that.