The “Rapture” and the “Singularity” Have Much in Common

I won’t argue the bad theology behind the prediction about tomorrow’s supposed Second Coming.  But I would like to raise a bit of a subversive question: Isn’t the transhumanist “Singularity” —in which technology will advance at such an accelerated state it can’t be controlled, leading to human immortality—merely a materialist version of the Rapture? Or at least, aren’t the same impetuses at work?

Consider:

• The Rapture is supposed to occur at a specific moment in time.  Ditto, the Singularity.
• Belief in the Rapture generally rests on faith, which the author of Hebrews defines as ” the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” So is the Singularity, at least using that definition of faith.
• Believers in the Rapture accept religion.  Believers in the Singularity accept the quasi religion of materialistic scientism.
• The Rapture gives many believers hope that death will be ultimately defeated.  The same is true for believers in the Singularity.
• The Rapture is supposed to herald in a new age.  So is the Singularity.
• The Rapture is supposed to eventually usher in a world of pure peace and harmony. So too, the Singularity. Indeed, a huge purpose behind transhumanism is to banish suffering and want from the experience of life.
• The Rapture is expected to restore Eden in which the lion will lay down with the lamb, e.g. an end to predation and strife throughout the natural world.  Likewise, the Singularity, at least for some transhumanists, who believe that hyper technology will eventually allow animals to be “uplifted” into a state of moral agency, or even as I heard ubber transhumanist George Dvorsky say at a conference, putting their enhanced animal minds into computers.
• The Rapture is prophesied to result in Christians receiving “glorified” bodies that will be immortal.  Prophets for the Singularity also promise such bodies.  Indeed, Princeton biologist Lee Silver predicted in Remaking Eden that we would one day be transformed by technology into pure mental beings with unlimited capacities.

So all you transhumanists who believe in the Singularity and chuckle about Final Saturday, it seems to me that you live in a glass house and shouldn’t throw stones.