Singularity (Mark of the Beast) to Fight the Creator

by Douglas Corrupting the Image, Corrupting the Image 3

Chapter 10 of Corrupting the Image 3: Singularity (Mark of the Beast) to Fight the Creator

Having rejected the opportunity to repent, as preached by the Two, and having bought into Satan’s lie, the world will have no choice but to prepare to stand and fight the Creator in a climatic clash that the Bible calls Armageddon and the war of Gog and Magog. They will be strongly deluded, thinking they can fight their Creator because they will not see the God of Israel as the Almighty, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, but more so as the malevolent “alien” creators in Prometheus. In other words, they can attain equal footing with God / Jesus through genetic upgrades and technology.  

The world will think they can overcome Him just as Pharaoh thought he was YHWH’s equal. Scripture tells us that mankind will be preparing for a battle against Jesus.  

  • For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty (Rev 16:14). 
  • And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army (Rev 19:19). 
  • The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like that of many people! A tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together! The LORD of hosts musters the army for battle (Isa 13:4). 

At the end of the documentary Transcendent Man, Ray Kurzweil, a forward thinker hired by Google as director of engineering, quips: “Does God exist? Well, not yet.”139 His pithy statement is pregnant with meaning: man will transform himself into a god and the Judeo-Christian God is but a myth.  

Leading Transhumanist Mark Pesce states, our goal is to recreate our genetic code into that of a god.  

“Once the genome was transcribed, once we knew what had made us human, we had—in that moment—passed into the Transhuman. Knowing our codes, we can recreate them in our so-called synthetic rows of 1s and 0s … now we will reach into the improbable, re-sequence ourselves into a new Being, de-bugging the natural state, translating ourselves into supernatural, incorruptible, eternal. There is no God but Man.”140 

Pesce makes it clear that the goal is not just living longer, but that man will be the only undisputed god. Clearly, he and others are already preparing for the final battle with God. He continues with the clear intention that man is to recreate the universe in our image.  

“We seek something more—a transcendence of transience, translation to incorruptible form … We seek, therefore, to bless ourselves with perfect knowledge and perfect will; to become as gods, take the universe in hand, and transform it in our image—for our own delight. As it is on Earth, so it shall be in the heavens.”141  

We cannot miss his usage of biblical sayings: “in our image,” “as it is on earth,” and so on. Such language poses no problem if there is no Creator God. However, we know there is, and He intends to reclaim the earth, which He purchased with His own blood (which we explored in Corrupting the Image 2).  

Kurzweil predicts we will achieve post-human singularity, which is the transhumanist term for when humanity is able to “to transcend these limitations of our biological bodies and brains… There will be no distinction, post-Singularity, between human and machine.” His predicted date of the singularity is 2045, in terms of when he expects computer-based intelligences to significantly exceed the total of human brainpower. He writes that advances in computing before that date “will not represent the Singularity” because they do “not yet correspond to a profound expansion of our intelligence.”142 

Man becoming a god is precisely what historian and author from my alma mater—the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel—Yuval Noah Harari suggests. He forecasts that homo sapiens will upgrade themselves into a divine being and warns these enhancements may only be for the rich, establishing biological divide in the human race. He says: 

“I think it is likely in the next 200 years or so homo sapiens will upgrade themselves into some idea of a divine being, either through biological manipulation or genetic engineering or by the creation of cyborgs, part-organic part non-organic … It will be the greatest evolution in biology since the appearance of life, will be as different from today’s humans as chimps are from us now. … Many researchers believe that we have already started down the path towards a cyborg future. After all, many of us already rely on bionic ears and eyes, insulin pump technology and prosthetics to help us survive and with researchers recently learning how to send people’s thoughts across the web, subconsciously, control bionic limbs and use liquid metal to heal severed nerves. It is not hard to imagine how we could continue to use technology to supplement our vulnerable human bodies further.143 

Harari may be too conservative in his estimated timeline of when these things will take place. There is already a desire to become a god. The reason people will willingly want to take the mark of the Beast, again, is not to check out faster at Walmart, but it is because they want to become a god, and that will be the promise offered to them. The resurrection of the Two Witnesses and the threat of the coming of their onerous overlord will only accelerate the process. Some may even welcome the face-to-face confrontation to defeat God once and for all.  

While the world is already on a rapid pace to beat death and upgrade into gods, the Bible reports that a false prophet will come to encourage the world to go to the next level.  

Biohackers 

In the Netflix Original series, Unnatural Selection (which “chronicles the ambitions and struggles of scientists, doctors, patients, conservationists, and biohackers as they seek to wrest control of evolution from nature itself”144), we discover that there is a growing grass-roots community of people who are excited about humanity becoming a different species—that we can become whatever we like. The urgent need to upgrade will be welcomed by many.  

Indeed, any person standing against such an upgrade will be viewed a Luddite145, siding with the enemy. There is already a sentiment that the government has been denying us the right to upgrade ourselves with biohacking as we see fit. This sentiment is expressed in the words of Charles Darwin, considered the father of evolution.  

“If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.” – Charles Darwin – Voyage of the Beagle. 

In other words, it is a sin for institutions to legislate in such a way that leads to the misery of people. Regardless of how he intended it, his words have already become a rallying cry in the biohacker community.146  

While it is noble to try to alleviate suffering, we must face the fact that we will not overcome death by our own means. The only way is through the Lord Jesus. Yet, consider, if people believe there is no God, and we have randomly evolved this far over billions of years, then we owe it to ourselves to evolve to the next level. Of course, long before the final delusion, the apotheosis of man first had to happen in the minds of men.  

How Genetic Engineering Could Make Us Gods (CRISPR/Cas 9) 

One of the most advanced or avantgarde technologies that could lead to becoming a god is CRISPR/Cas 9. It gives us the ability to open a segment of our DNA, insert a foreign DNA sequence, and radically change our DNA. It is just like you might cut and paste code or words out of a Word doc. It is incredibly cheap. It is fast and easy.  

In his book, The Code Breaker, Walter Isaacson interviewed Jennifer Doudna, a biochemist at the University of California at Berkeley, who along with her collaborator, Emmanuelle Charpentier, received the Nobel Prize for their 2012 breakthrough on the gene-editing technique called CRISPR which stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. When asked what CRISPR looks like and what it is, Doudna responded:  

“It’s not a computer and it’s not software. If you were looking at it in my lab, you would see a tube of colorless liquid,” Doudna said. Two tubes, actually. The first contains molecules that have been engineered to latch onto one particular gene in the cells of a living thing – a specific part of its DNA. The proteins in the other liquid cuts the DNA at that spot. “It’s like a zip code that you can address to find a particular place in the DNA of a cell and literally, like scissors, make a snip,” said Doudna. 

Cutting DNA like this usually disables a gene. We can disable a gene that gives us a disease, or shut off the gene that limits how much fur cashmere goats grow, or how much muscle a beagle grows. 

Those medical treatments show off CRISPR’s most jaw-dropping possibilities. About 7,000 human diseases are caused by gene mutations that, in theory, we can simply snip away. They include muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis, Huntington’s disease, and sickle-cell disease, a blood disorder that brings debilitating pain, infections, and early death. It affects about 100,000 Americans, including Victoria Gray, a Mississippi mother of four who became the first American to be treated with CRISPR-fixed genes. In the year since receiving the experimental treatment, she has had no severe pain or hospitalization.147 

Clearly the good that CRISPR can do is extensive. Certainly, alleviating and even curing people who suffer from the terribly painful, indeed excruciating debilitating sickle cell disease is a worthy use of CRISPR. As followers of Jesus, we desire to see people healed and comforted. The fact that Ms. Gray has had no severe pain or hospitalization is wonderful. Just as any technology can be used for good, it also has the potential to be used for evil.  

Gene editing techniques like CRISPR, and others that may come after it, have the unique potential of destruction. They have the capacity to change humanity at a fundamental level. Doudna says that CRISPR will allow us to put in “a different DNA sequence, replacing it with something we’ve created ourselves. We’ll be able to rewrite the genes of any plant, animal or person.”148 She explains that we will not see designer babies tomorrow, “but it’s close enough, in the sense that the technology fundamentally could enable this, that I think it’s critical that we have a discussion about it.”149 

If we could use CRISPR to heal someone of blindness, we ought to do so—and indeed, some are already being cured of such diseases. The trouble is that healing people of problems is likely just the beginning; soon, we will be using it to enhance ourselves.  

“But once the door is open, it is not a big step to start using CRISPR/Cas 9 for so-called ‘vanity traits,’ such as good looks, intelligence, or athleticism.” As Doudna said, “Once the discovery is made, it’s out there.”150 

Some may argue that not using genetic engineering is unethical because it condemns children to preventable suffering. But could a dictator state like North Korea cement their rule forever by forcing gene editing on their subjects? It will likely be argued that not taking the mark of the Beast is unethical, inhumane, and even dangerous. This is something that is not far away. “It’s no wonder; we already have do-it-yourself CRISPR engineering kits available on the internet for less than $200.” 

In an interesting video, people were asked what they would change about themselves if they could use gene editing CRISPR/Cas 9. Some of the responses were worthwhile goals, some only prove the dangerous path we are on:  

  • I would just like to not have Muscular Dystrophy. That’s all I’ll need to be happy. 
  • I would fix the genes that cause EDS so I’m not a cripple anymore. 
  • I would like to be taller. 
  • Would like to be a superwoman. 
  • I wish I would be smarter than everyone. 
  • To have spider-man’s powers. 
  • I would like to have eternally perfect health. 
  • **I think the rewards far outweigh all the risks… I’m all in for fully legalizing gene editing, (with peer-review oversight).151 

We would like to see people healed. But where does it end? How do you decide who gets to do what? Once it is out there, they are going to keep pushing the envelope.  

Pig Hearts, Monkey Brains, and Human-Monkey Hybrids 

In 2017 National Geographic reported how a human-pig hybrid was created in the laboratory, specifically, pig lungs with human blood, thereby proving “that human cells can be introduced into a non-human organism, survive, and even grow inside a host animal.”152 The article went on to say the reason for doing such an Island of Dr. Moreau feat is to “address a critical shortage of donor organs.” No one would deny this sounds noble, but where does it end? Indeed, researchers are trying to enlarge monkey brains: “Experts took the gene known as ARHGAP11B—which directs stem cells in the human brain—and placed it into the brains of common marmosets.” This research caused the secular-pop news site thesun.com to report:  

SCIENTISTS have made monkeys brains bigger by splicing them with human genes in an experiment reminiscent of the Planet of the Apes. 

In the Planet of the Apes, humans make primates smarter to the point that they eventually rise up and enslave the very ones who enlarged their brains. Thus, it is not just prophecy-minded Christians who are concerned with such experiments. Many are wondering if we will indeed bring the apocalypse upon ourselves. The people that are working on these projects almost certainly have good intentions of saving and improving lives. The problem is when our technology is divorced from our Creator, we are going to end up with our own Frankenstein’s monster, and it will not be good.  

In 2021, Professor Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, who worked on the first human-pig hybrid in 2017, led the research of making the first human-monkey hybrid. He explains the motive for doing so, saying: “These chimeric approaches could be really very useful for advancing biomedical research.”153 The human-macaque monkey embryos were observed for about twenty days and were then destroyed.  

Resurrecting Dogs and Cats 

Scientists already have the technology to “resurrect” your pet through cloning. Dogs cost a mere $50,000, cats $25,000, and horses $85,000.154 What results is an animal that looks and bears the same physical features as the animal that died.  

We could think of it like making a twin—we know that twins can look uncannily alike and act and think alike … but they are two different people with different souls and personalities. Hence, the cloned animal will be identical to the animal that died, but will not be the same being.  

Since 2015, a team led by the renowned molecular engineer and geneticist George Church of Harvard University has been working to produce a mammoth-elephant hybrid, rather than a clone. They plan to do this through “synthetic biology,” or splicing the genes of a woolly mammoth with those of an Asian elephant, its closest living relative, which shares 99 percent of its DNA.155 

The article wisely notes, “If scientists are able to resurrect the long-extinct woolly mammoth, they aren’t likely to stop with just one prehistoric beast.”156 The Jurassic Park scientists genetically engineered dangerous species because they could; and, as those who saw the movies know, it didn’t end well. Likewise, the opportunity to upgrade humanity into gods will prove too great a temptation, and many will go for it. 

The Dangers of Gene Editing  

The aforementioned technologies are not inherently evil, and in their own right, could alleviate some human suffering. Many intelligent, well-funded people with good motives believe that through scientific advancement and technology, humans can rid the world of disease, become super intelligent, have enhanced senses and powers, and live forever.  

However, those same things have incredible potential to be used for harm. The Beast (and False Prophet) will likely not be the creator of the technology behind the mark of the Beast, but will appropriate it for his own selfish purposes. The Motley Fool, a secular magazine with no eye for Bible end-times-prophecy, shares some of the very real dangers of gene editing. They point out: 

The goal of gene editing is to modify specific DNA sequences, resulting in target mutations (desired changes in gene structure). There is a possibility, though, that DNA sequences other than the target ones could also be changed.  

The danger is so great, they say, that gene editing is now considered to have the same destructive potential as other weapons of mass destruction! 

When you think about weapons of mass destruction (WMD), nuclear bombs and chemical warfare probably come to mind. But in 2016, the then-director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, added another item to the WMD list: gene editing. 

Clapper mentioned gene editing as a new global danger in his testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee in addition to listing the technology as a potential weapon of mass destruction. Why? Gene editing could be used to genetically engineer bacteria or viruses to be used in biological attacks against humans, or to cause widespread crop damage. These might sound like farfetched plots from books and movies, but the advent of CRISPR makes the prospects of gene editing being used in biological attacks greater than ever.  

Unlike previous gene editing approaches, CRISPR/Cas9 is inexpensive and relatively easy to use, which could make it appealing to terrorist organizations or rogue states.157 

To classify gene editing as a weapon of mass destruction is a big deal. As the name indicates, it could be a weapon that would destroy people on a grand scale, or could essentially trigger an extinction level event. There are scenarios, as we have explored, that pose dangers so great that editing ourselves into gods might seem like the absolute best option. Indeed, the only option.  

All these ideas and goals that transhumanism advocates have already been promised to us by God. When God created Adam and Eve in the garden, He created them perfect. They were innocent without blemish, disease and death. God plans to take us back to that Edenic condition, and perhaps superior.  

The challenge is that man does not want to follow God’s ways. We want to enjoy the ways of sin and rebellion against the Most High, but then still have superpowers. But it does not work that way. If we follow God’s plan, we will have the things that He has intended for us: 

  • immortality (Rev 21:4) 
  • angelic-like bodies (Lk 20:36) 
  • disease-free (Rev 21:4) 
  • super intelligence (Lk 20:36) 
  • limitless powers (Mk 11:23) 

Unlimited mobility, like walking on water, and colossal physical capabilities like moving mountains, are just the beginning of what God has for us.  

Distribution – DNA Printing the Mark of the Beast 

The Beast requires all to take his mark. Just how might he go about this? Once Satan has merged with the Beast into his Avatar with hybridized DNA, as we have considered throughout this book, then the next step is to make this same genetic advancement available to everyone on a mass scale. Using the tools of CRISPR/Cas9, the hybridized gene would need to be extracted from the Beast, and then deciphered and replicated billions of times. Technology is currently at the level where DNA can be printed by a DNA printer using sugar as the base “ink.” DNA Script is one such company that makes benchtop DNA printers.158 

Figure 14. By Ciencias EspañolasKoS – https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75624775 

Once the snippet of the Beast’s upgraded code is isolated, it could be converted into binary code, 1s and 0s in a computer, and then could just be emailed!159 Someone at the receiving end could then print it using a DNA printer, and inject it into themselves and others. To fundamentally alter a person’s humanity, the new hybridized DNA would need to change the person’s DNA on the germline level, that is the cells that pass on information to the next generation of cells. The new DNA replicates and virtually overrides the original. An injection by itself would not be enough; and changing somatic (body) cells would not be enough. A person must want the change, and therefore take it as an act of worship offered to the Beast.