Humans Are Limited—for Now
The human body and mind are unique within the physical universe. Scientists still cannot explain how we are so different, so superior in our capabilities to any other creatures. Yet still our bodies age, get sick and wear out. Our minds clash, fail and succumb to futility. Will we overcome these limitations through our inventions? Or does the Inventor of human beings have another plan?
Technology has repeatedly revolutionized our world. The steam engine and electricity have surpassed what human muscle and animal force can do. Artificial intelligence is now seeking to outperform the human brain.
Human beings have invented and inserted computers into every aspect of their lives. Computer programs are now able to create illustrations, program code and pass law exams. Now we are researching how to insert computers directly into our brains. Just like engines made us stronger, computers promise to make us smarter. We want to use silicon, electricity and transistors to transcend our own human limitations.
Where will it end? If we can control robotic limbs with our brain, connect our minds to endless data, could we challenge mortality itself?
From healing the sick to expanding the brain capacity, from stopping the aging process to overcoming mortality—modern technologies promise all.
The aging process in mice has already been reversed. Now futurologists dream of living forever—in the flesh, and even in virtual reality.
But in all that, mankind has forgotten his Creator. “From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works” (Psalm 33:14-15). God has created the human mind—and He alone knows the human heart (Jeremiah 17:9-10).
There is a nonorganic component already connected to our brain. It does what scientists and theorists can only imagine. It equips us with intellect, it provides and preserves our personalities, and it serves as the bridge from mortality to immortality. It is the “spirit in man” (Job 32:8). With it, our Creator has given us a way to become something far greater than the most optimistic and imaginative futurist has ever dreamed.
As the late Herbert W. Armstrong wrote in Mystery of the Ages of today’s philosophers and humanists: “Human life is at once of infinitesimally less value than they suppose, and at the same time of supremely greater potential than they know.”
Though God created us human, limited and capable of dying, through the human spirit, He gave us intellect, the possibility to be resurrected to mortal flesh (Ezekiel 37) or to spirit when combined with God’s Holy Spirit (Romans 8; 1 Corinthians 15). God’s Holy Spirit, unlike the human spirit, is not given to us at conception; it is rather a gift that God gives to those who obey Him (Acts 5:32), repent and are baptized (Acts 2:38).
Combining our human spirit with God’s Spirit opens the door to understanding “the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10). It allows us to understand the cause of our human troubles and shows the way to an unlimited future free of troubles. The Holy Spirit opens our minds to understand the Holy Bible, and the Bible “reveals to us why we humans were put here on Earth—what we are—where we are going—the unrealized incredible human potential—how to operate this human mechanism of mind and body to live happily in peace and to achieve that awesome potential,” Mr. Armstrong wrote in What Science Can’t Discover About the Human Mind.
“Man, to be born ultimately into the very God Family, was designed to have a godly-type mind—ability to think, to reason, to make choices and decisions, capable of forming ethical, moral and spiritual attitudes” (ibid).
When you ponder the existence of human beings, it is virtually self-evident that this is what the unique, powerful human mind was created for. But no computer, no “artificial intelligence” program, no ever-so-advanced electronic implant, can develop a mind that makes right decisions, practices right morals, and cultivates and lives by right attitudes.
The Creator of human beings has given us the potential we yearn for. But we have rejected His laws and sought to invent our own potential and means of achieving it. Humanity remains in rebellion, committing self-destructive acts, resisting the guidance of its Creator, and striving—in vain—to seize superhuman abilities and eternal life. If it were even possible to achieve this, we would only multiply our own vanity, futility and suffering.
God created us for the purpose of growing by using the physical and spiritual laws He created and by submitting to His guidance and receiving His power. Just as we grew anatomically, physiologically and neurologically in the womb to the point of birth, we were created to grow in thinking, in morals, in attitudes to the point of spiritual birth (John 3:1-8).
Yes, you were born to be more than human. The leading scientists in the field lack even a rudimentary understanding of this transcendent purpose and potential of man. But you can learn it, and with the help of your Creator, you can achieve it.