Transgenderism, Transhumanism, and Transgression

Recently, I spoke with author and theologian Carl Trueman about his new book, The Desecration of Man: How the Rejection of God Degrades Our Humanity. He helps make sense of the recent public and institutional pushback on dehumanizing ideologies like transgenderism—a good thing indeed—while the degradation of humanity yet continues. Here’s Dr. Trueman: 

I rejoice in the setbacks that the trans lobby has faced. I’m not willing to do a lap of victory yet because I think they’re well-funded and highly organized. We need to keep up the pressure. But what’s interesting, of course, is how this came about. And I think if you look at the American situation, you have to say Elon Musk plays a very significant role in this, partly or maybe largely because his own family has been tragically affected by the trans issue. Praise God that Elon Musk was able to influence the current administration in, I think, a healthy, sane direction on the issue of gender. 

. . . So, one of the things I’ve tried to say to students this year is, “Praise God for Elon Musk on this issue, that’s great, but realize that transgenderism is more connected philosophically to transhumanism than it is to the L, the G, and the B.” That’s the political alliance. The philosophical issue is transhumanism. And transhumanism really involves the abolition of man, aspiring to abolish man. 

In other words, the fantasies of transhumanism are birthed from the same ideological lies as transgenderism. Our technologies carry incredible potential to help us, but also threaten to rewrite for us what it means to be human. Just as the printing press changed the way people learn, and “the pill” altered the way people love, AI has the power to significantly enhance our self-desecration. The potential, along with the potential danger, is hard to grasp. 

As Dr. Trueman continued: 

[O]ur ability to do things technologically far outstrips our ability to imagine the moral consequences of what we are doing…. To sort of quote Stalin, one death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic. … We can imagine a pistol shooting somebody, and that’s tragic. It’s hard to imagine a nuclear bomb wiping out a million people. The moral effect of that is minimal on us because we don’t have the imagination for it. 

I think what we see with artificial intelligence is this running away of technology without any moral framework, setting up the limits, or giving it even a goal. There’s no teleology to it. We do it because we can. 

When you think of the rhetoric surrounding artificial intelligence, it’s all about replacing human beings. We’re going to be replaced by something we have made but which is superior to us. So, there is this strange thing that our Promethean talents lead us to being amoebas in the grand scheme of things. 

According to Trueman, transgression and desecration are at the heart of our current cultural crisis. It’s more than an attempt to erase the image of God. It is an attempt, in both conscious and unconscious ways, to attack the God of the image. Predictably, by losing touch with God, we’ve lost touch with who we are.

To hear my full conversation with Dr. Carl Trueman, go to breakpoint.org/bonus-carl-trueman. And, receive a copy of his tremendous book, The Desecration of Man: How the Rejection of God Degrades Our Humanity, this month for a gift of any amount to the Colson Center. Go to colsoncenter.org/May to learn more and to give.

Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/taa22

John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.

The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.

BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can't find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.