(Warning: First Paragraph contains shameless self-promotion.)
My book American Suicide is now 5 years old so I don’t think I’m giving away any spoilers, but at one point the main character Xaviar loses his grip on reality and demands that Jesus return to Earth. As the author, it was meant to be a two-fold statement: The first is Xaviar’s arrogance that he could step to the foot of God and secondly to ask the question of when IS Christ coming again?
Which got me thinking, two recent stories make me think that it’s going to be sooner than later if it’s going to happen and let me explain why. Neither reason has to do with the American election or anything to do with global-economic politics, they both have to do with SCIENCE.
#1 The Gift of Eternal Life
The key point of selling Christianity to the masses is that the true Christian believer will be raised from the dead. At the end of the day, the goodness, charity to fellow man, family values, yadda yadda ya are all window dressing for the payoff at the end. If you’re good you don’t die, you get eternal life. Now most people, not all, but most, are guided by their own self-interest of attaining eternal life. Heck yeah, I’ll sign up for that, what do I have to do to get that?
But since the beginning of August, I’ve read multiple articles about technology advancing so fast that soon we’ll be able to download our consciousness into a computer. This is not a new concept, it was the premise of 2014’s Johnny Depp movie Transcendence. What is new is that the concept is estimated to be a reality within the next generation. As a middle aged man, that means when it’s time to retire, it is reasonable to think that a doctor could give me this choice in 20 years. “Mr. Hunt, as your body gives out would you be interested in downloading your consciousness before the onset of Alzheimer’s?” Basically a doctor is offering you the option that used to be exclusive to religion.
Now you could make a list of a hundred reasons why Christianity is more than just the gift of eternal life, but if you give people multiple options, you are now opening the Pandora’s box of -- be bad all your life, then get eternal life anyhow.
(*I have more to say about my personal journal, but not today. Perhaps once the Beacon Blog is a little more well read.)
#2 Proxima Centauri b
In the last month, scientists have confirmed the discovery of a possible habitable planet in the Alpha Centauri Binary Star System called Proxima Centauri b. Not that far from Earth (in relative terms), Proxima b is the closest planet discovered outside of our Solar System.
Again, not today, but within the next the generation I believe that we’ll confirm the existence of extra-terrestrials by finding radio waves, but science teams are already planning to send robotic exploration equipment to Proxima Centauri b within the next century.
Now what does that have to do with Jesus? I’m going to ask you, the reader, to do some homework. Take the technological device of your choosing and go ahead and use your favorite search engine and type in List of UFO religions. Guess how many pop up with absolutely ZERO evidence of aliens existing?
Now guess how many will exist, say we find life on Proxima Centauri b? Now that we can shoot a radio telescope directly at a precise spot, it shouldn’t take too long.
Imagine the people who will start to worship the aliens and pray for them to take them away from Earth. If you think I’m exaggerating, think about the 10 stupidest people you’ve met this week, how many of them do you think would worship aliens? Just go to WalMart, how many people THERE do you think would worship the aliens?
The point is, science is not directly attacking religion, but as fewer people are religious, the greater the chance of the masses moving toward an Alien Based Religion or Downloadable File Religion.