"While Sandberg and Bostrom advance transhumanism from a secular framework, Cole-Turner endorses technologically transforming humanity based on evolutionary theology. Far from being a “closet theologian,” Cole-Turner’s bio reveals the scale of his influence—including over seminaries, evolutionary teaching initiatives, and a funding body backing major theistic evolutionary organizations.
Although Cole-Turner affirms that “secular transhumanism” is
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Foundational to this framework is the premise, “[Theology] that engages science must be willing to revise its own ideas in light of current, well-founded insights.”
Believing human evolution to rank among these insights, Cole-Turner rejects the teaching that God specially created a historical Adam whose sin inaugurated death and suffering.
*Cole-Turner instead teaches that God used evolution to produce a “good but also disordered” creation filled with chaos, pain, and imperfection long before humans existed. Despite recognizing that “only Adam and Eve can explain why we all need Christ,” Cole-Turner concludes that “what is theologically necessary is scientifically unsupportable.”
This compromise leads Cole-Turner to significantly reinterpret core Christian doctrines. Cole-Turner proposes (among other possible scenarios) a “gospel” wherein Jesus “saves us by completing humanity rather than reversing the fall.”
Cole-Turner’s (rather heretical) version of “Jesus” saves humanity by converging all humans into “a unified global community” that ultimately merges with God and the universe. This concept of eschatology resembles the views of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a Jesuit priest and evolutionary biologist who profoundly influenced New Agism.
Attempting to alter our “fearfully and wonderfully made” intricacies (Psalm 139:14) will foreseeably yield unexpected consequences, implying that transhumanist projects are at best unwise.
This compromise leads Cole-Turner to significantly reinterpret core Christian doctrines. Cole-Turner proposes (among other possible scenarios) a “gospel” wherein Jesus “saves us by completing humanity rather than reversing the fall.”
Cole-Turner’s (rather heretical) version of “Jesus” saves humanity by converging all humans into “a unified global community” that ultimately merges with God and the universe. This concept of eschatology resembles the views of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a Jesuit priest and evolutionary biologist who profoundly influenced New Agism.
Attempting to alter our “fearfully and wonderfully made” intricacies (Psalm 139:14) will foreseeably yield unexpected consequences, implying that transhumanist projects are at best unwise.
Contrary to Sandberg’s view that humans flourish by pursuing morphological freedom, a Biblical view suggests that humans flourish by embracing God’s designs for us."
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