British philosopher Mary Midgley suggests that evolutionary "theory itself has again and again been distorted by biases flowing from over-simple, unbalanced world-pictures. The trouble does not, of course, lie in mere wish-fulfilment of the obvious kind that paints the world as we should like it to be. It involves being obsessed by a picture so colorful and striking that it numbs thought about the evidence required to support it. Standards of proof fall headlong.”  

Midgley notes that there is an underlying assumption about evolution she calls “hypertrophied forms of cosmic optimism...” Essentially, the “cosmic optimism” is the idea that evolution is a kind of progress from “gas to genius,” that the future is one of guaranteed improvement of our species toward what Midgely calls “some superhuman spiritual stratosphere”. 



On part two of our discussion with Discovery Institute fellow Dr. Michael Keas, we explore the falsehoods and false hopes of the messianic-like blank check myth of our time. This myth suggests that either through the discovery of benevolent superintelligent extraterrestrial beings and/or sheer technological progress, mankind will eventually progress from his sullied and sad state of death, disease, and decay into a poorly defined "superhman spiritual stratosphere", a kind of "Singularity" as many futurists term it, where man and machine combine to produce a quasi kind of spiritual perfection and eternal existence.


Will artificial intelligence or extraterrestrial intelligence save us? No, Keas reminds us. "The futuristic ET enlightenment myth and its terrestrial Singularity companion share a strong aversion to Christianity... Both ET and AI salvation are supposed to occur by technological good works, not by accepting the undeserved sacrificial gift of Jesus," Keas writes.


We hope this episode will equip and encourage you to think biblically about the modern futuristic myths promulgated by science and give you the tools to respond to your secular friends, neighbors, and family members who may be caught up in the utopic-like hopes of modern science.
 
As the Apostle Peter proclaims of the Lord Jesus Christ, "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).


For more information on Dr. Keas' work, you can visit his website at the Discovery Institute (https://www.discovery.org/p/keas/). We also encourage you to check out his latest book, Unbelievable - 7 Myths About the History and Future of Science and Religion (http://bit.ly/MikeKeas). 

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