25AR30-39

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AR 30:39 - "Muhammad: The most influential person in history"?

In this issue:

AMERICAN RELIGION - The New York Times prints "confessions"

TRANSHUMANISM - "just when all seems lost"

Apologia Report 30:39 (1,728)
November 7, 2025

AMERICAN RELIGION

The New York Times weekly "Believe" column has been an attention-getter from the first, thanks to Ross Douthat. It appears that success has encouraged some growth as well. The column is now titled "Believing" and some new personalities are taking part.

   The September 25th installment begins: "Let’s Talk About the Rapture," but we didn't find much of it remarkable until Lauren Jackson, now associate editor of The Morning (a "flagship daily newsletter" for the Times), explained she was "handing off" her duties to the new editor of Believing, Jodi Rudoren, for this one. "She's a former Jerusalem bureau chief of The Times and former editor-in chief of the Forward, a Jewish news nonprofit. She's sharing some of the confessions you sent us last week." (That's right. The Times has renewed interest in the traditional fodder of confessions.)

   "The animated Netflix sitcom 'Long Story Short' may be the most Jewish show on television. At the end of Episode 7, Kendra, a Black lesbian convert to Judaism, goes to Yom Kippur services for the first time. A kind older lady explains what's going on as the people in the pews pound their fists into their chests as they chant an acrostic of Hebrew words.

   "'These are the prayers of confession,' she explains. 'We're saying how we've sinned. "We have trespassed, we have betrayed." ...

   "Again, Kendra uses the first-person singular. 'I have deceived, I have mocked.'

   "'No, sweetie,' the kind lady nudges. 'We. We have.'

   "'We,' Kendra responds. And just like that, she is part of it."

   Absent further context, Rudoren explains that "I grew up reciting that prayer every year, confessing in the first-person plural to a list of vague, collective wrongs. It is a testament to the essential idea of community in Judaism. We require a quorum of 10 to recite our most important prayers. ...

   "But a quarter-century ago, I attended services in Chicago where a young rabbi asked us to write down our individual 'sins' on little slips of paper as we entered the synagogue. He'd recite a few before each recitation of the communal confessional." 

   Sparse context then leads directly to: "Last week, we invited readers to share their own shortcomings. More than 160 of you responded. Here's a sampling" (which guiltily concludes with):

   "I cannot recall doing something or someone wrong this year. But, as a human, I make mistakes and my recollection of no wrongdoing may be a mistake. For those who I may have unknowingly wronged this year, I am sorry.  -  John, Richmond, Va."

   Following this, a collection of single-paragraph teasers, under "Religion in the News," includes such brief leads as "Trump," "Syria," "Mexico," "Hindu statues," and "An obituary."

   Next is the brief section: "Opinions on Charlie Kirk" in which "Our columnists wrote about Kirk’s memorial service." This includes: "Ross Douthat wrote that while Trumpism once divided churches, the memorial showed it is now unifying them" and "David French also explored the different forms of Christianity displayed at the service."

   Another teaser section with a larger collection of items is included under one of the headings, "Trending," and leads with a photo of "Joel Osteen and Ye [formerly Kanye West] on stage in black and navy suits." The credit includes: "At Lakewood Church in Houston, in 2019....

   "The documentary 'In Whose Name' captures Ye as he became increasingly religious. In one scene, he stands onstage with Joel Osteen, the famous televangelist, and claims: 'Satan is as powerful as god.' Read our review." 

   This is followed by "On her podcast, Oprah said that as a young woman, she received a prophecy from a pastor: 'God has impressed me to tell you that you have been chosen to speak to millions of people.'" (This links to The Oprah Podcast.)

   Another teaser reads only: "Coveting: A ticket to Peter Thiel's four-part lecture series on the Antichrist in Silicon Valley. It's closed door, and I'm dying to know what he says. (WSJ)"

   The column ends with: "One Last Thing"

"I saw a post online that said ChatGPT declared Muhammad the most influential person in history. I decided to ask the bot myself, and found that three of the top five were religious figures:

   1. Muhammad

   2. Jesus Christ

   3. Isaac Newton

   4. Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha)

   5. Confucius"

The feature closes with: "Thanks for being curious about how people believe with us." <www.archive.ph/MBlcf>

 ---

TRANSHUMANISM

"The Oldest Trick in the Book: Its temptations can be traced to the Garden of Eden," by C. R. Wiley (Modern Age, Oct 14 '25) -- reviews The Transhumanist Temptation: How Technology and Ideology are Reshaping Humanity - and How to Resist, by Grayson Quay. <www.tinyurl.com/3y2dxv26> Wiley begins with a spoiler from Quay: "My view is that the advance of transhumanism is inexorable."

   Wiley summarizes: "Quay argues that thanks to new technologies that give mankind the illusion of control over nature, we are faced with a new serpent in the garden, coaxing us to believe that we can be like gods and transcend our human nature. ... Those who are overly optimistic about the future of technology would do well to read this book. ...

   "Quay quotes [Julian] Huxley's definition of the term: 'man remaining man, but transcending himself, by realizing new possibilities of and for his human nature.' This is a way of putting it that most people could live with. But it's too tame for what goes by the name today. There's no more talk of 'man remaining man' or even 'human nature.' Instead, transhumanism reduces man to Silly Putty, something that can be stretched and shaped into whatever we wish. Nature isn't fixed; its laws can be leveraged in order to remake ourselves into whatever we please. A better definition of today's transhumanism comes from the journalist and entrepreneur Zoltan Istvan in his book <www.tinyurl.com/mr38h3wc> The Transhumanist Wager: 'Our biology severely limits us. As a species we are far from finished and therefore unacceptable. The transhumanist believes we should immediately work to improve ourselves via enhancing the human body and eliminating its weak points. This means ridding ourselves of flesh and bones, and upgrading to new cybernetic tissues, alloys, and other synthetic materials, including ones that make us cyborg-like and robotic. It also means further merging the human brain with the microchip and the impending digital frontier. Biology is for beasts, not future transhumanists.'"

   Wiley then observes that "Modern ideologies are often Christian heresies with all of Christianity's redeeming qualities bled out. ... In fact, even the term 'transhumanism' is Christian in origin. Long before Huxley, it was coined by Dante in Paradiso.... And T. S. Eliot used the term shortly before Huxley.... The agent of change in Dante and Eliot isn't a mad scientist but God himself transhumanizing the faithful - Dante ascends past human understanding as he comes to know God on the path to Heaven. Transhumanists, on the other hand, repeat the serpent's temptation to Adam and Eve that they, through their efforts alone, can make themselves like gods.

   "Quay's book is broken down into five parts: Bodies, Reality, Politics, Work, and God. ... Transhumanism is not only older than many think; it is broader. It is a disposition towards our bodies and a bifurcation - even a divorce - between them and our minds. ...

   "Quay doesn't begin with body-altering technologies. While he takes readers on a tour of technological blasphemies ... his approach is philosophical and theological. Along the way he tries to answer the question 'How in the world did we get here?' And as that question suggests, he believes the transhumanist age is already here. Technology is merely catching up to a way of thinking that has been around for a while. Science fiction is becoming fact. ...

   "There are ideologies that have been with us for centuries, and the inner logic of each school of thought is playing out. ... Quay dedicates the third part of his book to politics, focusing especially on liberalism. There has been debate about the origins of liberalism and whether its struggles were inherent or if it has merely lost its way. Liberalism in those schools is dedicated to maximizing freedom, not directing it toward a common good. Quay doesn't think liberalism can save us, and I think he's right. Something more is called for. ...

   "Transhumanism is committed to making human beings into gods. Quay digs into the theological dimensions of transhumanism in the book's final part with chapters entitled 'The Nephilim and Theosis,' 'Transhumanist Spiritualities,' 'How Transhumanism Subverts Christianity,' and 'Digital Christianity.' ...

   "Transhumanism puts us back in the Garden of Eden.... We're given a choice: It's either eat the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil or eat the fruit of the Tree of Life - it's apotheosis or theosis. ...

   "The book ends with a sobering survey of possible futures, nearly all bad, the most hopeful being the redirection of humanity's creative energies into outer space. ... Quay presents various options artfully described by science fiction authors and filmmakers - everyone from Frank Herbert to Orson Scott Card. ... Science fiction is eschatology - an exploration of the meaning of man's life and his destiny - perhaps the only teleology permitted in the empire of liberalism. [And there,] most of the stories Quay references end badly. ... Quay doesn't think we can delay the march of transhumanism indefinitely. Pandora's box is already open."

   Nearing his conclusion, Wiley explains: "I can't help feeling that Quay, in his disgust for what we're making of ourselves, thinks God will do nothing, abandoning us to our own devices.

   "I confess, in my darker moments, I agree with him. It's what we'd deserve. ... [Yet,] as Tolkien implied in his essay 'On Fairy Stories,' when God tells a story, a sudden, joyous turn may come just when all seems lost." <www.tinyurl.com/4m9p8uey>

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