Featuring Matt Anderson and Ben De Bono
Standard Podcast
Episode 86: The Morality of Immortality
October 13, 2012- Categories: Philosophy,
- Podcast
April 17, 2024
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Nice episode, guys! (Well, all except for Ben’s irrational hatred of Star Trek, not to mention Superman. You do realize you’re getting 25 weeks of weekly blog content out of TNG at the moment, right? Don’t bite the hand, etc….! ) But loved all the good SFC on-air, off-the-cuff theologizing.
Even if scientists invent immortality and invulnerabilty, we are, as Matt said, still a fallen world, meaning Christ’s death could never be rendered meaningless. If we had been an unfallen world, there would be no need for the Incarnation and the Atonement (as in C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy, right? Earth alone is “the silent planet” due to the Fall). The Gospel is more than salvation from death (though it is certainly not less than that). It is restoration of relationship to God, and that is something science cannot achieve.
Science fiction often posits a religionless world, but we know from Scripture that God never leaves himself without a witness, and God always preserves a remnant. So I think the fear that we would lose the true Gospel altogether wouldn’t come to pass. God will always preserve his Church (gates of hell and all that, right?).
Ben, the Mass (as I understand it) is a re-presentation of Christ’s death, but isn’t it also more than that? It’s also communion with God, communion with each other and with all the faithful of every time and place, a foretaste of the heavenly messianic banquet… I mean, yes, all this is through Christ’s death, but at the same time, Christ’s death was once and for all – again regardless of what science can or will ever do. It happened. It’s a fact. It’s accomplished, “it is finished.” So of course the Mass/Eucharist would still have meaning. It is the means of grace God has given us to participate in the saving death of Christ (among other meanings), even if we become practically immortal.
Also, glad to know you guys have our back should a demon show up for an exclusive interview! 😉