A Reaction to a comment by Bill Maher in Transcendent Man

August 8, 2011 Christianity and Culture Mark McIntyre 17 Comments

A friend of mine, @jimworth, invited me to view a panel discussion featuring Ray Kurzweil which was entitled “Transcendent Man.” The subject of the discussion was Mr. Kurzweil’s documentary of the same title.

As part of the panel discussion, a clip of comments by Bill Maher was included. In the clip, Mr. Maher made the statement that it is wrong for believers to use modern technology to get out their message. He made the seemingly witty comment that “you must choose your century.” The implication is that religion is a relic from the unenlightened past and modern technology should not be used to promote such an outdated message.

I have news for Mr. Maher. Christianity has always outlived its pall bearers. It has done so because Christianity is not a set of beliefs but a relationship. It is a relationship with Jesus Christ who has also outlived his pall bearers.

Hebrews 4:12 tells us that the Word of God is living and active. Since it is living and active, modern communication methods are the perfect media for getting that Word out to the world that needs to hear it. The Word of God contains the good news about Jesus Christ.

One of the themes of “Transcendent Man” is that technology will be able to solve the problems of mankind. I will most likely have another post regarding the panel discussion but until then I would say that given their respective track records, my money is on Jesus Christ and the Word of God having a better effect on man than technology ever will.

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