Weirdness Watch

by M.P.-Infinity

A review of Texe Marrs, Mega Forces: Signs and Wonders of the Coming Chaos.

Austin: Living Truth Publishers, 1988.

Extropic memes have been working their way into our society during the last few years, so it is not surprising that a few of them have infected Fundamentalist Christians. Some early results seem to be weird, apocalyptic interpretations.

One such observer of extropic trends is Texe Marrs, a retired USAF officer who now runs a ministry in Austin, Texas, and publishes books on topics ranging from Bible prophecy to popular robotics. I have heard him on several occasions on Marlin Maddoux’s Point of View, a Dallas-based national Christian radio talkshow. Marrs is apparently on his way to becoming a well-known Fundamentalist, and may become an opinion maker among this large American sub-culture some day.

Marr’s book Mega Forces attempts to show how foreseeable advanced technologies will be used in ways supposedly predicted by the Bible - the usual Antichrist/Armageddon/Second Coming scenario. Needless to say, his main worry is “unbelief”, and in Chapter One he writes, though not quite astutely:

As high technology dramatically transforms our lives, people harden their hearts to God and become dependent on technology and science for fleeting happiness and peace. In the next few decades, we will see an incredible explosion in high-tech discoveries and scientific breakthroughs. But with each step toward progress in science, you can be assured that God will recede in the minds of men and women. The tragedy of our era - the end of time - is that Satan has convinced the masses that science proves that the personal God of the Bible does not exist and is not needed by sophisticated worldly men. The future reality, then, is more science and less God, because man’s faith in God is, regrettably, diminished in direct proportion to his progress in science and technology.

While extropians would agree that “more science and less God” is the proper trend, Marrs sees that as a problem. For some illustrations of extropian interest in the “more science” category, in Chapter Two, “Man the Creator: Robotics and Bioengineering,” Marrs outlines some of the more exciting projects for attaining transhumanity, then he adds his own warped opinions. Of the prospect of immortality he writes:

Courtesy of technology, immortality - the fountain of

youth - is several decades off at best, if it ever can be achieved, and if God permits it to happen. But the concept is being considered as a viable future possibility. Jesus promises us eternal life if we trust in his Word and invite the Holy Spirit into our lives. Rejecting this promise, we are off on a desperate quest to guarantee eternal security for ourselves.

Significantly, Marrs does not rule out man-made aeonic life a priori - the prospect just seems unlikely to him because he thinks “God” will intervene before it comes online. He does not mention cryonics, though I imagine it would similarly meet with his censure.

Additionally Marrs asserts that the “New Age” religion is behind various extropic ventures, and writes:

It is therefore a dread but conceivable prospect that future dictators - and certainly the Antichrist (see Revelation 13 and 17) will marshal bioengineering scientists in a grand project to create the man-god being, a superbeing. New biochips will be designed and programmed to despise God and the Holy Bible while exalting man’s own divine potential. These biochips will be programmed with man-made philosophies, including the “best” teachings of Hindu and Buddhist scriptures, the “wisdom” of ancient Egypt and Greece, and the “knowledge” of such “scientific” theories as evolution and psychology.

The rest of the book is devoted to discussions of military hardware and political scenarios, along with the usual calls for repentance and salvation.

What if it? First of all, the fact that a book filled with questionable (not to say ridiculous) assertions could be commercially published in this country says a lot about the feeble mentalities cultivated by religion. Second, although I share Marrs’ fears of the misuse of technology by statists (whom he mythologizes as the “Antichrist”), on the whole I think that books in the Mega Forces genre could be quite harmful if they succeed in confusing extropic memes with the New Age religion and global statist plans. Extropy is a state of reliberium, and careful extropians should avoid speaking of attaining “godhood”, since as F.M. Esfandiary (now FM-2030) argues:

Contemporary philosophers state that we humans

EXTROPY #6

28

Summer 1990