Do we really even need to look very far? The evidence is in virtually every modern culture in the world today. No matter where you look, or what civilized country you visit, if you look at what appears on the television, and what exists in media around the planet, man is STILL trying to either reach God - or become Him!

I enjoyed a conversation with my pastor last night, and we talked about the world's need to find ways to transcend time; achieve immortality... so of course we broached the subject of artificial intelligence. I wanted to take a moment and inform some folks of not only the dangers of this, but other ways that man is 'playing God', or trying to.

First let's dive right into the big one: A.I.

Artificial Intelligence is a hot topic right now; just ask Common. Perhaps you've seen the commercial for Microsoft, where the actor and pop-culture star Common gives a moving monologue about A.I., pointing out all the new technology that is happening across the world; from agriculture to archaeology, to medicine, the actor exclaims "Tomorrow is TODAY!" One only has to go a little further and open up Netflix, to see all the movies or special TV series that push the idea of A.I. out there as such a great concept - sometimes even showing it as a way for humans to transcend time and help us become immortal. There is actually a thought out there that a computer program could be designed to replicate our consciousness and install it into some kind of machine, and when that machine wears down, consciousness could just be uploaded to another one...and on, and on. Gee - who does it sound like we want to be, there?

Turns out the Holy Bible talks about one particular entity that transcends time and space, and is truly immortal. But I'll get back to that.

So what's wrong with this? Machines and computers have made our lives so much easier, and continue to do so. They can even do things without us telling them to - wait, what?!

Well, just like the Jurassic Park movies, we literally have tons of movies and stories that show why this is a bad, bad idea.

It's as plain as day that we want life to be easier...if we were gods, we'd probably have it pretty easy. But that's the idea, isn't it? The Bible tells the story of the tower of Babel, where the people thought they were such architectural geniuses, that they could build a tower to the heavens, to be on an even playing field with God. And what happened? That tower came crashing down, and the people were scattered.

So what could happen this time? A Matrix? The Terminator? Skynet? Who knows, but the fact is, if we create something that we eventually cannot control, nothing good can come of it. Science experiments alone prove that.

But A.I. is not our only Tower of Babel these days.

We've been trying for some time now to reach the heavens with space travel. From Russian cosmonauts, to NASA, to Tesla's orbiting convertible - the ambitions for scientists and visionaries want to colonize the moon, and colonize Mars. There are plans to soar the cosmos, and find safe havens to spread humanity to other worlds so that not only can we transcend time, but space. We can spread and flourish, according to scientists, who really have no way of knowing whether we can pull these things off or not. If I were a betting man, I'd say they fail miserably. Am I a skeptic? You bet. But this is where I think certain puppet masters of information have bamboozled a lot of us, and that doesn't even mean I don't believe the moon landing happened. I do, but I also think special effects have been almost overused to make the masses think we are further along in space exploration and potential than we will ever be. There's a whole lot of space out there. And if we can do what they've proven they can do with computers, is it beyond the realm of possibility that many of the fantastic space scenes and satellite shots we're shown are completely computer generated? Just thought I'd throw that out there. Think about the risk versus reward. It is inevitable, because we cannot 100% reproduce the physical conditions for long term space travel to Mars, that some people will die before we ever get there. Is that worth the reward - IF WE NEVER GET THERE? Just a thought. Not here to have all the answers. But these are the things that crossed my mind.

I mentioned the Jurassic Park movies. Another example of us playing 'God'... and scientists have even come up with ways to genetically engineer people, and creatures. There's cloning, which can be a whole other ethical topic by itself. We can clone animals. I am sure we can do the same with people, and just haven't seen it yet because of the ethics. Look at the happenings in the news. How long before those kind of ethics are thrown right out the window? We've already been numbed by the information media machine to the idea of gender. Even though there is the 'x' chromosome, and the 'y' chromosome, and we have FINITE evidence that there are two distinct genders, the human race is being conditioned slowly but surely that there could be any number of genders. It's actually quite preposterous. I'm sure there's no agenda there at all. But think about it. What if we can engineer people one day, the way we want? We can plan entire populations to look and act a certain way. And when those organic engineered products are ready to expire? Why, we just upload their consciousness into something else.

Like I said, I am a skeptic. But I also am a Christian. God said that we are each beautifully and wonderfully made. His word also states that He has a plan. But we have been trying to fight against that plan time and time again, ever since He first told us not to eat of that tree.

Don't believe me? Read for yourself; I dare you. If you start reading God's word, I challenge you to keep going. Read it, and test it against what we see happening even to this day. Then tell me we don't have any modern Towers of Babel. I'll wait -

in the meantime, God bless us all until Jesus returns, and possibly ruins a lot of these great big plans.