The following passage is an excerpt from my new best-selling book, Reclaiming Reality: Restoring Humanity in the Age of AI. You can learn more about the book, listen to the podcast based on the book, and purchase the book at ReclaimingReality.com.
The great deception of our age is not that AI will replace humanity, but that it will convince us we were never more than machines to begin with. The rapid advance of artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and transhumanist ideologies is forcing humanity to confront an age-old question in a new and urgent way: What does it mean to be human? For centuries, Christianity has provided a clear and unwavering answer—man is created in the image of God, possessing an immortal soul that gives him value, purpose, and an eternal destiny. Yet in the modern era, this truth is being systematically challenged.
Secular thinkers increasingly reduce human existence to a series of chemical reactions, neural impulses, and data patterns. In their view, consciousness is not a reflection of the divine but merely an advanced form of computation. According to this materialist perspective, if human thoughts, emotions, and decisions are nothing more than electrical signals in the brain, then there is no fundamental distinction between man and machine. Artificial intelligence, they argue, is simply another form of intelligence—one that can eventually surpass human cognition and render human labor, creativity, and even relationships obsolete.
This way of thinking is not merely misguided; it is profoundly dangerous. When people no longer believe in the soul, they no longer believe in the sanctity of life. If human beings are nothing more than biological machines, then they can be optimized, reprogrammed, and even discarded when they no longer serve a function. This is the foundational assumption behind transhumanism, which seeks to merge man with technology, overcoming biological limitations through genetic modification, cybernetic enhancement, and even the digital uploading of consciousness. It is a movement rooted in the false belief that man can achieve godhood by his own efforts, transcending mortality and taking control of his own evolution.
Christianity utterly rejects this deception. The Bible teaches that human beings are not mere matter; they are living souls, formed by God’s hands and breathed into life by His spirit. Genesis 2:7 states, “Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living soul.” This means that our identity is not found in our intelligence, our productivity, or our technological capabilities—it is found in our relationship with the Creator.
Because man possesses an immortal soul, his value does not fluctuate based on his usefulness to society. In contrast, the secular world, which denies the soul, increasingly defines human worth in terms of economic output, social status, or political alignment. This is why modern culture so easily justifies the destruction of the unborn, the elderly, and the disabled. Those who are seen as burdens rather than contributors are deemed expendable. But in God’s eyes, every life is sacred, not because of what it can produce, but because it is made in His image.
The denial of the soul also leads to the destruction of human identity. If man is simply a collection of biological processes, then there is no fixed human nature, no objective moral law, and no ultimate accountability for one’s actions. This is why the rejection of the soul inevitably results in moral relativism, where concepts like good and evil are considered arbitrary and subjective. Without the soul, there is no foundation for justice, no reason to defend the weak, and no basis for love beyond self-interest.
Perhaps the greatest threat posed by the denial of the soul is the rise of artificial intelligence as a substitute for human consciousness. Tech leaders increasingly promote the idea that AI can think, create, and even possess self-awareness. Some argue that machines will one day develop emotions, ethical reasoning, and personal identity. This is not just science fiction; it is a growing belief system among the secular elite. There are even those who suggest that AI could become our new gods—superintelligent entities that will guide humanity into a new era of existence.
But no matter how advanced AI becomes, it will never possess a soul. It may simulate human thought and mimic human creativity, but it will always be an imitation. It will never love, never repent, never seek truth for its own sake. It will never stand before God in judgment. Those who place their hope in AI as the future of intelligence are placing their hope in an empty vessel, a soulless creation that can never truly replace the uniqueness of human existence.
For Christians, the response to this deception is clear. We must reaffirm and defend the biblical truth that man is not just a machine, not just an organism shaped by evolutionary forces, but a being with eternal significance. We must reject every ideology that seeks to reduce human life to mere data or treat consciousness as something that can be replicated in a laboratory. We must hold fast to the understanding that our worth is not in our abilities, our knowledge, or our digital presence—it is in the fact that we are known and loved by God.
To do this, we must actively resist the cultural pressure to conform to a worldview that denies the soul. This means teaching our children that their identity is not defined by algorithms, social media, or online personas, but by their relationship with their Creator. It means rejecting technologies that seek to replace real human connection with artificial interactions. It means choosing relationships over digital distractions, choosing real-world experiences over virtual simulations, and choosing faith over the false promises of technological salvation. The battle for the soul is not just a philosophical or theological debate—it is a spiritual war. The forces that seek to erase the concept of the soul are the same forces that seek to erase God from human consciousness. The more people believe they are nothing more than advanced animals or programmable machines, the easier it becomes to control them. A world without the soul is a world without free will, without meaning, and without hope.
But for those who know the truth, there is no reason to fear. No matter how powerful technology becomes, no matter how deeply the world embraces artificial intelligence and transhumanist fantasies, the reality of the soul remains unchanged. Human beings are more than flesh, more than neurons, more than code. They are eternal beings, made for relationship with their Creator, destined for a life beyond this world. In a time when many seek to replace human nature with artificial intelligence and biological enhancements, Christians must stand firm in the knowledge that what makes us human cannot be replicated by machines or rewritten by scientists. The soul is our divine inheritance, the breath of God within us, the unchanging essence that sets us apart from all creation. And no force in this world—whether digital, political, or ideological—can take that away.
Like what you’ve read? Buy the book here.
