Human is Dead

In the 11th year of training before Forall went off schedule after six months of leading the community, he gave a final talk about the world situation, the future of the organization, and the responsibility at hand.

He began by claiming that three words have defined our age: “God is dead.” After eliciting responses from the group about what this might mean, Forall explained that regardless of its original intent, it now represents the modern view that our monotheistic and polytheistic beliefs in God have always been a made up human construct. And now that we’re more mature, we should throw away this absurd belief and accept that God was never there. At best God was a useful construct, but now that our civilization has evolved, we no longer need such a primitive belief.

Then came the hammer. “The phrase that will define the coming era is: Human is dead.” It was as if Forall held up a mirror to my face.

What is he pointing at?, I wondered. Of all the things he could have said, why leave with this depressing and provoking message? For years, he had been talking about the existential risks to humanity and all life on Earth, but this was pointing at something deeper than our mere potentiality for mass physical death.

In recent months, he had challenged the community to see that the Humanist God that we worship and that has run our civilization is dying. In the age of algorithms, the God of Data will reign. He said that it is our responsibility to understand this God and its religion deeply enough to guide it in a trustworthy direction. Buddhists have been teaching gods for a long time. Forall claims that if we are true teachers, we can teach in a way that benefits all beings.