Baptist News Global
Sections
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Opinion
  • Curated
  • Storytelling
    • Faith & Justice >
      • Charleston: Metanoia with Bill Stanfield
      • Charlotte: QC Family Tree with Greg and Helms Jarrell
      • Little Rock: Judge Wendell Griffen
      • North Carolina: Conetoe
    • Welcoming the Stranger >
      • Lost Boys of Sudan: St. John’s Baptist Charlotte
      • Awakening to Immigrant Justice: Myers Park Baptist Church
      • Hospitality on the corner: Gaston Christian Center
    • Signature Ministries >
      • Jake Hall: Gospel Gothic, Music and Radio
    • Singing Our Faith >
      • Hymns for a Lifetime: Ken Wilson and Knollwood Baptist Church
      • Norfolk Street Choir
    • Resilient Rural America >
      • Alabama: Perry County
      • Texas: Hidalgo County
      • Arkansas Delta
      • Southeast Kentucky
  • More
    • Contact
    • About
    • Donate
    • Associated Baptist Press Foundation
    • Planned Giving
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Advertising
    • Ministry Jobs and More
    • Transitions
    • Subscribe
    • Submissions and Permissions
Donate Subscribe
Search Search this site

As Facebook evolves to Meta, what is the future of consciousness and control?

AnalysisRick Pidcock  |  November 3, 2021

On the heels of the recent whistleblower accusations against Facebook, the social media company has decided to change its primary organizational name and logo. 

Founder/CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted the irony of the name-change timing during the launch of Meta, Facebook’s new parent company brand. “With all the scrutiny and public debate, some of you might be wondering why we’re doing this right now,” he acknowledged. “The answer is that I believe that we’re put on this earth to create. I believe that technology can make our lives better. We live for what we’re building, and while we make mistakes, we keep learning and building and moving forward.” 

Rick Pidcock

Late-night comedians have had a field day with the name change. Jimmy Fallon joked, “This feels like when there’s an E. Coli outbreak at a pizza place, and they just change the name from Sal & Tony’s to Tony & Sal’s.” Stephen Colbert added: “So, we’ve reached the part of the movie where the corporation creates their own virtual world. What do you say we skip the whole robot uprising to harvest our organs and just jump straight into the Thunderdome?” 

Allison Morrow wrote for CNN: “No amount of corporate re-branding should let Zuck or anyone else off the hook for the real, tangible harms their product has manifested and continues to propagate without consequence.” 

But whatever one feels about Zuckerberg, Facebook or the role social media has played in our lives over the past decade, the vision Zuckerberg laid out for Meta goes far beyond a simple face-saving rebrand. His vision ultimately is about controlling evolution itself. 

The evolution of connection 

In his introductory address, Zuckerberg explained: “Our mission remains the same. It’s still about bringing people together. … We are still the company that designs technology around people,” adding the most important experience of all is “connecting with people.”

But while the mission and the company remain the same, the way these connections happen is evolving. 

The new Meta website opens with the statement: “Connection is evolving and so are we. The metaverse is the next evolution of social connection. Our company’s vision is to help bring the metaverse to life, so we are changing our name to reflect our commitment to this future.” 

Composite from the Facebook Metaverse website. Photo/Facebook

Whatever the metaverse might be or become, Meta’s repetition of the word “evolving” and “evolution” should be noted. On its community page, Meta says it is about “coming together to connect and create change.” … “People are using Meta to connect and strengthen their communities.” … “We change the game when we find each other.” And people connecting “lift up their communities.” 

Whatever the metaverse might be or become, Meta’s repetition of the word “evolving” and “evolution” should be noted.

These statements are not simply platitudes meant to target a younger, socially conscious audience. They tap into the story of the cosmos as an evolution of transcending wholeness. 

The evolution of the cosmos 

In the history of cosmic evolution, particles began to come together and connect. In their convergence, they created change by including and transcending each individual particle to create a greater whole called an atom. Then atoms repeated this process of connection with one another, which strengthened their community and changed again to transcend and to create a greater whole called a molecule.  

This is the story of how our universe evolved to create stars, planets and galaxies. This is the story we carried within our bodies as we evolved to include and transcend into the complex relational network of mind and body we are today. This is exactly the story Meta is telling us it taps into, helping us come together to connect, strengthen our communities, and then lift up and transcend our communities together to create change in human consciousness. 

The evolution of consciousness 

Each stage in the evolution of human consciousness has been triggered by technology. As the first primates began making tools, humans evolved using technology to explore and expand our worlds. From about 64,000 B.C. to 800 B.C., our ancestors primarily lived as ritualistic tribes whose consciousness evolved toward a mythical relationship to the cosmos. 

During the first millennium B.C., “human consciousness shifted to a new level due to a complexity of factors including technology, socialization, urbanization, politicization and economics, reflecting a new sense of self in relation to the cosmos,” notes Ilia Delio, a Catholic theologian with doctoral degrees in both theology and science. 

During this time, the world’s major religions began to take form and people began to emerge from their tribes with a new sense of autonomy and individuality. Hierarchies also developed, which led to 3,000 years of violent, male-dominated power dynamics. 

As individuals pursued rationality, they began to idealize a future of perfection that reminded them of their mythic past.

As individuals pursued rationality, they began to idealize a future of perfection that reminded them of their mythic past. Ernst Benz, a 20th century Eastern Orthodox historian, said, “The founders of modern technology felt that justification of the most far-reaching aims of their technological efforts could be found in the destiny of man as image of God and his vocation as a fellow worker of God, to cooperate with God in the establishment of the kingdom and to share God’s power over nature.” Zuckerberg seems to echo Benz as he casts his co-creating vision, in which people have been “put on this earth to create.” 

However, as Christianity dealt with the insecurities of realizing the cosmos wasn’t centered on Earth, many Christians began to disconnect from science and technology, choosing instead to deny science and to create other-worldly visions of ultimate hope. 

But in the everyday world, technology began to replace religion. “Now, ancient religious myths are replaced by techno myths and techno rituals — the myth of super-intelligence, the myth of betterment, the myth of longevity, and the rituals of purchasing the technological means of enacting these myths,” Delio observed. 

The Jesuit priest and scientist Teilhard de Chardin recognized the invention of the computer would lead to a new evolution of consciousness toward a global, collective networked mind. 

Teilhard recognized the evolving consciousness decades before social media developed. Today, scholars such as Delio believe a new type of person is evolving within an unprecedented grid of networked consciousness. In Re-Enchanting the Earth: Why AI Needs Religion, she writes, “AI arose as nature’s cry for connectedness and wholeness, an effort to transcend our crippled individualism.” 

We stand at the precipice of an emerging consciousness unlike anything seen in human history. 

The evolution of choice 

As we evolve, we must choose how the virtual world will integrate with the real world. Zuckerberg explained: “You’re going to be able to bring things from the physical world into the metaverse. Almost any type of media that can be represented digitally — photos, videos, art, music, movies, books, games — you name it. Lots of things that are physical today, like screens, will just be able to be holograms in the future.” 

Our choices will extend even to the people we allow into our lives. “You’ll get to decide when you want to be with other people, when you want to block someone from appearing in your space, or when you want to take a break and teleport to a private bubble to be alone,” he said. 

The more we become integrated with artificial intelligence, the faster our evolution will develop. And we will have to choose the direction of our evolution.

The more we become integrated with artificial intelligence, the faster our evolution will develop. And we will have to choose the direction of our evolution. Transhumanism arose in the 1950s as a vision to evolve the homo sapien into a techno sapien. By utilizing artificial intelligence, the transhumanist envisions a future where the human mind can be extracted from the body and exist forever in a virtual metaverse. However, while this vision may seem attractive to some, it becomes completely cut off from the natural world.  

In contrast, Teilhard de Chardin envisioned ultrahumanism as a new evolution of humanity, in which people embody the global, complex, computer networked mind and think in terms of the collective unity while remaining embodied in the world. Delio says the human body will extend “to the whole electronically connected planet” and the ego will “embrace the All — a oneness with all life in the cosmos.” 

As the individual ego expands to include the All, hierarchies will fall. 

The evolution of control 

In our previous stages of human consciousness, hierarchies based on gender, race, age, wealth and sexual orientation dominated the planet. In Zuckerberg’s metaverse, all of these hierarchies, with their discriminating ethics, will begin to disappear. 

The transition to a globalized, posthuman consciousness like the metaverse will utilize blockchain so that the control goes from a centralized, hierarchical power dynamic to a more widely spread access across traditional boundaries. 

We’re already beginning to see the playing field leveled through cryptocurrency, as African crypto-artists are able to build generational wealth and maintain control of their art in ways unavailable to them in our existing traditional hierarchies. 

The evolution of Christianity 

With all the talk about virtual reality and augmented reality, many people are concerned we will lose touch with reality, and with good reason. But many Christians have not accepted our current reality to begin with, because we still are stuck in the hierarchies of the past. Many of us are too busy pretending we live in a young, fallen, static, hierarchical universe rather than an ancient, converging, becoming universe. “Evolution is speeding up, and religion is stuck in (an earlier) consciousness,” Delio observes. 

If church communities decline to engage the next stage in human evolution, they will be left behind.

If church communities decline to engage the next stage in human evolution, they will be left behind. However, if they participate in the convergence of an emerging, globalized person, many of their power dynamics will fall. How will a complementarian church determine only men are in charge in the metaverse, when people’s physical gender may not even be revealed? How would people tithe, when many of their assets are holograms? How would pastors hold people accountable to their expectations, when people can just block the church and join a new one with the swipe of a hand? 

A centralized, hierarchical Christian institution will be incompatible with a decentralized, converging consciousness. However, Christianity could evolve to enhance the next stage of evolution if Christians are willing to adapt theology that already exists into this next phase. 

Through the incarnation of Jesus, Christianity teaches God becomes embodied. So, biological roots possess divine value. Through the passion of Jesus, Christianity teaches suffering must be faced and entered into. Zuckerberg’s vision suppresses suffering by allowing people to mask surroundings with “an incredibly inspiring view of whatever you find most beautiful,” and to simply block out of the universe anyone who is bothersome. And Christianity teaches the future is about the uniting of all things, the making of all things new. So, with Christianity’s emphasis on incarnation, suffering, converging unity and renewal, it possesses the potential to participate in and enhance the next stage of human consciousness. 

With Christianity’s emphasis on incarnation, suffering, converging unity and renewal, it possesses the potential to participate in and enhance the next stage of human consciousness. 

Christianity’s liberation theologies can recognize and dismantle hierarchies. Its many centuries of mystics can walk with us toward converging unity with the All. If we can get over our fear of empathy, we can enter into these new worlds to connect with people we would never meet otherwise, hear their stories and converge with them in empathy. 

If Christian leaders can be bold enough to embrace our reality of a converging, evolving humanity and forsake all power dynamics of superiority and hierarchy, then Christian communities can play a vital role in our future. 

As Ilia Delio says: “Technology and religion must find each other for the good of the whole earth. To do this, institutional religion will have to let go of everything that prevents engagement in the dynamic flow of evolution, and technocrats must rethink their dystopia, disembodied ideals in view of whole-earth posthuman life.”

Rick Pidcock is a freelance writer based in South Carolina. He is a former Clemons Fellow with BNG and recently completed a master of arts degree in worship from Northern Seminary. He is a stay-at-home father of five children and produces music under the artist name Provoke Wonder. Follow his blog at www.rickpidcock.com

 

Related articles

What the Big Bang and wholeness have taught me about Facebook / Analysis by Rick Pidcock

When a Facebook ‘friend’ told me I don’t understand the power of God / Opinion by Terry Austin

Facebook is the new voice of temptation whispering to the church in the digital wilderness / Analysis by Todd Thomason

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
Tags:metaverseAllison MorrowFacebookJimmy FallonEvolutionevolution of connectionIncarnationtranshumanismChristianityultrahumanismMark ZuckerbergStephen ColbertconsciousnessMeta
More by
Rick Pidcock
  • Get BNG headlines in your inbox

  • Featured

    • Are Americans attending church more or less than before the pandemic? It’s complicated

      News

    • Preying preachers: Confronting clergy sexual abuse

      Analysis

    • ‘In a pluralistic democracy’: An interview with Jennifer Rubin

      Opinion

    • Guys, guns and gods

      Opinion


    Curated

    • Carl Lentz, in first staff position since Hillsong, joins Transformation Church in Tulsa

      Carl Lentz, in first staff position since Hillsong, joins Transformation Church in Tulsa

    • UK’s Religion-Free Speech Debates Enter ‘Thoughtcrime’ Zone

      UK’s Religion-Free Speech Debates Enter ‘Thoughtcrime’ Zone

    • Jimmy Carter believes Black lives matter. Would his decency be considered ‘woke’ today?

      Jimmy Carter believes Black lives matter. Would his decency be considered ‘woke’ today?

    • The Man Who Leads Senate Prayer Is Fed Up With ‘Thoughts And Prayers’

      The Man Who Leads Senate Prayer Is Fed Up With ‘Thoughts And Prayers’

    Read Next:

    How the church of the Nashville shooting winds through history, gender wars, church discipline and the SBC sexual abuse study

    AnalysisMark Wingfield

    More Articles

    • All
    • News
    • Opinion
    • Curated
    • On the separation of church and university

      OpinionPaul R. Gilliam III

    • An open letter to Baptist women

      OpinionAnna M.V. Bowden

    • Bob Jones University president resigns in battle with board chairman

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Evangelical leaders beg DeSantis and Florida Legislature not to make them criminals for transporting immigrants to church

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • If you’re going to quote 1 Timothy 3:2, be sure to read Exodus 20:17

      OpinionBrad Bull

    • 650 UMC clergy and laity publish letter supporting International Transgender Day of Visibility

      NewsBNG staff

    • On the indictment of a president

      OpinionMark Wingfield

    • Boy Scouts closer to settling abuse claims, but challenges remain

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Oral history archive explores relationship between faith and forced migration

      NewsMatthew Blanton

    • The shift from positional power to relational power

      OpinionMahan Siler

    • What the SBC can learn from NCAA women’s basketball

      OpinionSusan M. Shaw, Senior Columnist

    • Guys, guns and gods

      OpinionNapoleon Harris

    • Are Americans attending church more or less than before the pandemic? It’s complicated

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • A response to ‘The List’

      OpinionAlice Cates Clarke

    • What Mike Law got right

      OpinionJennifer Hawks

    • Preying preachers: Confronting clergy sexual abuse

      AnalysisJoel Bowman Sr.

    • Transitions for the week of 3-31-23

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • ‘In a pluralistic democracy’: An interview with Jennifer Rubin

      OpinionGreg Garrett, Senior Columnist

    • Northern Seminary trustees respond to student complaints

      NewsElizabeth Souder

    • I’m one of the female pastors on the SBC’s hit list

      OpinionCarlisle Davidhizar

    • How the church of the Nashville shooting winds through history, gender wars, church discipline and the SBC sexual abuse study

      AnalysisMark Wingfield

    • Baptist church jumps into service as reunion point for Covenant School children and parents

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • School shootings: How can we respond to children, parents, teachers and others affected?

      OpinionBrad Schwall

    • Part of former student’s case against Patterson and Southwestern dismissed by judge

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Why we should amplify women in all roles of church leadership

      OpinionBrittany Stillwell

    • Bob Jones University president resigns in battle with board chairman

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Evangelical leaders beg DeSantis and Florida Legislature not to make them criminals for transporting immigrants to church

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • 650 UMC clergy and laity publish letter supporting International Transgender Day of Visibility

      NewsBNG staff

    • Boy Scouts closer to settling abuse claims, but challenges remain

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Oral history archive explores relationship between faith and forced migration

      NewsMatthew Blanton

    • Are Americans attending church more or less than before the pandemic? It’s complicated

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Transitions for the week of 3-31-23

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Northern Seminary trustees respond to student complaints

      NewsElizabeth Souder

    • Baptist church jumps into service as reunion point for Covenant School children and parents

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Part of former student’s case against Patterson and Southwestern dismissed by judge

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Antisemitic-motivated assaults at record levels

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Peter James Flamming, ‘bridge-building’ pastor in Texas and Virginia

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • New court documents show First Baptist Houston leaders knew of allegations against Pressler in 2004

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • A tragic tale of death on the Mediterranean Sea amid Tunisian and British migrant backlash

      NewsAnthony Akaeze

    • Movements expand and contract, Black Lives Matter co-founder says

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Ukrainians join European Baptists to help quake victims in Syria and Turkey

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Two Baptist seminaries among six ‘recommended’ by new Global Methodist Church

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Advocates for constitutional ban on female ‘pastors’ in SBC publish a list of 170 churches they deem in violation

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Former staff at Knoxville church see a familiar pattern in Northern Seminary’s complaints about Shiell’s leadership

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Egged on by evangelical influence, Ugandan Parliament passes harsh new anti-gay bill

      NewsAnthony Akaeze

    • Judge’s dismissal of 36 churches’ lawsuit holds implications for other UMC departures

      NewsCynthia Astle

    • Barna finds pastors are exhausted and isolated, which could be an opportunity for change

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • One-third of Northern Seminary students express no confidence in trustees

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • He was wrongly put on Death Row and believes you could be too

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • On the separation of church and university

      OpinionPaul R. Gilliam III

    • An open letter to Baptist women

      OpinionAnna M.V. Bowden

    • If you’re going to quote 1 Timothy 3:2, be sure to read Exodus 20:17

      OpinionBrad Bull

    • On the indictment of a president

      OpinionMark Wingfield

    • The shift from positional power to relational power

      OpinionMahan Siler

    • What the SBC can learn from NCAA women’s basketball

      OpinionSusan M. Shaw, Senior Columnist

    • Guys, guns and gods

      OpinionNapoleon Harris

    • A response to ‘The List’

      OpinionAlice Cates Clarke

    • What Mike Law got right

      OpinionJennifer Hawks

    • ‘In a pluralistic democracy’: An interview with Jennifer Rubin

      OpinionGreg Garrett, Senior Columnist

    • I’m one of the female pastors on the SBC’s hit list

      OpinionCarlisle Davidhizar

    • School shootings: How can we respond to children, parents, teachers and others affected?

      OpinionBrad Schwall

    • Why we should amplify women in all roles of church leadership

      OpinionBrittany Stillwell

    • Lent, confession and the ‘no true Scotsman’ fallacy

      OpinionRobert P. Jones

    • What pastors may not say, but really want us to understand

      OpinionMark Tidsworth

    • Religious leaders must step up to support our trans siblings

      OpinionPaul Brandeis Raushenbush

    • To increase congregational health, decrease domestic violence

      OpinionGeneece Goertzen-Morrison

    • From a Gen Z perspective, another ‘Jesus Revolution’ seems improbable

      OpinionMallory Challis

    • Trumpism is leading America to the valley of dry bones

      OpinionRodney Kennedy

    • Dear churches who invite women to preach

      OpinionSarah Boberg

    • How dare they publish that list

      OpinionArthur Wright Jr.

    • ‘Woke’: I don’t think that word means what you say it does

      OpinionRoger Lovette

    • The Russian Orthodox Church is a big loser in the Russian-Ukrainian war

      OpinionAndrey Shirin

    • On the path to immigration justice, it’s time for Biden to change course

      OpinionSalote Soqo

    • If a story is meant to evolve, then so are we

      OpinionKaitlin Curtice

    • Carl Lentz, in first staff position since Hillsong, joins Transformation Church in Tulsa

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • UK’s Religion-Free Speech Debates Enter ‘Thoughtcrime’ Zone

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Jimmy Carter believes Black lives matter. Would his decency be considered ‘woke’ today?

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • The Man Who Leads Senate Prayer Is Fed Up With ‘Thoughts And Prayers’

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • At launch rally in Waco, former president sets the stakes for Trump ’24 campaign with apocalyptic, violent, genocidal rhetoric

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Judge rules immigration officials violated pastor’s religious freedom rights

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • A ‘historic’ day in Israel ends with a political compromise — and big questions about the future

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • NY’s power to regulate religious schools trimmed by judge

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Amid rise in antisemitism, Yeshiva University focuses on Holocaust education

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Is Pope Francis ‘The Only One Who Can Make A Difference’ In Uganda’s Anti-LGBTQ Bills?

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • “We Will Fight You for It”: Can Womenpriests Save the Catholic Church?

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Whitney Houston’s family wants to highlight her gospel roots

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Pelosi on cleric who barred her from Communion: ‘That’s his problem, not mine’

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Criminal or Not, Trump’s Case Is a Moral Test for Christians

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Netanyahu vows more active role in Israel’s judiciary fight following a day of tense protests

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Jimmy Carter’s religious values were never far from his presidency or his policy

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Pioneer of gospel music rediscovered in Pittsburgh archives

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • As The King’s College faces closure, scrutiny turns to its backers

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Communicators for Christ: how homeschool debate leagues shaped the rising stars of the Christian right

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Israeli leader halts bill against Christian proselytizing

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Trump’s arrest ‘prediction’ inflames holy war narrative and sanctifies violence — welcome to Trump ’24

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • German prosecutors examined late pope in abuse probe

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Court rehears case to protect Oak Flat, an Apache sacred site in Arizona

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Antisemitism on Twitter has more than doubled since Elon Musk took over the platform – new research

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Israel’s Reform rabbi and legislator on judicial overhaul: ‘It doesn’t look good.’

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    Conversations that Matter.

    © 2023 Baptist News Global. All rights reserved.

    Want to share a story? We hope you will! Read our republishing, terms of use and privacy policies here.

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • RSS