I have a friendly, but strong, admonition for those who are now promoting certain radical theories regarding the forthcoming Covid vaccines. (Before presenting them, I will remind you that I am not advocating for getting the vaccine; it may well be dangerous, it may well be unethical. It may well be part of a terribly dark and nefarious international agenda. I do not yet know; if I am able to come to clearer conclusions on this I will let you know with a new post.). This is frankly not something I want to write about, but considering my position, I think I must. For, with respect to what I’ve been writing for the last 10+ years, I am one person whom no one could fairly castigate as being insufficiently sensitive to the Signs of the Times, the apocalyptic nature of our present age, and the warnings from Heaven in trustworthy private revelation.
And yet I must say bluntly: You who promote these more radical theories are risking playing the role of the boy who cried wolf. For once your voice is actually needed in order to speak out, no one will believe you, for they will say “Ah, yes, that’s the same person who made all those utterly comical assertions about the Covid vaccine!”
The more radical claims now circulating online regarding the vaccine (e.g. that it will drastically alter our DNA thus making us transhuman monsters, override our free wills and our minds, make us ineligible for God’s grace, damn us to hell, make us controllable via 5G, etc.) are so apocalyptic that they certainly constitute assertions that the vaccine is the Mark of the Beast itself. Have those Christians promoting these theories paused for even a moment to consider one simple fact? Namely, the fact that the Mark of the Beast cannot be given until the Beast himself has made his public entrance. The Beast (the Antichrist), however, has not yet made his public entrance. Dark indeed as these days have grown, we are still in the Infrastructure-Laying period of preparation for the Antichrist, not in the times of his explicit activities.
Read the Book of Revelation Chapter 13. You will see clearly that all manner of things must happen before the Mark of the Beast is given — things we clearly have not seen yet. First, the Beast assumes worldwide dominion, and the peoples of the earth revere him. The Beast also works great apparent signs and wonders that the world marvels at; even making “fire come down from Heaven.” Then, and only then, (verses 16-18), the Mark of the Beast is instituted.
Furthermore, we know from the prophetic consensus that the Antichrist does not publicly enter the scene and institute the Mark until after the Warning, which obviously has not happened yet.
Speaking of private revelation: if Heaven’s messages these days are useful for anything at all, and indeed they are!, then they certainly will warn us — without any ambiguity, with a clear prophetic consensus, and with a superlative degree of urgency — against the Mark of the Beast when it comes. And yet, we do not have anything close to that in the messages we now see. We see warnings of what the nefarious elite want to do, for sure. We have warnings to be careful about vaccines, indeed. But we haven’t anything even remotely close to a prophetic consensus indicating that the Covid vaccine is the Mark of the Beast, or that any of the wild theories out there about it are true.
So from both Scripture and private revelation, it is clear that the present Covid vaccines are not the Mark of the Beast. This fact also tells us that any individual claims about the vaccine that are so apocalyptic as to render it tantamount to the Mark, must themselves be claims that are to not be believed.
But let us now also consider the claims themselves. I am certainly open to theories about the vaccine arguing it is unsafe, harmful to one’s health, unethical in its development, or a means of authoritarian control. I am even open to theories that argue the vaccine is part of a dark global agenda with nefarious ends. (Though I’m not myself currently making any such claims) What I am not open to — and what you, dear reader, must not be open to — are claims about the vaccine that (even if bedecked in terms from Christian theology) contradict an orthodox Catholic philosophical anthropology (understanding of human nature) and an orthodox Catholic worldview in general. This is precisely what the more wild Covid vaccine claims do: in supposedly seeking to protect our Faith, they contradict our Faith.
I will have to get specific and name some names here, contrary to my usual practice.
My inbox has been inundated, since July of this year, with the videos of a certain Dr. Carrie Madej. First of all, we must understand that Dr. Madej is not a scientist. MDs are quite knowledgeable and usually very trustworthy, but they are not scientists and we mustn’t erroneously regard them as such; they are trained pragmatically to treat their patients, not to master the scientific theory at play nor to contribute scholarly scientific research. But I think it’s worth noting that Madej is not even an MD. She is an “O.D.” (a doctor of osteopathy). ODs do not focus on solidly research-based approaches as much as MDs do. I am not condemning osteopathic medicine (I do not know much about it), but we must admit that at least some of the practices that have been associated with it are related to themes that Catholic Teaching regards as new age and/or pseudoscientific . This doesn’t mean we should reject ODs; I just think it means we should be a bit more cautious with them than with MDs, when it comes to the question of whether something may be pseudoscientific, is all. Anyway, take all that as you will; they are not essential points I wish to make here, though I think they should be kept in mind as we consider Madej’s claims. I’m sure ODs are generally wonderful and trustworthy; perhaps even Madej herself is, outside of this particular issue.
In her videos, Madej claims that this vaccine will turn us into Transhuman monsters by changing our DNA, and that this will also allow our minds to be controlled, our beliefs to be overridden, and on the list goes. These claims are absurd. Others have made similar claims (though very few if any serious, actual scientists who specialize in these fields have). A certain Croatian named Neven Peša has expounded upon such themes, employing terms from Catholic theology.
I will not address the medical dimension of these claims — that is not my specialty. If you’re interested in that, please see, for example, this article. It was written by one who actually is a PhD scientist who has contributed authoritative scholarly research — and not only that, he is an orthodox Catholic priest who has defended Catholic orthodoxy on controversial issues.
But the philosophy and theology (which is my speciality) of such claims, is utterly bankrupt, and possibly even heretical.
First of all, your spiritual soul is untouchable. Your mind — your intellect, memory, and will — are not material things. They are spiritual powers of your spiritual soul. Sure, they have neurochemical phenomena that follow them and correspond to them, but the causal chain cannot be reversed. Considering your intellect itself, your memory itself, your will itself — while they can each have their abilities inhibited by material phenomena, they cannot be controlled by any theoretically possible material phenomena. No vaccine, no injection, no nano-robot, no nano-particle. Nothing. See my post from September for a more complete demonstration of this point.
Secondly, you are not your DNA. You are your soul (which, though unified with the body, also subsists and operates distinctly from the body). Identical twins have identical DNA but are entirely different people. People born with even the worst genetic deformities are still people just as much as you are. Your DNA is degenerating — changing — as you age, yet you do not become a different person. Anyone who has ever had cancer has suffered from a condition that affects their DNA; yet they remain exactly the same person, no matter how advanced or pervasive the cancer.
It would of course be tragic if your DNA were modified — we should oppose human genetic modification because we must not erroneously suppose that our ideas for human design are better than God’s ideas! But we should still remember that no matter what is done to your DNA, you will still be you. You will still be a human. God’s grace will still be available to you. So long as you exist within time and have not yet had your Particular Judgment, God’s grace will always be available to you. Always. No matter what. Period. I solemnly assure you of that. Don’t you dare ever doubt that. If you doubt that, then you will succumb to despair. And then, in superlative irony, your despair-driven damnation will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. What an utterly terrible thought. Perhaps Judas was only damned because the devil beguiled him into thinking that what he had done was permanent and unforgivable, changing his very nature into evil itself — rendering him no longer really human — a lie from the pit of hell.
Contradicting these facts, Neven wrote, “RNA altering dehumanizes us genetically,” and he built most of his argument off of this erroneous premise. But the fact is that you are a human, and you cannot be “dehumanized.” Or rather, the only thing that can “dehumanize” you is good old fashioned death — the separation of your soul from your body. If something is done to you that “dehumanizes” you, then all that means is that your soul has departed your body and has been judged by Jesus Christ and gone on to either Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory. Somebody or something left on earth may, then, be messing with your corpse. That’s surely unfortunate… but, at the end of the day, we must respond: “so what?” Your mortal remains left on earth after your death are not you and what is done to them cannot affect you.
Neven goes on to write: “This is really about ontology and sacramental theology. If Grace builds on nature or perfects nature, then if the nature is not there or has been altered, then Grace cannot attach itself to it. Matter matters. The same reason you cannot confect Eucharist using banana bread is the reason why Grace cannot attach itself to a GMO entity.”
It just so happens that the analogy he here chose perfectly refutes the point he himself is trying to make. Leaving aside for now the question of the merits or demerits of GMO foods, one fact remains: if a Eucharistic host is made from bread that itself was made from a GMO strain of wheat, that host will still be validly consecrated. The fact that “grace builds upon nature,” as indeed it does, does not mean that grace “cannot attach itself” to something that has had its DNA modified. That conclusion in no way follows from its premise. In this case, we know that wheat remains wheat, and thus remains valid matter for consecration, even if its DNA is toyed with. This is Church Teaching.
Eucharistic matter made with genetically modified organisms can be considered valid matter [for consecration of the Eucharist] (cf. Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, 9 December 2013, Prot. N. 89/78 – 44897).
— Cardinal Sarah. Congregation for Divine Worship. June 15, 2017
This entire idea that “a thing’s essence is its DNA” is actually a fundamental tenet of the heresy of Scientism and it is precisely the premise that the atheists use to strive to argue against the immateriality of the human soul. As a philosopher, I have to deal with atheistic assertions like this all the time. But how sad it is to see the Faithful succumb to these very premises used to attack the Faith!
I do not wish to malign the motives of Dr. Madej, Neven Pesa, or those who have made similar arguments (or promoted these arguments); they seem to be sincere Christians. But they are promoting dangerous errors here. Please keep your head screwed on straight in these times of unprecedented confusion. In my next post, I will be giving more advice on how to do just that. The Diabolical “quantum leap” that the Antichrist and his minions will seek to foist upon us will require not just Faith, but also reason, to avoid. We must take both seriously.
Daniel O'Connor's Blog 