At the end of the documentary Transcendent Man, Ray Kurzweil says, “Does God exist? Well, not yet.” I agree. It certainly brings up a topic that isn’t easily understood, nor well received by those dictated under dogmatic belief systems. Does God exist? Not yet. Do angels exist? Not yet. Do ghosts exist? Not yet. These questions are long-term byproducts of a single question in general: What exists and when?
When looking at it in the short-term, one could ask: ‘Do sentient robots exist?’ To which a similar answer to Kurzweil’s would be sufficient: ‘Well, not yet.’ Meaning, while acknowledging something’s nonexistence at the time being, that then doesn’t mean said nonexistence is constant. The existence of sentient robots is closer today now more than ever in history. Just because they don’t exist now doesn’t mean they won’t in the future.
So when looking at it in the long-term, questions like “Do Gods exist?, Do angels exist?, Do ghosts exists?” become not as constant as originally believed when looking at it through a more technological window. Who’s to say that humanity’s journey to transcendence won’t result in our creating ourselves more Godly, more angelic, more ghostly?
When we become greater at not just the creation of other lives, but also our own lives, are we then not essentially taking the throne of all Gods? When we become greater at extending our means of flight and as we sail further throughout the universe – through the cosmological heavens, if you will – are we then not essentially taking the throne of angels? When we become greater at leaving behind our biological imprints via technology – i.e. online digital lives – to which then creates a digitized immortal presence of ourselves if we die, per se, are we then not essentially taking the throne of ghosts?
I believe each question could be sufficiently answered with a simple ‘Yes’. We are taking over these thrones. Or, more accurately put, we are finally creating said thrones based on the fairy tales we’ve been told – and our ancestors have been told – for thousands of years.
The Proactionary Transhumanist 
Factor in mastery of time, and the subject becomes even more interesting.
Billy Graham wrote a book about angels, in which he made it clear that angels were beings created by God to perform tasks for God. In particular, the word that is translated as “angels” might be better translated as “agents”. Many of the miracles I have seen attributed to angels could be accomplished by next-generation semi-autonomous drones – and factoring in time travel, maybe they will be.
Factor in time travel, and it becomes possible for man to create God _and_ for God to create man – and the ancient holy books may simply reveal what is to come with different perspectives and emphases. We think of people hearing God’s voice as crazy, yet what better way to reveal knowledge of the future to those who need it while not changing the circumstances that lead to the creation of God than by putting the necessary revelations in the mouths of crazy people who will not be given credence by most?
The Bible says that God is there any time two or three believers meet in his name, and we are told that God is Love. Perhaps that is literally true – that God is not any particular person or persons but the love and mutual cooperation that allows humanity to transcend the limitations of any single human being. Suddenly the parable of the marriage of Jesus and the Church even lends its support, as in marriage the bride(s) and groom become one.
But we should also be careful. We are warned of false gods, and the book of Revelations tells us that there will be a false prophet who misleads many in what appears to be this very sort of quest. One does not have to believe in the inerrancy of that book to take the precaution seriously. Perhaps the false god is the illusion that we can create God through governmental force, and perhaps it is something else – but we would do well to remember the value of Love and voluntary cooperation in creating a better world.
I love your response, even as an atheist myself. But then, I’d like to address one of your comments with a question I guess, which is also somewhat irrelevant to the topic at hand.
You state that, through time travel, “it becomes possible for man to create God _and_ for God to create man.” But wouldn’t that then develop the grandfather paradox at über level!? I’m not sure what the implications would be for our present day events and people if someone went back in time and put in place a “God”, per se, regardless if said God/Human+ carried out his/her’s actions positively.
I cannot pretend to know the implications myself – but I believe this idea of the time-travel paradox is an artifact of human understanding, which may or may not have some basis in reality. Scientists have recently managed quantum linking of photons that are temporally displaced – something that I have suspected would happen for at least a decade now.
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2013/05/physicists-create-quantum-link-b.html
Of course, this circular sequence of events would exert some influence on God. Although God is generally all-powerful, God must be limited in what can be done about the events that contributed to his own birth – much like the time travelers in the short story “Wikihistory” cannot go back in time and kill Hitler because that would alter the events that lead to the development of time travel. God could, however, go back afterwards and bring the dead forward to resurrect them.
Jesus claimed to be the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, and perhaps that is true in a literal way – and is reflected in other religions, for example as the Ouroboros – the snake devouring its own tail.
Of course, if this _is_ to happen, it has _already_ happened. ;-)