Religion and Transhumanism: The Unknown Future of Human Enhancement

by Calvin Mercer (Editor), Tracy J. Trothen (Editor)

Overview

Should technology be used to improve human faculties such as cognition and longevity? This thought-provoking dialogue between "transhumanism" and religion examines enhancement technologies that could radically alter the human species.

"Transhumanism" or "human enhancement" is an intellectual and cultural movement that advocates the use of emerging technologies to change human traits. Although they may sound like science fiction, the possibilities suggested by transhumanism are very real, and the questions they raise have no easy answers. If these enhancements—especially major ones like the indefinite extension of healthy human life—become widely available, they would arguably have a more radical impact on humankind than any other development in history.

This book comprises essays that explore transhumanism and the issues that surround it, addressing numerous fascinating questions posed by scholars of religion from various traditions. How will "immortality" or extreme longevity change our religious beliefs and practices? How might pharmaceuticals enhance spiritual experiences? Will "post-human" technologies be available to all persons, or will a superior "post-human race" arise to dominate the human species? The discussions are as intriguing as the future they suggest.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798216138006
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	11/17/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	472
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	7 - 17 Years

About the Author

Calvin Mercer, PhD, is professor of religion and director of the Religious Studies Program at East Carolina University.

Tracy J. Trothen, PhD, is associate professor of religion at the Queen's University School of Religion, in Kingston, Ontario.
Calvin Mercer is professor and codirector of the Religious Studies Program at East Carolina University. For twenty years, Dr. Mercer has worked with fundamentalist Christians in the classroom as a professor of biblical studies and in the consulting room as the go-to therapist for fundamentalist Christians in his city. He is coauthor of The Writings of Swami Sivananda (Edwin Mellen, 2007) and co-editor of Religion and the Implications of Radical Life Extension (Palgrave-Macmillan, forthcoming). He has published numerous articles in both religion and psychology journals and has presented a number of papers at the American Academy of Religion and other scholarly societies.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Making the Unknown Known
Calvin Mercer
Section 1: Theological Anthropology: What It Means to Be Human
1 Transhumanism and the Meaning of Life
Anders Sandberg
2 More Human Than the Human? Toward a "Transhumanist" Christian Theological Anthropology
Matthew Zaro Fisher
3 Cindi, Six, and Her: Gender, Relationality, and Friendly Artificial Intelligence
Jeanine Thweatt-Bates
Section 2: Soteriology: Salvation Now and Forever
4 "The Relief of Man's Estate": Transhumanism, the Baconian Project, and the Theological Impetus for Material Salvation
Joseph Wolyniak
5 A Salvation Paradox for Transhumanism: Saving You versus Saving You
Patrick D. Hopkins
6 Diagnosing Death in the Transhumanism and Christian Traditions
Todd T. W. Daly
7 Cyborg, Sage, and Saint: Transhumanism as Seen from an East Asian Theological Setting
Heup Young Kim
Section 3: Eschatology: For What Do We Hope?
8 Becoming God by the Numbers: An Evolutionary Journey toward the Divine
Philip A. Douglas
9 The Religion of Technology: Transhumanism and the Myth of Progress
Michael S. Burdett
10 Extreme Longevity: Insights from the Three Chinese Spiritual Traditions
Geoffrey Redmond
11 Utopianism and Eschatology: Judaism Engages Transhumanism
Hava Tirosh-Samuelson
12 Rapture of the Geeks: Singularitarianism, Feminism, and the Yearning for Transcendence
Amy Michelle DeBaets
Section 4: Extreme Enhancement Ethics: Theological, Bioethical, and Philosophical Questions
13 Transhumanism and Catholic Natural Law: Changing Human Nature and Changing Moral Norms
Brian Patrick Green
14 The Risks of Transhumanism: Religious Engagements with the Precautionary and Proactionary Principles
Daniel McFee
15 Christian Theology and Transhumanism: The "Created Co-creator" and Bioethical Principles
Stephen Garner
16 Remaking Human Nature: Transhumanism, Theology, and Creatureliness in Bioethical Controversies
Celia Deane-Drummond
17 Critical Transhumanism as a Religious Ethic of Otherness
Steven A. Benko and Amelia Hruby
Section 5: Body Matters
18 Return of the Corporeal Battle: How Second-Century Christology Struggles Inform the Transhumanism Debate
Lee A. Johnson
19 Flesh Made Data: The Posthuman Project in Light of the Incarnation
Brent Waters
20 Morphological Freedom and the Rebellion against Human Bodiliness: Notes from the Roman Catholic Tradition
Cory Andrew Labrecque
21 The Fleshless Future: A Phenomenological Perspective on Mind Uploading
Hannah Scheidt
Section 6: Corporeal Diversity and Religious Experience
22 Does Transhumanism Face an Uncanny Valley among the Religious?
Donald M. Braxton
23 The Trans-Athlete and the Religion of Sport: Implications of Transhumanism for Elite Sport's Spiritual Dimension
Tracy J. Trothen
24 Spiritual Enhancement
Ron Cole-Turner
Conclusion: Transhumanism and Religion: Glimpsing the Future of Human Enhancement
Tracy J. Trothen
Bibliography
Index
About the Editors and Contributors

What People are Saying About This

James A. Herrick

"This is a timely volume given the developing case for transhumanism and the parallel concerns of religion. There is more going on here, however, than careful analysis and engaging speculation about the potentially culture-shaping interaction of the two—a lot more. It is hard to imagine an important question about the dynamic influence each has on the other that is not addressed or anticipated in this volume. In fact, these essays trace the contours of a new field of study. In the next decade or two every thinking person will have to become familiar with the intersection of radical human enhancement and religion. Here’s the map!"

Gerald McKenny

"Whether religion and transhumanism are inevitably at odds with each other or ultimately in league with each other, their encounter with each other is inescapable, and this fine collection of essays is an excellent guide to it. The range of topics, depth of analysis, and diversity of perspectives are unsurpassed. Those who are well versed in the issues and those who are just beginning to explore them will be equally well served by this important book."

James J. Hughes

"This exciting collection brings together some of the most important thinkers who have addressed the religious implications of transhumanism. Their insights are sure to help move us past one-dimensional posturing and suspicion to a deeper understanding."

Ted Peters

"Calvin Mercer and Tracy J. Trothen have put together the most comprehensive theological response to the Transhumanism movement to date. A vigorous Promethean spirit is alive and well among the Transhumanists, and it will take careful discernment to distinguish the wheat from the chaff. Here we find heroic attempts to help us in this discernment."

Robert Song

"The aspirations towards human enhancement represented by transhumanism are undoubtedly here to stay, and there is an urgent need for a profound religious and theological engagement with them. This excellent volume provides the most up-to-date and extensive range of contributions to the contemporary religious and theological discussion—it rightly deserves to be warmly welcomed and widely read."