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Collection Highlights

Spirituality Sport and Doping More than Just a Game Tracy

J. Trothen

Death Society and Human Experience Robert J. Kastenbaum

Fairness, Morality And Ordre Public In Intellectual

Property Daniel J. Gervais

Death and Dying An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy of

Religion Timothy David Knepper
The Ethics of Human Enhancement: Understanding the Debate
1st Edition Steve Clarke

Religion Education and Human Rights Theoretical and

Empirical Perspectives 1st Edition Anders Sjöborg

The Death Of Democracy Liberalism And Human Rights 1st

Edition Michael Richard Starks

Reconciling Law and Morality in Human Rights Discourse:

Beyond the Habermasian Account of Human Rights 1st Edition
Willy Moka-Mubelo (Auth.)

Nigeria and the Death of Liberal England Peter J. Yearwood

Palgrave Studies in the Future
of Humanity and its Successors

RELIGION
HUMAN
and

ENHANCEMENT

Death, Values, and Morality

Edited by Tracy J. Trothen

and Calvin Mercer
Palgrave Studies in the Future of Humanity
and its Successors

Series editors
Calvin Mercer
East Carolina University
Greenville, NC, USA

Steve Fuller
University of Warwick
Coventry, UK
Humanity is at a crossroads in its history, precariously poised between
mastery and extinction. The fast-developing array of human enhance-
ment therapies and technologies (e.g., genetic engineering, information
technology, regenerative medicine, robotics, and nanotechnology) are
increasingly impacting our lives and our future. The most ardent advo-
cates believe that some of these developments could permit humans
to take control of their own evolution and alter human nature and the
human condition in fundamental ways, perhaps to an extent that we
arrive at the “posthuman”, the “successor” of humanity. This series
brings together research from a variety of fields to consider the eco-
nomic, ethical, legal, political, psychological, religious, social, and
other implications of cutting-edge science and technology. The series
as a whole does not advocate any particular position on these matters.
Rather, it provides a forum for experts to wrestle with the far-reaching
implications of the enhancement technologies of our day. The time
is ripe for forwarding this conversation among academics, public pol-
icy experts, and the general public. For more information on Palgrave
Studies in the Future of Humanity and its Successors, please contact Phil
Getz, Editor, Religion & Philosophy: [email protected].

More information about this series at

http://www.springer.com/series/14587
 Tracy J. Trothen · Calvin Mercer
Editors

Religion and Human

Enhancement
Death, Values, and Morality
Editors
Tracy J. Trothen Calvin Mercer
Queen’s University East Carolina University
Kingston Greenville
ON, Canada NC, USA

Palgrave Studies in the Future of Humanity and its Successors

ISBN 978-3-319-62487-7 ISBN 978-3-319-62488-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-62488-4

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017947742

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction
on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and
information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication.
Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied,
with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have
been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published
maps and institutional affiliations.

Cover illustration: Cover design by Emma Hardy

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature

The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 Foreword

We humans tend to lack historical perspective, mistaking our own time,

place, politics, and culture as normative. We further extend these taken-
for-granted attitudes to our modern technologies. Flick a switch and the
lights turn on. Turn a tap and potable water appears. Hop in a jet and fly
across continents and oceans in a day (while complaining about uncom-
fortable seats, bad food, and delayed baggage).
Iconic of this tendency is the computer—on which I compose these
reflections—and the smartphone and tablet by my side. These devices have
become indispensable tools of everyday life, as important as running water
and electric lights. Really we should be gobsmacked every time we turn to
these devices, which change how we live and also who we are. A mere cen-
tury ago these now ubiquitous technologies would be seen as magic.
The rapid development of technology in the modern era has inspired
a movement known as transhumanism. Envisioned is a near future in
which human bodies and minds will be transformed and enhanced
through genomics, pharmaceuticals, nanotechnology, robotics, artificial
intelligence, and any number of prosthetic devices inside and outside our
bodies. Advocates also hold out the possibilities of radical life extension
through rejuvenation technologies or alternately reincarnating individu-
als inside of computers. The proponents of transhumanism argue that
the exponential growth in scientific knowledge and know-how is leading
humanity to a “Singularity” sometime in the mid-twenty-first century. In
that Singularity, our technologies will cross a threshold. We will become
post- or transhumans.1

v
vi Foreword

For the most part, advocates of transhumanism are secular human-

ists committed to scientific materialism.2 They do not put much stock
in religion or theology. They tend to think philosophical debates have
been largely settled by science. They imagine a new age in which peo-
ple will be freed from mental disease and physical decrepitude, able to
consciously choose their “natures” and those of their children. At first
glance, it all seems like a wonderful thing, life lived more abundantly,
but Francis Fukuyama calls this transhumanist vision “the most danger-
ous idea in the world.”3
Religion and Human Enhancement is a collection of essays by lead-
ing Catholic, Protestant, Mormon, and Jewish thinkers. The theologi-
ans interrogate the vision and values of transhumanism, but reach no
consensus. This volume is more than just another book on science and
religion or a rehashing of the tired debates between secular and sacred
approaches to construing the world and ourselves. Instead, we find here
diverse perspectives that challenge readers to question and rethink funda-
mental assumptions, secular and religious. And while the secular propo-
nents of transhumanism are mostly absent from this volume, readers will
nevertheless encounter their views through careful citations of their pub-
lications. The debate about transhumanism turns out to be an extremely
fruitful field for philosophical and theological inquiry.
If the pace of scientific discovery and technological innovation con-
tinues and indeed accelerates in the twenty-first century, then in short
order we will be a much-transformed species on a much-transformed
planet. Where does God fit into this brave new world? The idea of some
fixed human nature, a human essence from which we derive notions of
humane dignities and essential human rights, seems to no longer apply
in a world of free market, engineered evolution. On what basis then do
we make moral judgments and pursue pragmatic ends? Should we try
to limit the development of certain sciences and technologies? How
would we do so? Is it even possible? Are either traditional religious or
Enlightenment values adequate, if we do indeed face a speciation hori-
zon between “natural” humans and “post” humans? Is the ideology of
transhumanism dangerous independent of the technology? Is the ideol-
ogy of the religious and bioconservatives, those who oppose transhu-
manism, also dangerous and how? Are the new sciences and technologies
celebrated by transhumanists realistic or just another form of wish-
ful thinking? And which utopic and dystopic visions have the power to
illuminate and motivate the future?
 Foreword vii

Of course, anytime we talk about the future, our hopes or our fears,
we drift into the realms of religion. Projecting a utopic or dystopic future
is a kind of religious activity that changes how we think and act in the
world today. Science fiction, in this view, is a genre of theological anthro-
pology and has contemporary political consequences (no less so than
our religious “fictions”). Humans are profoundly teleological creatures.
Broadly defined, our big hopes and big fears about the future are neces-
sarily “religious” in nature.4
Propitiating our existential fear of death is one of the central functions
of religion. If we can someday “cure” death, as transhumanists propose,
what becomes of religion? God? What becomes of our planet and our
species, when some have conquered death? Life-extension technology in
a materialist culture may be the ultimate “killer app.”
As contributors to this volume point out, the transhumanist move-
ment can be understood as a kind of secular religion promoting its
own apocalyptic and messianic visions of the end times. In this analy-
sis, whether or not the Singularity is plausible or realistic is no longer
the point. The Singularity inevitably plays into old chiliastic tropes in our
culture, and it will function psychologically, politically, and culturally,
much like earlier Christian and Jewish millennialist movements.
The collection of essays in this book presents a valuable introduction
to these issues and more, but offers no final resolution. You will discover
much worthy of debate that will transform how you think about the
world and yourself. Indeed, in many ways we are already radically trans-
formed humans.
It may be that “[t]ranshumanists both overestimate the capabilities
of human technology and underestimate our human limitations and fail-
ings,” as Noreen Herzfeld points out in her contribution to this volume.
It is certainly also the case that we share obligations—religious, human-
istic, and scientific—to help and heal, to minimize suffering, to be all we
can be as individuals, as a species, and as an interdependent community
of many species on a remarkable, evolving eddy of increasing complexity
in an enormous cosmos of entropy. How we evolve as a species—bio-
logically, culturally, technologically—is an open question, but that we
have evolved and will continue to evolve is now a certainty with which
philosophy and theology must now begin to wrestle.

New York, NY, USA William J. Grassie

viii Foreword

Notes
1. William J. Grassie, “Is Transhumanism Scientifically Plausible? Posthuman
Predictions and the Human Predicament,” in Building Better Humans?,
ed. Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Kenneth L. Mossman (Berlin: Peter Lang,
2012); William J. Grassie and Gregory Hansell, eds., H± Transhumanism
and Its Critics (Philadelphia: Metanexus Institute, 2010); William J.
Grassie, “Millennialism at the Singularity: Reflections on Metaphors,
Meanings, and the Limits of Ray Kurzweil’s Exponential Logic,”
Metanexus, no. 11/05/2009 (2009), http://www.metanexus.net/essay/
h-millennialism-singularity-reflections-metaphors-meanings-and-limits-
exponential-logic.
2. N. Bostrom, “In Defense of Posthuman Dignity,” in H+/-:
Transhumanism and Its Critics, ed. William J. Grassie and Greg Hansel
(Philadelphia: Metanexus Institute, 2011), 55.
3. Francis Fukuyama, “Transhumanism: The World’s Most Dangerous Idea,”
Foreign Policy, no. 144 (2004).
4. William J. Grassie, The New Sciences of Religion: Exploring Spirituality from
the Outside in and Bottom Up (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).
 Contents

Part I Introduction

1 Coming into Focus: An Introduction to the Collection 3

Calvin Mercer

Part II “Common Ground” between Transhumanism and

Religions

2 In Extropy We Trust: A Systems Theory Approach to

Identifying Transhumanism’s Religious Philosophy 15
Matthew Zaro Fisher

3 Christian Transhumanism 35
Ron Cole-Turner

4 Mormonism Mandates Transhumanism 49

Lincoln Cannon

5 Technological Apocalypse: Transhumanism as an

End-Time Religious Movement 67
Sean O’Callaghan

ix
x Contents

6 A Theological Assessment of Whole Brain Emulation:

On the Path to Superintelligence 89
Calvin Mercer

Part III Desires and Values

7 Is Transhumanism a Distraction? On the Good of Being

Boring 107
Brent Waters

8 What Exactly Are We Trying to Accomplish? The Role of

Desire in Transhumanist Visions 121
Amanda Sebastienne Grant

9 Genesis 2.0: Transhumanism, Catholicism, and the

Future of Creation 139
Cory Andrew Labrecque

10 “Have You Believed Because You Have Seen?”: Human

and Transhuman Desires for Alterations to the Visual
Field and Religious Experience 157
Alan Murphy

Part IV Moral Bioenhancement

11 The Myth of Moral Bio-Enhancement: An Evolutionary

Anthropology and Theological Critique 175
Celia Deane-Drummond

12 Ancient Aspirations Meet the Enlightenment 191

James J. Hughes

13 A Transhumanist Moral Bioenhancement Program:

A Critique from Barth and Bonhoeffer 213
Todd T.W. Daly
 Contents xi

14 Enhancing Moral Goodness: Toward a Virtue Ethics of

Moral Bioenhancement 229
James E. Helmer

15 Moral Bioenhancement from the Margins: An

Intersectional Christian Theological Reconsideration 245
Tracy J. Trothen

Part V Longing for Immortality: Meanings of Death

16 Technologizing Transcendence: A Critique of

Transhumanism 267
Hava Tirosh-Samuelson

17 Must We Die? Transhumanism, Religion, and the Fear of

Death 285
Noreen Herzfeld

18 Dining and Dunking the Dead: Postmortem Rituals in

First-Century Hellenistic Society and What They Reveal
About the Role of the Body in Christianity 301
Lee A. Johnson

Part VI Conclusion

19 Making Us Better: Believe It or Not? 319

Tracy J. Trothen

Works Cited 331

Index 369
 Editors and Contributors

About the Editors

Tracy J. Trothen holds a joint appointment as Professor in the School

of Religion and School of Rehabilitation Therapy specializing in ethics,
spirituality and Christianity at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.
She is also a registered psychotherapist (with the College of Registered
Psychotherapists of Ontario) and certified supervisor of clinical spiritual
education (Canadian Association for Spiritual Care). Trothen has pub-
­
lished several articles concerning human enhancement, and most recently
is co-editor (with Calvin Mercer) of Religion and Transhumanism: The
Unknown Future of Human Enhancement and author of Winning the Race?
Religion, Hope, and Reshaping the Sport Enhancement Debate. Trothen cur-
rently serves as co-chair of the American Academy of Religion “Human
Enhancement and Transhumanism” Group.
Calvin Mercer’s six books and 30 articles focus on biblical studies,
and religion and culture. On the topic of religion and human enhance-
ment, he has authored or has forthcoming six chapters or articles and
four co-edited books. He co-edits, with Steve Fuller, the series Palgrave
Studies in the Future of Humanity and Its Successors and was founding
chair of the American Academy of Religion’s “Human Enhancement
and Transhumanism” group. Trained in clinical psychology, he practiced
professionally and utilizes insights from psychology in his research on

xiii
xiv Editors and Contributors

religion. He frequently gives public lectures on human enhancement and

on his psychological interpretation of fundamentalism.

Contributors

Lincoln Cannon is a technologist, philosopher and leading advocate

of technological evolution and postsecular religion. He is a founder,
board member and former president of the Mormon Transhumanist
Association and a founder and board member of the Christian
Transhumanist Association. He formulated the New God Argument, a
logical argument for faith in God that is popular among religious tran-
shumanists. Lincoln is CEO at Thrivous, a start-up in biotechnology.
Ron Cole-Turner teaches theology and ethics at Pittsburgh Theological
Seminary. He is the author of many books and articles on the relation-
ship between science, technology and contemporary theology. His
most recent publication, an e-book entitled The End of Adam and Eve:
Theology and the Science of Human Origins, is available free. Cole-Turner
serves on the Executive Committee of the International Society for
Science and Religion, an honorary society he helped organize in 2002.
He is currently serving as co-chair of the American Academy of Religion
“Human Enhancement and Transhumanism” Group.
Todd T. W. Daly serves as Associate Professor of Theology and Ethics
at Urbana Theological Seminary in Illinois and writes in the area of
human enhancement. His contributions have appeared in Ethics &
Medicine, The Journal of Evolution and Technology and Christianity
Today, including chapters in work in the edited volumes, Transhumanism
and Transcendence and Religion and Transhumanism. Dr. Daly is an
associate fellow at the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity and also
serves on the ethics committee of Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana.
He is currently completing a monograph, entitled Chasing Methuselah,
where he examines aging attenuation from a Christian perspective.
Celia Deane-Drummond is Professor in Theology at the University of
Notre Dame, Indiana and Director of the Center for Theology, Science
and Human Flourishing. A selection of her recent books includes
Ecotheology (2008), Christ and Evolution (2009), Creaturely Theology
(ed. with David Clough, 2009), Religion and Ecology in the Public
 Editors and Contributors xv

Sphere (ed. with Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, 2011), Animals as Religious

Subjects (ed. with Rebecca Artinian Kaiser and David Clough, 2013), The
Wisdom of the Liminal (2014), Re-Imaging the Divine Image (2014),
Technofutures, Nature and the Sacred (ed. with Sigurd Bergmann and
Bronislaw Szerszynski, 2015), and Religion in the Anthropocene (ed. with
Sigurd Bergmann and Markus Vogt, 2017).
Matthew Zaro Fisher holds a Ph.D. in philosophy of religion from
Claremont Graduate University and an MA in systematic theology from
Marquette University. He has taught at Loyola Marymount University
and is interested in a range of topics within the religion and science
dialogue such as cognitive science of religion, emergent complexity
and human identity, and the epistemological relationship between reli-
gion and science. He has written on a variety of topics from Trinitarian
theology to comparative studies with Jainism and transhumanism. His
current research efforts are applied towards developing a systems theory
approach to philosophy of religion.
Amanda Sebastienne Grant is currently finishing up a Ph.D. in psy-
chology at the University of West Georgia. Her research and writing
focus on applying Buddhist and existential psychology to issues of social
behaviour, progress, consumerism, technology and transhumanism. She
is interested in dystopian and speculative fiction as explorations of social
attitudes around current and future technologies, and she brings this, as
well as stories from the frontiers of transhumanism, into her teaching.
Through writing and teaching, she hopes to encourage more dialogue
between psychology and transhumanism.
William Grassie studied at Middlebury College (1979) and worked
for ten years on nuclear disarmament, citizen diplomacy, community
organizing and environmental issues, before undertaking doctoral stud-
ies in comparative religion at Temple University (Ph.D., 1994). He
taught at Temple University, Swarthmore College and the University
of Pennsylvania, and also served as a Senior Fulbright Fellow in the
Department of Buddhist Studies at the University of Peradeniya, Sri
Lanka. He was the founding director of the Metanexus Institute. Grassie
authored The New Sciences of Religion (2010) and a collection of essays,
Politics by Other Means: Science and Religion in the 21st Century (2010).
James E. Helmer is Assistant Professor of Christian Ethics in the
Department of Theology at Xavier University and member of the
xvi Editors and Contributors

“Human Enhancement and Transhumanism Group” of the American

Academy of Religion. His main research interests lie in the areas of
Christian social and political ethics, comparative religious ethics, biomed-
ical ethics and at the interface of evolutionary perspectives and theology.
He has published in the Journal of the Society for Christian Ethics, the
Journal of Moral Theology, and Studies in Christian Ethics.
Noreen Herzfeld’s three books and more than 40 articles examine the
ethical, religious and cultural issues raised by modern technology. She
has written four book chapters and several articles on the prospects of
cyber-immortality. Herzfeld holds degrees in both computer science and
theology and teaches in both fields as the Reuter Professor of Science
and Religion at St. John’s University and the College of St. Benedict.
She is a frequent public lecturer on science and technology, ethical issues
in artificial intelligence and the spirituality and politics of Islam.
James J. Hughes is the executive director of the Institute for Ethics and
Emerging Technologies. He is the author of the acclaimed Citizen Cyborg:
Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the
Future and is working on a second book tentatively titled Cyborg Buddha.
Lee A. Johnson is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at East
Carolina University. She specializes in Pauline studies and, through her
work with the “Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient
Texts” group in the Society of Biblical Literature, explores how writ-
ten letters would have been presented, performed and preserved in the
New Testament era. She has published numerous articles in Catholic
Biblical Quarterly, Biblical Interpretation, New Testament Studies and
Biblical Theology Bulletin, as well as contributing to volumes on Religious
Rivalries and Women in the Biblical World. She is currently completing a
manuscript, Reading Paul: Letter-Writing in a Non-Literate Culture.
Cory Andrew Labrecque is Associate Professor of Theological
Ethics and Chair of Bioethics in the Faculty of Theology and Religious
Studies at the University of Laval in Quebec City. He is the author of
the forthcoming book, For Ever and Ever, Amen: Roman Catholicism,
Transhumanism, and the Ethics of Radically Extending Human Life in an
Ageist Society (McGill-Queen’s Press).
Alan Murphy is the clinical ethicist for OhioHealth Riverside Methodist
Hospital and Community-Based Services in Columbus, Ohio, in which
 Editors and Contributors xvii

capacity he provides clinical ethics consultation and education on top-

ics in medical ethics. His academic training is in ethics and the study of
religion. Murphy’s primary line of research centers on the ways in which
practical implementations of medical ethics impinge upon tenets of nor-
mative theory and philosophy of medicine. His interest in transhuman-
ism similarly is focused on the incongruities between transhumanism’s
hopes for how medicine will reshape the human condition and the reali-
ties of contemporary medical science.
Sean O’Callaghan teaches in the area of technology and religion in
both the graduate and undergraduate programmes of Salve Regina
University, Newport, RI. He also teaches on world religions and new
religious movements. He is author of the Compact Guide to World
Religions (Lion Hudson, 2010). He is strongly interested in apocalypti-
cism across the wide religious spectrum and in what apocalyptic move-
ments say about the world contexts in which they emerge. O’Callaghan
is currently researching the ways in which religious groupings are
responding to and interpreting GRIN technologies, particularly in an
eschatological framework.
Hava Tirosh-Samuelson (Ph.D., Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
1978) is Professor of History, Irving and Miriam Lowe Professor of
Modern Judaism, and Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at
Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ. She is the author of Happiness
in Premodern Judaism: Virtue, Knowledge and Well-Being (2003) and
numerous essays. She co-edited Building Better Humans? Refocusing
the Debate on Transhumanism (2012) and Perfecting Human Futures:
Transhuman Visions and Technological Imaginations (2016). She is also
the editor-in-chief of the Library of Contemporary Jewish Philosophers
(2013–2016) that features twenty outstanding Jewish thinkers.
Brent Waters is the Jerre and Mary Joy Professor of Christian
Social Ethics, and Director of the Jerre L. and Mary Joy Stead Center
for Ethics and Values at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary,
Evanston, Illinois. He is the author, most recently, of Just Capitalism:
A Christian Ethic of Globalization (forthcoming), and Christian Moral
Theology in the Emerging Technoculture: From Posthuman Back to
Human. He is a graduate of the University of Redlands (B.A.), School of
Theology at Claremont (M.Div., D.Min.) and the University of Oxford
(D.Phil.).
 PART I

Introduction
 CHAPTER 1

Coming into Focus: An Introduction

to the Collection

Calvin Mercer

On a Himalaya trek around the Kashmir Valley, I surveyed a frontier that

was expansive, wild, unpredictable, and potentially both dangerous and
beneficially satisfying for my fellow travelers and myself.
Radical human enhancement technology is all that, and especially
unpredictable in its many possible outcomes. The CRISPR gene edit-
ing technology is just one example that is currently getting much atten-
tion. Although most experts consider this prediction too optimistic,
Dr. George Church, a leader in this research, expressed confidence (in late
2015) that this technology could be used to reverse the aging process
in human beings “in the next five or six years.”1 As we journey farther
into this frontier, while there are still major swaths of uncharted territory,
some rough areas are coming into focus, and the scholars in this collec-
tion charge at a few of those rough patches of landscape.
We need all disciplines from the liberal arts to help assess and guide
fast-unfolding developments in this new frontier. Before we review the
present collection of original contributions, let us take a brief glance at
some of the adventuresome pilgrims heading into this frontier. Religious

C. Mercer (*)
East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA

© The Author(s) 2017 3

T.J. Trothen and C. Mercer (eds.), Religion and Human Enhancement,
Palgrave Studies in the Future of Humanity and its Successors,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-62488-4_1
4 C. Mercer

studies scholars are playing an increasing role in the conversation.

However, we must keep working to diversify the religion discussion part-
ners, ensuring every piece of the frontier is explored from many angles.
Anecdotally, when several of us started in 2007 what is now the
“Human Enhancement and Transhumanism” Unit at the American
Academy of Religion (AAR),2 a colleague of mine, a female sociologist,
whispered to me as the very first session was about to begin that almost
all the attendees were white males. Indeed, females constituted only
about five percent of those in attendance in those early sessions. In the
most recent session at the national meeting about a decade later, about
30% of attendees were women. Thirty-five percent of the chapters in the
current collection are written by women. That is some progress over a
decade, but more female scholars and, more importantly, more engaged
feminist perspectives on human enhancement are required for the jour-
ney into this frontier. The chapter by co-editor Tracy J. Trothen begins a
much-needed feminist theological discussion of moral bioenhancement.
Emerging enhancement technologies will eventually impact, in one
way or another, every society, race, and creed. Unfortunately, too few
religion scholars from outside North America and Europe are making
the trek into this frontier. So, it is critical that Asian voices join disability
scholars and they team up with people of color to press forward on criti-
cal questions and issues of a religious nature. We need a broad spectrum
of participation from the academic religious community.3 In this collec-
tion, chapters by James J. Hughes and Amanda Sebastienne Grant, both
written from a Buddhist point of view, help address the deficit of per-
spectives other than Christian.
Some scholars in this collection, such as Ron Cole-Turner, explore
human enhancement against the background of decades of their work
on the relationship between science, technology, and theology. Others,
like Todd Daly, are younger scholars who wrote dissertations on human
enhancement.4 Still others arrive at the topic from the perspective of a
very different field of study, in my case, biblical theology. It has been
quite interesting to turn from the well-traveled road of biblical scholar-
ship, where every syllable of the text has been diced and sliced again and
again,5 to seek the wide-open spaces of the technology frontier where
new categories of the topic are still being discovered. In this collection,
Lee Johnson is an able biblical scholar who uses her expertise in that
mature field of study to provide valuable insights about death and human
enhancement pursuits.
 1 COMING INTO FOCUS: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE COLLECTION 5

Like our previous volume,6 this present collection includes scholars all
along the spectrum of opinion toward radical enhancement, from those
who generally advocate it (e.g., Lincoln Cannon) to those who generally
oppose it (e.g., Brent Walters). On this point, no litmus test was applied.
We wanted to foster vigorous argument on behalf of all points of view.
This collection of original chapters, appearing in the series Palgrave
Studies in the Future of Humanity and Its Successors,7 comes from some
of the more engaged and active participants in the inquiry into extreme
human enhancement. Co-editor Tracy J. Trothen and I did not sway
the authors into specific topics. We recruited excellent scholars work-
ing on these issues and gave them free reign within the general area of
religion and human enhancement. This approach allowed for the book’s
categories to emerge organically from topics those active in the field are
addressing. The chapters fell into four general sections, each of which
constitutes an area of energetic scholarly debate.

Section 1: “Common Ground” Between Transhumanism

and Religions

Transhumanism, in its advocacy of radical enhancement and with its feet

supposedly firmly planted in science and technology, is often presented
as thoroughly secular and even anti-religious, especially when there is a
sense that religion obstructs the path forward. Religion scholars, how-
ever, have been adept at distinguishing and naming, to quote from the
AAR “Human Enhancement and Transhumanism” Unit’s recent call for
papers, “the implicit religious beliefs, practices, and values that might
underlie the development and use of human enhancement technologies
or the key claims, goals, values, and assumptions of transhumanism.”8
An excellent example of identifying the religious philosophy under-
pinning transhumanism is found in the chapter, “In Extropy We Trust:
A Systems Theory Approach to Identifying Transhumanism’s Religious
Philosophy, “ where Matthew Zaro Fisher provides a functional analy-
sis of extropy, arguably transhumanism’s core philosophy. He addresses
what he understands to be transhumanism’s religious philosophy by
showing that the philosophy of extropy and its realization through tech-
nological enhancement fits Niklas Luhmann’s form/context model con-
cerning the function of religious meaning within social systems.
Fisher sees transhumanism as significantly grounded in a religious
philosophy, while Ron Cole-Turner sees human enhancement at the
6 C. Mercer

heart of Christianity, providing justification for the term “Christian

Transhumanism,” the title of his chapter. He claims that the word “tran-
shumanism” first arises in Dante’s Paradiso and that radical human trans-
formation is thoroughly biblical. Cole-Turner compares the “Christian
transhumanist” themes of moral and mental enhancement, individual
immortality, and cosmic transformation to their “secular” counterparts.
His critique claims that the secular version of transhumanism does not
go far enough, indeed, it is not radical enough in its transformation. It is
Christianity that offers the most thoroughgoing transformation, but with
a basis in self-emptying—letting go—that is at the heart of the Christian
vision. Cole-Turner’s voice is a consistently mature theological voice in
the Christian assessment of transhumanism.
Lincoln Cannon, one of the strongest advocates in this collection for
radical human enhancement, is a respected spokesperson for the Mormon
transhumanist community, the oldest and most active religious group that
promotes a transhumanist radical vision. Cannon’s strong stance is reflected
in his chapter’s title, “Mormonism Mandates Transhumanism.” God
commands that we use science and technology to achieve a glorified and
immortal body, and Cannon details his case with exegeses of the Tower of
Babel story and atonement doctrines. Theosis, becoming God-like, is not a
doctrine limited to Mormonism. Other theologians, such as Cole-Turner
in this collection, find the Orthodox Church’s espousal of this doctrine
particularly useful in providing a Christian assessment of transhumanism.
Conservative Christianity, however, in general, has certainly not
embraced transhumanism thus far, although I predict diversity will
emerge in this theological sector. For now, the first wave of reaction
is largely negative (Mormonism is an exception), as illustrated in Sean
O’Callaghan’s chapter, “Technological Apocalypse: Transhumanism as
an End-Time Religious Movement.” O’Callaghan details a new genre
of techno-apocalyptic writing that has emerged in some fundamental-
ist/evangelical circles. Drawing on prolific authors from this genre,
O’Callaghan shows how transhumanism is portrayed as playing a major
role in a biblically prophesied imminent Antichrist system, resulting in
the enslavement and ultimate destruction of the human race.
The theological attention to divinization (theosis), as exampled in the
teachings of Mormonism and the Orthodox Church, and its relevance
for a Christian understanding of transhumanism is in tension with—or
perhaps balanced by—the Christian theme of embodiment. In my chap-
ter, “A Theological Assessment of Whole Brain Emulation: On the
 1 COMING INTO FOCUS: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE COLLECTION 7

Path to Superintelligence,” I identify key biblical and theological issues

in whole brain emulation, also called mind uploading or mind transfer,
and take stock of questions still to be addressed. A major issue raised by
the biblical and theological traditions of Christianity is how to maintain
physicality while moving along this technological path leading to super-
intelligence. Mind uploading can be one path to the development of
superintelligence. In the final part of my chapter, I sketch the beginnings
of an “AI-Theology” to address the theological significance of super-
intelligence. While I understand concerns expressed by other writers, I
envision—with qualifications—how whole brain emulation and superin-
telligent beings might be embraced in a Christian theological perspective.

Section 2: Desires and Values

Ethical considerations of extreme human enhancement programs are well
under way. In this section, we provide chapters where our authors cast a
much-needed critical eye on transhumanist “desires and values.”
In his usual clear, direct, and persuasive way, Brent Waters asks, “Is
Transhumanism a Distraction? On the Good of Being Boring,” and cri-
tiques the movement from an interesting angle. The very mundane activ-
ities of daily life (e.g., childrearing, eating, housekeeping) give depth and
meaning to our lives, according to Waters’ reading of traditional religious
teaching. In its zeal for transcending the supposed constraints of our
humanity, transhumanism actually distracts us from a genuinely good life.
While Waters addresses the good life in general, Amanda Sebastienne
Grant gives attention to desire in the wider context of happiness. She
challenges transhumanism to reassess its inordinate focus on desire
as a guide to achieving happiness. As noted earlier, there is a dearth of
voices from religions other than Christianity addressing transhumanism.
Doctrines, such as karma and reincarnation, can provide a rich source of
theological reflection. Grant brings a welcome Buddhist analysis to her
work in the chapter, “What Exactly Are We Trying to Accomplish? The
Role of Desire in Transhumanist Visions.” She sees the transhuman-
ist movement as extending the Western materialistic worldview in a way
that, if not corrected, will bring more suffering. Grant draws on research
into materialism, consumerism, and the neuroscience of wanting.
Alan Murphy also writes about human desire, and in a very interesting
way. In his intriguing chapter, “‘Have You Believed Because You Have
Seen?’: Transhumanist Qualms about Transhuman Enhancement of
8 C. Mercer

Religious Experience through Alterations to the Visual Field,” Murphy

addresses visual perception, which can be integral to religious experience.
He suggests how transhumanists may benefit from consulting theological
accounts of the tension between what he carefully distinguishes as well-
ordered and disordered human desires.
Much—perhaps too much—focus is on the transhumanist agenda for
human beings. Cory Andrew Labrecque, in “Genesis 2.0: Transhumanism,
Catholicism, and the Future of Creation,” brings a Roman Catholic per-
spective to the concern about global environmental change. In his valu-
able contribution, Labrecque underscores the role and significance of the
environment in conversations at the intersection of religion and transhu-
manism.

Section 3: Moral Bioenhancement

Radical human enhancement programs can be viewed as falling into
five categories, sometimes overlapping. Physical, cognitive, and affective
enhancements have been staples of the transhumanist preferred menu. Ron
Cole-Turner, one of our authors, recently coined the term “spiritual enhance-
ment.”9 “A fifth category, moral enhancement, has emerged in recent years
as a central and hotly debated category of interest. Our authors join this dis-
cussion of moral bioenhancement from religious/theological perspectives.
Prolific author Celia Deane-Drummond trains her critical eye on
technologically produced morality in her chapter, “The Myth of Moral
Bioenhancement: An Evolutionary Anthropology and Theological Critique.”
Adeptly engaging the work of Julian Savulescu, Ingmar Persson, John Harris,
and others, she argues, from an evolutionary anthropological perspective, that
Christian virtue implies that moral bioenhancement is a myth, in the sense
that it is a watered-down secularized imitation of a Christian perspective on
human flourishing.
A more positive assessment of moral bioenhancement in this col-
lection is exemplified in the chapter by James J. Hughes, a respected
scholar and leader in the transhumanist movement.10 We are pleased to
have Hughes as a second contributor (along with Amanda Sebastienne
Grant) who writes from a Buddhist perspective. In “Ancient Aspirations
Meet the Enlightenment,” Hughes surveys the considerable electronic,
psychopharmaceutical, and genetic technologies for moral self-improve-
ment. He wants to help the human enhancement movement distinguish
the unhealthy, hedonic technologies from those that support virtues,
spiritual experience, and lives that flourish.
 1 COMING INTO FOCUS: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE COLLECTION 9

Like Deane-Drummond, Todd T. W. Daly critiques the work of

Ingmar Persson and Julian Savulescu, leading advocates of moral
bioenhancement. In “Unfit for the Future? Sin, Salvation, and Moral
Bioenhancement in Christian Perspective,” Daly examines the program
of Persson and Savulescu in light of Christian doctrines of creation, sin,
and redemption. Daly utilizes insights from Karl Barth and Dietrich
Bonhoeffer to suggest that because Persson and Savlescu misdiagnose
the moral predicament, which properly diagnosed is human sin, their
solution only mediates a form of behavioral modification rather than
offering true moral transformation.
The moral bioenhancement program proposed by Perrson and Savulescu
has been critiqued as undermining personal autonomy and moral respon-
sibility. James E. Helmer, in “Enhancing Moral Goodness: Towards a
Virtue Ethics of Moral Bioenhancement,” says the opposite, contending
that some of the technologies being discussed may actually enhance per-
sonal autonomy and, therefore, boost moral performance. To understand
moral bioenhancements, Helmer argues for the use of a virtue ethics
framework rather than a utilitarian framework such as what he under-
stands to be proposed by Persson and Savulescu.
The co-editor for this collection, Tracy J. Trothen, came to radical
human enhancement from her considerable expertise in sport enhance-
ment.11 In her chapter, “Moral Bioenhancement From the Margins:
An Intersectional Christian Theological Reconsideration,” she enters
the heated debate about technologically produced morality by bringing
much-needed attention to voices from the margins. Her feminist analy-
sis challenges notions taken for granted by some moral bioenhancement
advocates. To take just one example, contra Persson and Savulescu, altru-
ism is not an uncontroversial form of morality, because altruism—includ-
ing empathy, and self-sacrifice—is often more expected of marginalized
people than the privileged, thereby reinforcing unjust power dynamics.
Trothen cautiously allows for some moral bioenhancements, but insists
that voices not now being heard must be brought into the conversation.

Section 4: Longing for Immortality:

Meanings of Death
Terminating aging in the human species was an early and central theme
of the transhumanist mission. That focus, combined with the contention
by some that death is a, if not the, central human experience that informs
10 C. Mercer

religion, led to the meaning of death taking center stage in religious and
theological discussions.
In “Technologizing Transcendence: A Critique of Transhumanism,”
a chapter that also fits in Sect. 1 of this book, able critic Hava Tirosh-
Samuelson analyzes how transhumanists seek to attain transcendence
through technology and how transhumanists frame transcendence
using technological categories. She shows how transhumanist discourse
is replete with tensions and even contradictions, due to the difference
between what she calls “horizontal” transcendence and “vertical” tran-
scendence. Her analysis focuses a question that is likely to be increasingly
addressed: in the quest for technological transcendence, are we mak-
ing our species obsolete? Are we advocating for the death of humanity?
Tirosh-Samuelson thinks yes, and thinks that is not a good thing because
it entails loss of those aspects of being human that are most valuable.
Noreen Herzfeld also offers concerns about the transhumanist ambi-
tious program. With degrees in both computer science and theology,
her fruitful research career has produced energetic and productive dis-
cussions about religion and science. In her strong article, “Must We
Die? Transhumanism, Religion and the Fear of Death,” she examines
genetic modification, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence and ably
evaluates the promises and limitations of each with regard to extreme
­longevity. Utilizing Reinhold Niebuhr’s understanding of sin, she calls
for humility and caution going forward. With her background, she is
able to speak insightfully about the limitations of current technology.
Most discussions by scholars of religion are theological or ethical in
nature, and that is true of this collection. It is important, going for-
ward, for the religions to also engage transhumanism in light of their
scriptural traditions. For Christianity, this is ably done in this collection
by Lee Johnson. In “Dining with and Dunking for the Dead: Post-
Mortem Rituals in First-Century Hellenistic Society and What They
Reveal about the Role of the Body in Christianity,” this New Testament
scholar explains how the two rituals of baptism for the dead and dining
with the dead were adapted from Hellenistic society and practiced in the
first-century church at Corinth. Johnson shows how both rituals have
a strong corporeal aspect to them in that they involve animate bodies
engaging in actions in proximity to and with the intent of affecting a
deceased relative. An understanding of these somatic practices of the
early church and Paul’s reaction to them provide a paradigm for modern
Christian engagement with the new vision of “body” and “person.”
 1 COMING INTO FOCUS: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE COLLECTION 11

This entire collection is concluded by co-editor Tracy J. Trothen. In

“Making Us Better: Believe It or Not?” she shows how these chapters
constitute a potent critique and engagement of transhumanist themes by
scholars of religion. She identifies some of the more prominent themes
and pinpoints intersections and divergences between transhuman and
religious commitments.
Whether you, the reader, are a practicing scholar or an informed
layperson, you are already living in a world being impacted by human
enhancement technology (e.g., computers, cell phones, plastic surgery,
and performance enhancing drugs) that will only become increasingly
powerful in coming years. We trust that this collection makes progress in
constructively addressing a few of the many issues confronting us in this
wild human enhancement frontier.

Notes
1. Joel Achenbach, “A Harvard Professor Says He Can Cure Aging, But is
that a Good Idea?” The Washington Post (December 2, 2015). Accessed
December 15, 2016. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/achen-
blog/wp/2015/12/02/\professor-george-church-says-he-can-reverse-
the-aging-process/. Dr. Church’s company, an IPO, is backed by Google
Ventures and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. See http://www.
dddmag.com/news/2016/01/google-backed-gene-editing-startup-files-
100m-ipo. Accessed December 15, 2016.
2. The AAR is the world’s largest and most significant organization devoted
to the academic study of religion. Approximately 4500 of its 8200 mem-
bers attended the most recent annual meeting.
3. In two of my co-edited books, I recruited scholars to write chapters on
Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, and Daoism. While
these scholars provided excellent analyses from the perspective of these
religions, none of these scholars had worked on human enhancement as
part of their regular research programs. See Religion and the Implications
of Radical Life Extension, eds. Derek Maher and Calvin Mercer (New
York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009; republished in paperback, 2014); and
Transhumanism and the Body: The World Religions Speak, eds. Calvin
Mercer and Derek F. Maher, in the series Palgrave Studies in the Future
of Humanity and Its Successors, eds. Steve Fuller and Calvin Mercer (New
York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).
4. Daly’s 2008 dissertation at the University of Edinburgh was “A
Theological Analysis of Life Extension via Aging Attenuation with
Particular Reference to Ascetic Practice in the Desert Fathers.”
12 C. Mercer

5. A quick review of recent issues of the Journal of Biblical Studies reveals
much exacting, labyrinthine investigations of smaller and smaller pieces
of data. For example, in a recent 2016 issue (vol. 135, no. 3), nine of 14
articles addressed a single phrase, word, or small section of a text. I spent
a couple of years making fine distinctions between and considering the
theological implications of apostello and pempo, two Greek words both
translated “send” in English Bibles.
6. Religion and Transhumanism: The Unknown Future of Human
Enhancement, eds. Calvin Mercer and Tracy J. Trothen (Santa Barbara:
Praeger, 2015).
7. Series Co-editors Steve Fuller and Calvin Mercer.
8. American Academy of Religion “Human Enhancement and Transhumanism”
Group. Accessed December 6, 2016. https://papers.aarweb.org/content/
human-enhancement-and-transhumanism-group.
9. “Spiritual Enhancement,” in Religion and Transhumanism: The Unknown
Future of Human Enhancement, eds. Calvin Mercer and Tracy J. Trothen
(Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2015), 369–383.
10. Hughes is executive director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging
Technologies and former executive director of the World Transhumanist
Association, now named Humanity+.
11. E.g., Tracy J. Trothen, Winning the Race? Religion, Hope, and Reshaping
the Sport Enhancement Debate (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2016).
 PART II

“Common Ground” between

Transhumanism and Religions
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