Lincoln Cannon

As popularly understood, Transhumanism is deeply entangled with narratives of atheism. While secular Transhumanists champion radical transformation, they tend to lack the rich esthetic grounding that many inherit or receive from religion. Religious Transhumanism, and particularly Mormon Transhumanism, provides a compelling alternative, syncretizing contemporary science and emerging technological trends with traditional theology and liturgy.

In a recently published paper, “From Atheism to Transhumanism,” Jarosław Jagiełło takes a critical look at secular Transhumanism. He argues that atheism facilitated the rise of Transhumanism. And he compares Transhumanism to historic Fascism and Communism. His perspective includes four major criticisms:

1. Lack of Metaphysical Grounding: Jarosław considers Transhumanism, without God, to have a relatively weak metaphysical foundation, resulting in an “anthropological tragicism” of existential uncertainty.

2. Risk of Totalitarian Control: Jarosław is concerned that Transhumanism may conceal impulses to use technology, without sufficient concern for ethics, to facilitate totalitarian control.

3. Disregard for Human Imperfection: Jarosław perceives Transhumanism to have disdain for human imperfection, assessing aspects in our nature as flaws rather than features of our evolution.

4. Dualistic Opposition of Body and Spirit: Jarosław thinks Transhumanism promotes a dualistic opposition of body and spirit, cultivating an imbalance away from holistic human wellness.

Despite Jarosław’s careless general comparisons of Transhumanism to bogeyman ideologies, his specific criticisms have some merit. Some Transhumanists lack metaphysical grounding. Some, intentionally or unintentionally, do indeed advocate or engage in authoritarian applications of technology. And some have distorted views of human nature, denigrating our bodies or embracing incoherent aspirations of disembodiment.

That said, it would be a gross over-generalization to say these criticisms apply to all or essentially all Transhumanists. Many Transhumanists actually propose and exemplify solutions to these problems. That includes some secular Transhumanists. And that includes pretty much all religious Transhumanists, particularly Mormon Transhumanists, who collectively embody a thorough rebuttal to Jarosław’s criticisms.

Mormon Transhumanists strive to live and act according to an immersive faith in God. With Jesus, we would trust in, change toward, and fully immerse our bodies and minds in the role of Christ. And we would do this here and now, in this world, leveraging all the means, technological and otherwise, that the grace of God perpetually extends to us. I dare to contend that we have the strongest metaphysical foundation on Earth.

Mormon Transhumanists reject any supposed “God” that would raise itself above all others, declaring itself “God.” As invited and exemplified by Jesus, we would become Gods and saviours with and for each other. Our fundamental ethical impulse is to console, heal, and raise each other together as joint heirs in the eternally decentralizing glory of God. We are the antithesis of totalitarianism.

Mormon Transhumanists consider our bodies to be gifts from God, biological machines that empower our minds – our spirits. On the one hand, we revere the limitations of our bodies as educational opportunities, cultivating the virtues of courage, compassion, and creativity. On the other hand, we suppose the dissolution of our bodies in death would entail bondage from which resurrection would eventually free us. Our esteem for bodies, and their potential in holistic association with minds, is essentially as boundless as our theology.

Whatever one may think of Transhumanism generally or secular Transhumanism particularly, and however much one may wish to ignore religious Transhumanism, Mormon Transhumanism stands as a luminous testament to the power of syncretizing technology with theology. This power transcends false dichotomies. It substantiates and expands. It transforms.

And this power is not merely a curious possibility. This power is a necessity. Our time, racing toward existential threats and superintelligent enigmas, demands nothing less than everything from us – our whole minds, our full bodies, our entire souls. And no ideology that demands anything less will survive.

Beyond presecular religiosity, beyond secular atheism, religious Transhumanism is the future. Mormon Transhumanism is coming into its time.