I’m personally religious, but I can’t help but wonder what transhumanism will mean for religion. Personally, I think even if/when we reach a point that we’re able to do away with mortality (curing ageing, uploading consciousness, etc), it can only occur if the divine has intended for it to occur.
That said, I’m curious as to what people think the philosophical/theological ramifications of such achievements may be. What, for example, does it mean if mankind reaches the point where dying is no longer inevitable?
I’m curious to hear any and all thoughts from any religious/philosophical background. I don’t care if you’re Jewish/Hindu/Shinto/Christian/Pagan/Muslim/Whatever. I just wanna hear people’s thoughts.
As I see it the only reasons to believe in God are community, desire to explain the unknown, fear of the unknown, fear of death and a longing to be reunited with departed loved ones.
So, as knowledge increases and the community of faithful and death receeds, so too will the need to believe in God and the move towards secularism will accelerate.
That said, I’m curious as to what people think the philosophical/theological ramifications of such achievements may be. What, for example, does it mean if mankind reaches the point where dying is no longer inevitable?
There are several species which are technically immortal, but they are extremely simple and require very little energy.
OTOH human require an enormous amount of energy, not only personally, but also technically for our toys. Unless we learn to use the inexhaustible power of the sun like trees. The Bristlecone Pine tree may grow to be 5000 years. But that is because it has no competitors in the region they grow.
We all know trees can live really long lives. It’s no surprise that they typically live longer than humans and everything else on the planet. Trees can live anywhere from less than 100 years to more than a few thousand years depending on the species. However, one species in particular outlives them all. The Great Basin Bristlecone Pine (Pinus Longaeva) has been deemed the oldest tree in existence, reaching an age of over 5,000 years old.
As to humans acquiring immortality, is considerable more difficult than trees.
To begin with, the human biome consist of only 10% human cells. The other 90% cells are from symbiotic bacteria. If we count genes, the human biome only contains 1% human genes and 99% bacterial genes. Human could not exist without the bacteria. Thus immortality would involve the evolution of a host of organisms that actually keep us alive.
As to Creationism, I like to ask if God designed the human biome as we know it to exist today, with remnants of virus genes having become part of the human DNA.
The non-human living inside of you
The human genome contains billions of pieces of information and around 22,000 genes, but not all of it is, strictly speaking, human. Eight percent of our DNA consists of remnants of ancient viruses, and another 40 percent is made up of repetitive strings of genetic letters that is also thought to have a viral origin. Those extensive viral regions are much more than evolutionary relics: They may be deeply involved with a wide range of diseases including multiple sclerosis, hemophilia, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), along with certain types of dementia and cancer.
Eight percent of our DNA consists of remnants of ancient viruses, and another 40 percent is made up of repetitive strings of genetic letters that is also thought to have a viral origin.
https://www.cshl.edu/the-non-human-living-inside-of-you/#
If we achieve immortality and haven’t gotten off of this planet, we better also achieve Zero birth rate.
What, for example, does it mean if mankind reaches the point where dying is no longer inevitable? --K21
Great thought experiment, but so many "ifs" to be cleared up. If it's still possible to die by losing your head or stabbed in the heart, then murder will still be around, and could get a lot worse. If this longevity is acquired before our mental abilities are able to handle it, there will be some pretty crazy 200 year old people running around. They could have lots of knowledge, built secret lairs, acquire massive weaponry, then unleash their fury on millions of people. The first to acquire it will be able to accumulate wealth and power before the rest of us can stop them.
Sorry, pretty cynical. But I look at history. It’s been a long process of believing that some better tomorrow is coming, but as Louis CK once pointed out, “everything is awesome and nobody cares”. We sail through the air in shiny machines but we bitch because the wi-fi isn’t working.
The very notion that I would go on living forever is a really unbearable thought and a really disgusting one, in my view.
Being told I’m going to die some day is much more bearable.
Living forever - reminds me of a Twilight Zone episode. Burgess Meredith just wants to be left alone so he can read his books. He gets his wish, then breaks his glasses. Similarly, yay we’re immortal, in the brain. But then something happens and you get what Hawkings had, and you’re confined for the rest of “existence”. How horrible.
Also, human nature would have to change too. If one could live, without physical or mental impairment, forever, given current human nature, there’d be nothing but raping and pillaging everywhere you go, especially in the churches!
For atomists everything moves, there is no eternal temporary perenniality. Things transform into each other out of necessity. Necessity determines the processes of phenomena over time.
We think of an infinite space that has to go through in a tempo, or tempo becomes non-infinite. The atomists propose that there is a limit to the division of space. Matter is not continuous, it is made up of individual atoms with a finite shape.
There are many worlds, some are built and some are destroyed. In development, or in decline, they may have no sun or moon or they may have as many stars as chance dictates. The world was created by the fire that exists in everything that lives. By collision they can be destroyed and they can build something new. Each world is designated to have a beginning and an end. They are like bubbles in water, they burst and are created, burst and disappear. This movement is eternal and has no purpose. It is by chance, it is mechanical. It is violent (internal pressure and external stimulus). The void does not take up space, it is where changes take place. It is infinite and explains movement and plurality.
The circular movement of the atoms has to be continuously colliding and forming or deforming. If the atoms can rotate together in equilibrium, coupling with each other, the existing diversity originates.
Also, human nature would have to change too. If one could live, without physical or mental impairment, forever, given current human nature, there’d be nothing but raping and pillaging everywhere you go, especially in the churches!
Very true ! And i think that the women would suffer more than males. Men need women for pleasure and reproduction. If they don"t need them anymore for reproduction, they lose a big incentive to give them a minimum of respect.
If they don”t need them anymore for reproduction, they lose a big incentive to give them a minimum of respect. -MK
I don't think you thought that one through. Men need women for reproduction because of our innate need for survival of our genes. That incentive would also be removed, although the drive would still be there like our vestigial tails. Women would be free to work on their own strength and to use their minds to make better weapons, so an escalation of the battle of the sexes would not be a wise move on the part of men.
