Transhumanism and Transcendence

Transhumanism and Transcendence PDF Author: Ronald Cole-Turner
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
ISBN: 1589017943
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
The timeless human desire to be more beautiful, intelligent, healthy, athletic, or young has given rise in our time to technologies of human enhancement. Athletes use drugs to increase their strength or stamina; cosmetic surgery is widely used to improve physical appearance; millions of men take drugs like Viagra to enhance sexual performance. And today researchers are exploring technologies such as cell regeneration and implantable devices that interact directly with the brain. Some condemn these developments as a new kind of cheating—not just in sports but in life itself—promising rewards without effort and depriving us most of all of what it means to be authentic human beings. “Transhumanists,” on the other hand, reject what they see as a rationalizing of human limits, as if being human means being content forever with underachieving bodies and brains. To be human, they insist, is to be restless with possibilities, always eager to transcend biological limits. As the debate grows in urgency, how should theology respond? Christian theologians recognize truth on both sides of the argument, pointing out how the yearnings of the transhumanists—if not their technological methods—find deep affinities in Christian belief. In this volume, Ronald Cole-Turner has joined seasoned scholars and younger, emerging voices together to bring fresh insight into the technologies that are already reshaping the future of Christian life and hope.

Transhumanism and Transcendence

Transhumanism and Transcendence PDF Author: Ronald Cole-Turner
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
ISBN: 1589017943
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
The timeless human desire to be more beautiful, intelligent, healthy, athletic, or young has given rise in our time to technologies of human enhancement. Athletes use drugs to increase their strength or stamina; cosmetic surgery is widely used to improve physical appearance; millions of men take drugs like Viagra to enhance sexual performance. And today researchers are exploring technologies such as cell regeneration and implantable devices that interact directly with the brain. Some condemn these developments as a new kind of cheating—not just in sports but in life itself—promising rewards without effort and depriving us most of all of what it means to be authentic human beings. “Transhumanists,” on the other hand, reject what they see as a rationalizing of human limits, as if being human means being content forever with underachieving bodies and brains. To be human, they insist, is to be restless with possibilities, always eager to transcend biological limits. As the debate grows in urgency, how should theology respond? Christian theologians recognize truth on both sides of the argument, pointing out how the yearnings of the transhumanists—if not their technological methods—find deep affinities in Christian belief. In this volume, Ronald Cole-Turner has joined seasoned scholars and younger, emerging voices together to bring fresh insight into the technologies that are already reshaping the future of Christian life and hope.

Theologically Engaged Anthropology

Theologically Engaged Anthropology PDF Author: J. Derrick Lemons
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192518755
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 517

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Book Description
After years of discussion within the field of anthropology concerning how to properly engage with theology, a growing number of anthropologists now want to engage with theology as a counterpart in ethnographic dialogue. Theologically Engaged Anthropology focuses on the theological history of anthropology, illuminating deeply held theological assumptions that humans make about the nature of reality, and illustrating how these theological assumptions manifest themselves in society. This volume brings together leading anthropologists and theologians to consider what theology can contribute to cultural anthropology and ethnography. It provides anthropologists and theologians with a rationale and framework for using theology in anthropological research.

The Autobiography of Methuselah

The Autobiography of Methuselah PDF Author: John Kendrick Bangs
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : American fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description


Religion and Transhumanism

Religion and Transhumanism PDF Author: Calvin Mercer
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1440833265
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 473

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Book Description
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.

Dangers to the Faith

Dangers to the Faith PDF Author: Al Kresta
Publisher: Our Sunday Visitor
ISBN: 1612783252
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
A storm has been brewing in society and its treatment, views, and activities toward the Catholic Faith. Some are subtle, others are more brazen -- New Age thought, questionable spirituality, "creedless" Christianity, relativism, scientific skepticism, the triumph of technology, and even the self-styled spirituality of Oprah Winfrey. All these masquerade as "truth," making it tough for the average Catholic to know how to resist, let alone respond. No one is more qualified to pull back the curtain on the challenges the Catholic Church faces today than Al Kresta, popular Catholic author, speaker, and radio show host. A revert to Catholicism, Kresta is well known for his rigorous examination of topics in art, religion, academia, and business. Dangers to the Faith: Recognizing Catholicism's 21st Century Opponents is the perfect springboard for discussing the new world in which the Catholic Church exists today. Learn how to better carry out the missionary mandate of the Church. The question isn't whether you will be a witness to Christ, but whether you will be an effective witness.

What's Next?

What's Next? PDF Author: H. Norman Wright
Publisher: Baker Books
ISBN: 0764209639
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Trusted counselor offers concrete advice for those facing uncertainty or upheaval, revealing the qualities and character traits that make for good decisions later in life.

Methuselah's Hidden Antediluvian Abridgement

Methuselah's Hidden Antediluvian Abridgement PDF Author: James Hendershot
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
ISBN: 1490748970
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
Too much of humanity's history might have been lost through the great flood, which mercifully rendered humankind another chance to dwell on the Earth. This fictional account through Methuselah begins with the creation of the two Earths and follows Adam through his multiple wives torn by sons who murder each other. His remaining sons divide into tribes separated by their relationship with the creator. Nonetheless, wickedness rose in Seth's tribe, while righteousness comes forth from Cain's seed. Eve rewards Irad after he avenges the murder of his mother who was a favored stepdaughter of Eve. Eve rewards Irad with three of her cherished daughters. They launch a new homeland beyond the two established borders, and through their faith in the God of Adam find favor with the Ancient One, who reestablishes his covenant with a descendant of Habil (Cain). Lilith and several of her daughter's bond with Duci, one of Irad's wives, exploring the wild unsettled bulk of Pangaea lands beyond the invisible border, which protects humanity from the hungry dinosaurs living in the open wilderness. Duci, with help from the Nephilim build the foundations for their two new cities and multiple temples. Irad's tribe sails on secret ships to the southern hemisphere and build a Holy nation serving the Ancient One. Enoch settles his small family on a mountaintop protected by angels as humanity falls into the final stage of wickedness. Irad and his wives end their long fruitful lives, nevertheless; they watch from heaven as the vast majority of their family chose to follow their own gods and disown the Ancient One. Just three young men, who must sail to a distant island with their wives, remain servants of the Ancient One. Noah builds a giant rectangle ship boarding his sons and many wild animals saving them through a large flood. Avram sails through the flood with his small group while watching death consume the lands.

God and Gaia

God and Gaia PDF Author: Michael S Northcott
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000816931
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
God and Gaia explores the overlap between traditional religious cosmologies and the scientific Gaia theory of James Lovelock. It argues that a Gaian approach to the ecological crisis involves rebalancing human and more-than-human influences on Earth by reviving the ecological agency of local and indigenous human communities, and of nonhuman beings. Present-day human ecological influences on Earth have been growing at pace since the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions, when modern humans adopted a machine cosmology in which humans are the sole intelligent agency. The resultant imbalance between human and Earthly agencies is degrading the species diversity of ecosystems, causing local climate changes, and threatens to destabilise the Earth as a System. Across eight chapters this ambitious text engages with traditional cosmologies from the Indian Vedas and classical Greece to Medieval Christianity, with case material from Southeast Asia, Southern Africa and Great Britain. It discusses concepts such as deep time and ancestral time, the ethics of genetic engineering of foods and viruses, and holistic ecological management. Northcott argues that an ontological turn that honours the differential agency of indigenous humans and other kind, and that draws on sacred traditions, will make it is possible to repair the destabilising impacts of contemporary human activities on the Earth System and its constituent ecosystems. This book will be of considerable interest to students and scholars of the environmental humanities, history, and cultural and religious studies.

Back to Methuselah

Back to Methuselah  PDF Author: `
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 410

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Book Description


Back to Methuselah

Back to Methuselah PDF Author: Bernard Shaw
Publisher: London Constable 1922.
ISBN:
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
Five linked plays that expound Shaw's philosophy of creative evolution in an extended dramatic parable that progresses through time from the Garden of Edesn to AD 31,920. Cf Encyclopaedia Britannica.