Mormonism Mandates Transhumanism

Name: Mormonism Mandates Transhumanism
Uploaded: 2014-07-06T00:00:00.000Z
Duration: 2 min 18 s
Description: Explore Mormon Transhumanism: How Mormonism mandates transhumanism through embodied immortality and progressive improvement towards godhood.

2014.07.06

Lincoln Cannon explains why he considers himself a transhumanist not despite his Mormonism but because of it. He describes Mormonism as fundamentally an immersive discipleship of Jesus Christ—an aspiration to live the religion of Jesus rather than merely a religion about Jesus—centered on becoming gods and saviors who console, heal, and raise one another. Cannon argues that Mormon scripture situates believers in a dispensation of advancing knowledge and power, with a theology of progressively improving bodies through transfiguration and resurrection, making transhumanism an implicit mandate of the faith rather than an external addition to it.

Lincoln Cannon

Lincoln Cannon is an American philosopher and technologist who co-founded the Mormon Transhumanist Association in 2006, serving as its president from 2006 to 2016. He is a leading advocate of technological evolution and postsecular religion, combining software engineering expertise with degrees in philosophy and business. ¶ Cannon is also a founder and board member of the Christian Transhumanist Association. He formulated the New God Argument, a logical argument for faith in God that has become popular among religious transhumanists. His academic work includes “Mormonism Mandates Transhumanism” published in Religion and Human Enhancement: Death, Values, and Morality (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) and “Transfigurism: A Future of Religion as Exemplified by Religious Transhumanists” published in The Transhumanism Handbook (Springer Verlag, 2019). ¶ Mormon transhumanism, as articulated by Cannon, holds that humanity should learn how to be compassionate creators. This idea is central to the Mormon theological tradition, which provides a religious framework consistent with naturalism and supportive of human transformation. Cannon’s work bridges religious faith with scientific advancement, advocating for the ethical use of technology to extend human abilities in ways consistent with a religious worldview.

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Lincoln Cannon

Mormonism is, above all other things, an immersive discipleship of Jesus Christ. That’s not So much a religion about Jesus as it is an aspiration to live the religion of Jesus.

Lincoln Cannon

This gospel is to trust in, change. Toward and fully immerse both our bodies and our minds in the role of Christ. To become gods and saviors, to console and to heal, and to raise. Raise each other up together. This is the heart of Mormonism.

Lincoln Cannon

This gospel of Jesus Christ underlies Mormon transhumanism. Mormons situate ourselves. Today, in what we call the dispensation of the fullness of times, as a time of great advancement in knowledge and power, when we should expect the sciences to flourish, immortality is physical, it’s embodied.

Lincoln Cannon

There is in Mormonism this notion. Of progressively improving bodies as well. Our scriptures have this idea of a transfigured being receives a certain quality of body, but then a resurrected being receives an even better body, a more robust body.

Lincoln Cannon

I am a transhuman. not despite my Mormonism, but rather I’m a transhumanist because of my Mormonism. My Mormonism mandates transhumanism. Our scriptures require implicit transhumanism.

Lincoln Cannon

And many Mormons are transhumanists not because we were trying to find a solution to fix our religion. Our religion led us to transhumanism. We feel a spiritual mandate to engage in transhumanism.