by lifelong humanist 14 Replies latest jw friends
When technology enables massively extended lifespans (sometime from around 2040) religion will have lost its last big sales feature
Google Ray Kurzweil and the singularity for the details
Humanism and transhuman philosophies will continue their current ascendancy
When technology enables massively extended lifespans (sometime from around 2040) religion will have lost its last big sales feature
I write extensively on this subject, and I do not think this outcome is very likely. Neither do many of my colleagues. Also, I think the 2040 date is far too conservative. Religion/spirituality is about more than simple immortality in an afterlife. And yes, transhumanism is an interesting kettle of fish.
BTS
People are as likely to give up religion as they are to give up marijuana.
When technology enables massively extended lifespans (sometime from around 2040) religion will have lost its last big sales feature
May I ask why?
How dying at 200 or 2,000 (while keeping each individual's ego intact, if not reinforced by a longer lifespan!) would pose less of a metaphysical or existential problem than dying at 30 or 80? What exactly would that change to my self-understanding and my relationship to the "Other" (what "I" never was, am not and will never be, at least on a purely phenomenal level)? This is precisely what religion has been increasingly about, and religious "answers" to this issue would be even more needed in your hypothesis.
How dying at 200 or 2,000 (while keeping each individual's ego intact, if not reinforced by a longer lifespan!) would pose less of a metaphysical or existential problem than dying at 30 or 80?
Indeed, even with the best technology, eventual death is a certainty. In this world, nothing lasts forever.
BTS
