Another audiobook that I listened to a while back was Mike McHargue’s Finding God in the Waves. It’s another one that I highly recommend. In it he talks about “transcendence withdrawal,” how church health is undermined by hidden doubt and the wearing of masks, the fact that deconstruction of faith is not purely rational, and that “the need for certainty is an addiction we can kick,” while offering a vision of how to be spiritual and rational at the same time, and in an integrated way, so that one is rational in a spiritual way and spiritual in a rational way.
McHargue will be speaking at the Christian Transhumanist Conference, about which I am pleased to share the following additional details and call for papers:
The Christian Transhumanist Association is pleased to announce the second annual Christian Transhumanist Conference on Saturday, 19 October 2019, at Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN.
The keynote speaker is Science Mike McHargue, an author who became a skeptic through science, then found God as an atheist. As the host of Ask Science Mike, he addresses wide-ranging questions on science and faith, and as a co-host of The Liturgists Podcast, he reaches millions of people navigating questions of spirituality and meaning.
Talks
We invite you to submit talk proposals for the conference. The aim of this conference is to address the many issues and topics that lie at the intersection of technology and religion, and their impacts on society, faith, and culture including art, music, entertainment, and on society in general.
Talks will be assigned slots of 10 or 15 minutes. Presenters are encouraged to make use of multimedia aids, such as slides, to make their presentations more engaging. Potential conference topics include:
Transhumanism: Evolution and the great filter argument; Moore’s law, Kurzweil’s law and the technological singularity; the pace of technological change; evolution; the evolution of technology; simulation argument; solar energy; genome sequencing; synthetic biology; 3D printing; genetics and biotech; nanotech and molecular machines; robotics and artificial intelligence; substrate independent minds; mind uploading; consciousness; cultural impact of technology; coping with the pace of technological change; neuroscience.
Philosophy, Theology and the Sociology of Religion: The secularization hypothesis and its implications for religion and religious organizations; post-secularization; ethics; faith and rationality; religious anthropology; philosophy of religion; scriptural hermeneutics; demythologization; postmodern religion; religious naturalism; social anthropology of technology; sociology of technology; technology and spirituality; feminism and gender issues; technology and gender.
Religious Transhumanism: Human transcendence through ethical and technological advancement; religious transhumanism; rejecting fundamentalism; rejecting anti-religiosity; promoting benevolence; promoting creativity; engineering transformation; engineering resurrection; engineering renewal of the world; bringing life to the cosmos; Minimum Viable Theology; the New God Argument.
Demonstrations, Displays, and Interactive Activities
Non-talk submissions will also be considered, including projects, demonstrations, and activities related to robotics, prosthetics, 3D-printing, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, technology-enabled art, and alternative foods. These may be assigned to booths or tables around the conference venue.
Submission
Please submit talk titles and abstract at CTA Conference Proposals. Include author’s full name, contact information, and title.
For more information, visit the official website of the Christian Transhumanist Association at https://www.christiantranshumanism.org .
Important dates
Conference Presentation Submission Deadline: 31 August 2019
Presentation Invitation Notification Date: 7 September 2019
Conference Date: 19 October 2019
In related news, Stephen Hawking’s last book got a lot of attention because of things it said at the intersection of religion, atheism, and science. Americans are apparently increasingly embracing the paranormal.
Damaris Zehner’s blog explores topics related to this.
New Scientist on our astonishing brains.
Video games that helped people to rethink their beliefs.
See also the latest issue of The Ecological Citizen which focuses on religion and the environment.
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