{"id":22616,"date":"2014-03-31T10:07:53","date_gmt":"2014-03-31T14:07:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=22616"},"modified":"2014-03-31T10:07:53","modified_gmt":"2014-03-31T14:07:53","slug":"are-you-backed-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2014\/03\/are-you-backed-up.html","title":{"rendered":"Are You Backed Up?"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;text-align: none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/files\/2014\/03\/wpid-Photo-20140329120749.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/files\/2014\/03\/wpid-Photo-20140329120749.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"564\"><\/a><\/div>\n<p>I have often been struck by the parallel between religious terminology about salvation and the ways we talk about digital data: in terms of being \u201csaved. And there are those who hope to achieve longer life, if not ultimately eternal life, by making a backup copy of their mind that can be transferred to a computer, or better still an artificial body. It\u2019s a staple of science fiction, and even gets a mention in an episode of Friends.<\/p>\n<p>Could you see conservative Christians of the future asking people \u201cAre you backed up?\u201d instead of \u201cAre you saved?\u201d \u2013 adopting a newer metaphor? Would you consider a backup copy of yourself as eternal life for <em>you<\/em>, or merely a <em>copy<\/em> of you? And if there are an infinite number of universes, would the fact that somewhere a version of you always exists provide the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/01\/fringe-is-back-to-where-its-never-been.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">same comfort<\/a>?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have often been struck by the parallel between religious terminology about salvation and the ways we talk about digital data: in terms of being \u201csaved. And there are those who hope to achieve longer life, if not ultimately eternal life, by making a backup copy of their mind that can be transferred to a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[121,42],"tags":[418,952,1625,2093,3158,4871,5677,10712,12320],"class_list":["post-22616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-afterlife-theology","category-humor","tag-afterlife-theology","tag-backup","tag-cartoon","tag-computer","tag-eternal-life","tag-humor","tag-jesus","tag-salvation","tag-technology"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Are You Backed Up?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I have often been struck by the parallel between religious terminology about salvation and the ways we talk about digital data: in terms of being &quot;saved.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2014\/03\/are-you-backed-up.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Are You Backed Up?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have often been struck by the parallel between religious terminology about salvation and the ways we talk about digital data: in terms of being &quot;saved.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2014\/03\/are-you-backed-up.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-03-31T14:07:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/files\/2014\/03\/wpid-Photo-20140329120749.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ReligionProf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James F. 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Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. 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