Please forgive the length of time between commentary postings...
"Real" Life has been consuming most of my blogging time.

However, I have managed to spend some precious moments by myself in deep contemplation and meditation regarding this seminar's theme.

For this 3rd speaker known as James Sleeper (Hughes), I have realized that I will need to post my commentary on his presentation in two sub-parts. Sleeper's presentation was the longest and the most comprehensive...

Also, since Hughes is the current President of the World Transhumanist Association (WTA), I consider him to be the official voice of contemporary Transhumanism (not to be confused with the Extropians now led by Dr. Anders Sandberg).

Since Sleeper/Hughes is the official voice of World Transhumanism, I think it is necessary for me to post quotes from their website on the topic of religion...this will help shape the context for my more detailed commentary in the next posting...

Please visit their site at http://www.transhumanism.org if you wish to explore more of their concepts in depth.

Very well then... Here is a re-posting from the official WTA FAQ on the subject of its relation to religion:

"5.3 How does transhumanism relate to religion?
Transhumanism is a philosophical and cultural movement concerned with promoting responsible ways of using technology to enhance human capacities and to increase the scope of human flourishing.

While not a religion, transhumanism might serve a few of the same functions that people have traditionally sought in religion. It offers a sense of direction and purpose and suggests a vision that humans can achieve something greater than our present condition. Unlike most religious believers, however, transhumanists seek to make their dreams come true in this world, by relying not on supernatural powers or divine intervention but on rational thinking and empiricism, through continued scientific, technological, economic, and human development. Some of the prospects that used to be the exclusive thunder of the religious institutions, such as very long lifespan, unfading bliss, and godlike intelligence, are being discussed by transhumanists as hypothetical future engineering achievements.

Transhumanism is a naturalistic outlook. At the moment, there is no hard evidence for supernatural forces or irreducible spiritual phenomena, and transhumanists prefer to derive their understanding of the world from rational modes of inquiry, especially the scientific method. Although science forms the basis for much of the transhumanist worldview, transhumanists recognize that science has its own fallibilities and imperfections, and that critical ethical thinking is essential for guiding our conduct and for selecting worthwhile aims to work towards.

Religious fanaticism, superstition, and intolerance are not acceptable among transhumanists. In many cases, these weaknesses can be overcome through a scientific and humanistic education, training in critical thinking, and interaction with people from different cultures. Certain other forms of religiosity, however, may well be compatible with transhumanism.

It should be emphasized that transhumanism is not a fixed set of dogmas. It is an evolving worldview, or rather, a family of evolving worldviews – for transhumanists disagree with each other on many issues. The transhumanist philosophy, still in its formative stages, is meant to keep developing in the light of new experiences and new challenges. Transhumanists want to find out where they are wrong and to change their views accordingly..."
WTA Website FAQ - http://www.transhumanism.org/index.php/WTA/faq21/82/

And here is the quoted abstract from James Hughes' article "On The Compatibility of Religion and Transhumanism"...

"Transhumanism – the proposition that human beings should use technology to transcend the limitations of the body and brain –
is a product of the Enlightenment humanist tradition.

As a consequence most avowed transhumanists are secular,
and many religious are skeptical or hostile towards the transhumanist project. However there are also many religious transhumanists
who find the project of human enhancement at least consistent with, and sometimes a fulfillment of, their metaphysics, soteriologies and eschatologies.

Transhumanism appears to be especially compatible with religious traditions that emphasize human agency and evolution to a transcendent state, such as
Buddhism, or that have incorporated Enlightenment values, such as liberal Christianity. But elements of the transhumanist worldview and enhancement
technologies are compatible with one element or another of most world faiths, even the most fundamentalist. We can thus expect that human enhancement
technologies will be adopted creatively into the theologies of groups within all the world’s faiths, producing many flavors of 'trans-spirituality'.”

-James Hughes, April 16, 2007 - http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/hughes20070401/


And now that I have established the general context for contemporary Transhumanism's relation to religion, I will provide more detailed and personal commentary in my next posting...

Above is a picture of Ahman Hax (Lincoln Cannon) during his presentation of Transfigurism (Mormon Transhumanism) in Second Life...

If you are reading this posting, you probably have already read Part 1 which is available directly below the position of this posting about the Mormon component of the seminar that I attended on April 29, 2007.

Ahman Hax was the third speaker of the afternoon and he represents the Mormon Transhumanist Association from Salt Lake City, Utah (in RL).

Their webpage is http://transfigurism.org

I tried to add Elder Hax to my first posting about this seminar but Livejournal told me that my posting was too large to post...I guess that unedited chat-history took too much text-space. I felt it necessary to post the entire chat history in order to give you a fuller sense of the theoretical ambience permeating this well-attended meeting.

I had posted so many text characters in my previous posting that I was not even able to provide proper photo captions describing each slide at the event.... So now, I will be blogging a 3-part miniseries...

Unfortunately, I had to retreat from SL into the more secular and pre-posthumanist world of RL ("Real" Life) at this time so I was unable to stay for the length of Ahman Hax's presentation. Maybe I will be able to interview Elder Hax in person about the Mormon view of Transhumanism...

Here is the official view of the Transfigurist movement that I managed to locate on the FAQ of their main website...

"What is the Mormon Transhumanist Association?

The Mormon Transhumanist Association is an international nonprofit organization that promotes charitable and working faith in physical salvation, as outlined in the Mormon Transhumanist Affirmation. We are affiliated with the World Transhumanist Association and support the Transhumanist Declaration. Although we are neither a religious organization nor affiliated with any religious organization, we support our members in their personal religious affiliations, and encourage them to adapt Transhumanism to their unique situations.

What is the relationship between Mormonism and Transhumanism?

Few have recognized the relationship between Mormonism and Transhumanism. On the one hand, Mormonism is a spiritual ideology of the Judeo-Christian tradition that advocates faith in God leading to salvation. On the other hand, Transhumanism is a mostly secular ideology that advocates ethical use of technology to extend human capabilities. However, Mormonism and Transhumanism are parallel and complementary in their views of the future: rapidly advancing knowledge, imminent fundamental changes in human nature, and ultimate transcendence of our current limitations. We provide more details in a document, Parallels and Complements between Mormonism and Transhumanism, originally presented at the Sunstone Symposium in Salt Lake City on 11 August 2006."

I will discuss these views in more detail in my commentary section also known as "Part 3"... I hope to have this online before sunrise...

Despite not being able to focus on Elder Hax's intriguing presentation, I did manage to take a few pictures showing his slides but I was unable to scoop up any text-bytes from my chat history for you...



For this last picture below, you can also see a cameo by the First Speaker, Giulio Perhaps (Giulio Prisco)...