13 replies to this topic

[randolfe]

This is the latest statement by a small new church. I think it is worth reading and discussing:

The Beliefs of the Transhumanist Church

This statement of beliefs was originally posted by Tripper McCarthy to the Cryonet Cafe discussion list on 2004
February 29th and subsequently revised on March 12th. The Transhumanist Church adopted it as their statement of
beliefs on March 14th. It may be republished under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.


In response to a post on this board I have started a new thread detailing the beliefs
of the Transhumanist Church. We are a religious organization that brings together the
ideas of Humanism, Transhumanism, Cryonics, and Universal Immortalism into one all
encompassing belief structure. We are a small movement, in the infancy of our
development, but feel that there is a need for our message. While many have
eloquently argued the merits and logic of our positions, we feel that there is still a
need to place this all in a religious context. Religion and faith rule the lives of the
vast majority of the people on this planet. We feel this is something to embrace, not
to try and tear down.

But that does not mean that we must resort to metaphysical or supernatural
foundations for our faith. Reason and rationality guide our positions. We are an ever
evolving organization, shaped by new ideas and discoveries. Ultimate truth is a
moving target, and we hope to come closer to it with each passing day.

What follows is the initial draft of our beliefs. I invite all to comment on it. If you feel
moved by what follows, and would like to have an active part in developing our faith
further, I encourage you to join the Transhumanist Church. The adventure is just
beginning!

Tripper McCarthy
President, Transhumanist Church
www.transhumanistchurch.org

The Beliefs of the Transhumanist Church

We have a soul and it is informational in nature.

The soul, by definition, is the center of our being, the essence of who we are. In most
religious systems the soul is seen as a metaphysical entity not of this world. We do
not accept the supernatural definition of the soul, and instead provide a rational,
scientific definition of what constitutes our soul.

To us the soul does exist, but it is not supernatural. The memories we have, the
thoughts we consider, the emotions we feel; these form the essence of who we are.
For without these qualities we would cease to be us. And there need be no
supernatural explanation for these qualities. These memories and processes are
stored in the brain biologically as information. There is no metaphysical or
'otherworldly' quality to this. It is simply akin to software running on a vastly complex
computer. And like software, it is the pattern of information that is important, not the
medium it resides on. Our soul may arise from the structure of our brain, but it need
not be reliant upon it.

The aim of life is to grow and improve ourselves and our 'Community'. This is a
continual process with no end.

We embrace the ideas of Humanism. We must all strive to live meaningful and ethical
lives while supporting the rights of others to do so as well. Self-improvement should
be the center of our lives. We must strive to maximize and enhance the good qualities
in our human nature (i.e. compassion, love, understanding, tolerance), while
minimizing (and even eliminating) the bad ones (i.e. hatred, jealousy, envy, closed
mindedness).

We understand that no person lives in isolation and that we all belong to a greater
'Community'. This community consists not only of other human beings, but life as a
whole. We have a responsibility to improve both our own lives, and the overall welfare
of the entire community of life.

The process of growth and self-improvement, for both the individual and our
community, is one that has no limit. There will always be new challenges to conquer,
new ideas to explore, and new ways to improve our nature. This should not sadden
us; the thought that we will never reach a pinnacle or perfect state. Instead it should
fill us with happiness and joy. For it is the path we follow, and not the destination,
that fills our lives with meaning and purpose. And this path will extend to the very
limits of time itself.

We are our own saviors.

We cannot rely on supernatural or external forces to guide us on our journey.
Responsibility is on our shoulders to create the world we wish to live in. Ethics,
morality, and other philosophical questions must have answers that we provide for
ourselves through rational exploration. No 'higher' power or supernatural entity need
be turned to for these answers.

Everyone must take part in this process, to the best of their abilities. It is our future
and we all must lend a hand in its realization. To that end we believe in the free flow
of information and ideas, and a direct participatory democracy in which all have an
equal voice. By coming together as one, in an informed and rational manner, we can
come up with the solutions to the problems that face us.

Reason, rational thought, and the scientific method are our tools in reaching our
goals.

We reject divine inspiration and other metaphysical approaches to arriving at truth.
Instead we rely on reason, rational thought, and the scientific method as our tools to
guide us down our path. The past century has shown us some of the wonders we can
achieve when we properly direct our efforts. But these tools can also lead us to
destruction and chaos if put to the wrong use. We must be ever vigilant and hold to
the tenants of our faith.

We must transcend beyond our current biological limits to ensure the continual
growth and existence of our soul.

While our beliefs show us that there is no limit to the progress the individual can
achieve, we do find that there are practical limits. The human body, while wondrous in
its current form and function, is not designed to carry our growing souls forever. Age,
disease, death, and the limited capacities of our body put an absolute limit on how
much an individual can achieve.

But we believe that these limitations can, and will, be overcome. To continue our
growth and self-improvement, we must transcend beyond our current biological
limitations. Age, disease, and even death itself should be eliminated. Our biological
form should be modified and enhanced to surpass these limits. It may even become
desirable at some point to transcend beyond our biological form entirely into other
forms of existence. But no matter what form we transcend ourselves into, we will
always maintain our soul, the essence of who we are.

None of this is to be achieved through prayer or divine intervention. Instead we will
be the architects of our new nature. Science and reason will lead us down the path to
creating a new and better existence. Already we see the beginnings of this with organ
transplants, artificial limbs, cloning and tissue engineering. With time on our side
there should be no limit to what we can achieve. Our physical form will continue to
evolve, through our own efforts, to keep pace with our ever-growing soul.

Preservation of our soul is paramount. Today this means cryonics.

Everything we are, everything we will ever be, is contained within our soul. Deep
within the confines of our amazing brains our soul sits, encoded in the biological
structure of neurons and neurochemicals. But this biological machine, as wondrous as
it may be, is fragile. In a blink of an eye our entire existence can come to an end, the
information melting away as the brain is destroyed.

When the Transhuman era arrives, we will be better able to protect and preserve the
soul of our being. But as that time has not yet arrived, we must turn to other ways to
preserve our existence. At this time the best viable option is cryonics.

We believe that after death the body can be kept in a form of biostasis through the
process of cryonics. There our soul will sit, safe in the frozen structure of the brain,
awaiting the Transhuman era when we can be revived. So strong is our belief in
cryonics that it is a major prerequisite for joining our faith. It shows that one is
sincerely committed to our ideals.

We must also look for other ways to complement or even replace cryonics as a method
of preservation. For it is not the how that concerns us, but the why.

Universal Immortalism is one of the ultimate goals of existence.

All souls (past, present, and future) have a right to exist and grow and improve
eternally. We regard it as a supreme tragedy that past souls have been lost and not
preserved. To that end, we dedicate ourselves to finding a way one day to bringing
back all persons that have ever lived, so that they can join us in our eternal
adventure. This is the idea known as Universal Immortalism (R. Michael Perry -
Forever for All).

Once again we hope to achieve this through scientific, rational means. Based on the
informational concept of the soul, it may be possible to accurately recreate souls
where all information about them has been lost. At this point though, we just don't
know if it can be done. But that does not mean that we should not try, and it is our
'leap of faith' that one day we will succeed.




Copyright 2004 Tripper McCarthy.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.

[DJS]

I am not familiar with universal Immortalism. How could we "bring back all persons that ever lived"? I don't understand how that is even theoretically possible. [mellow]

[Bruce Klein]

From what I understand, it basically has to do with advanced physics. If you can project where a cannon ball will go... then you should also be able to project where the cannon ball came from. Hence, we're all made of atoms (like cannon balls) then we should be able to project back in time to recreate any person. Also, with a potentially infinite combination of atoms, we could recreate any person in this way as well, without the need to project back in time.. just make enough samples... and you'll hit upon "me" or "you" eventually.

Mike Perry has written extensively on this in Forever For All. I'm not a big fan in relying or talking about it to much, as the feasibility is most certainly post-singualrity.

[randolfe]

I am not a fan of it either. However, I am a great fan of those discussing creating a new religion. This is a posting incorporating a letter from one of the better people involved in this effort.

Previously, someone had mentioned picking great scientists, etc. from history as role models of "saints" (heaven forbid). I suggested we consider them simply "revered ones". However, this fellow puts his finger on some of the common things we Immortalists agree about.

It follows:

Cloningly yours,
For eternal life,
Randy Wicker


Minister Loren,

I'm not seriously proposing that we worship ghosts. Nor am I
proposing that we create a fictitious sham of a religion. I was
simply trying to suggest that it may be time for us to take action
to attempt to protect our most deeply held beliefs from the
regulatory efforts of individuals hostile to or ignorant of our
cause. And I advocate using legitimate grounds to do so.

I briefly checked out your web site, mostly the misssion statement.
Your doctrine seemed fairly innocuous. Let's all get along, follow
the golden rule, those "with" should help those "without", etc. One
piece of advice. Please, please remove all the special effects from
your site like the page transitions and the cursor effect. Very
distracting and poorly designed. Let me ask this, though; If I
joined your church could I claim cryonics to be a religious practice
and have any protection whatsoever?

Since thinking about this I took a crack at writing a description of
a church I would probably be a member of. Not a finished product at
all but see what you think.


My Church

My church is interfaith and non-denominational. The ministers can
conduct wedding ceremonies, commitment ceremonies, renewal of vows
ceremonies, baby-naming ceremonies. We meet every Saturday morning
at 10:00 am PST to discuss that week's sermon. We offer
additional services like confidential counseling, private
communication in emergencies, assistance in securing information
related to longevity and developing a life-extension regimen.

The church is similar in philosophy to the Society for Venturism, a
501-©3, tax-exempt, nonprofit organization incorporated in Arizona
that advocates and promotes "…the worldwide conquest of death
and the continuation and enhancement of life through technological
means, including cryonic suspension."

Cryonics is not a religion, but it is one of the most important
religious practices of the members of this church.

Church Principles

1. Survival

Teleology is the study of design or purpose in natural phenomena;
the perception of purposeful development toward an end in nature.
The church asserts that there is design but there is no known
purpose to existence other than the purpose ascribed to it by
humans. The design we observe can be explained by physical and
natural laws. We believe that life, in particular, exists as a
result of the convergence of a set of unlikely circumstances
occurring on this planet. The church makes no claims about a
supernatural force or entity that may or may not have been the
architect for these laws and is thus, non-denominational. Whatever
one may conclude about the existence or nature of such a force or
entity, there is one clear and undeniable commandment that every
living thing seems compelled to follow. That commandment
is "Survive".

The members of the Church of Life believe that life is sacred and
death is an enemy to be ultimately defeated. We strongly support the
efforts of those who desire longer lives and the scientists that are
working to extend the human life span. Negligible senescence for all
creatures is recognized as a central tenet of the church.

In line with this principle, we strongly encourage church members to
sign up for cryonic suspension so that when they de-animate and are
pronounced legally dead, they might be adequately preserved until
future technologies are able to repair any damage and resuscitate
them. The church believes that the information that makes up
one's
individual uniqueness is embedded in the physical structure of the
human body, or parts of the body, and preserving the integrity of
that structure is currently recognized as being the only possible
means of defeating physical death.

Just as most religions have specific rites associated with the
passing of their members, our church holds that our members have a
religious right to determine in advance how their bodies will be
handled upon their being deemed legally dead. Selecting cryonic
suspension is considered to be a religious choice, and any attempt
to prevent church members from being cryonically suspended would
violate our freedom to practice our religion.

2. Intelligence

For the purposes of describing church philosophy, we define
intelligence as the amount of awareness or understanding of the
universe one possesses. We believe that, on average, the laws of
nature are such that evolution and natural selection tend to favor
creatures with greater degrees of intelligence over creatures with
less intelligence. More intelligent creatures tend to have a greater
capacity for survival. Consequently, we believe intelligence, in all
its forms, is an attribute to be very highly valued. It is human
intelligence and reason that will ultimately bring about significant
increases in the lifespans of humans and other animals.

For this reason, the figures we regard with the greatest awe and
respect and who we revere above all others are the brilliant minds
of the men and women of science that have taught us how to reason
and make sense of the world we live in. We do not mean to say that
science is a religion. Empiricism is, however, the foundation for
our epistemology.

The lives of such men and women as Aristotle, Newton, DaVinci,
Curie, Galileo, etc. are venerated and celebrated in our church.
These individuals were as prophets to us, teaching us how to reason
and understand an empirical world which is ultimately comprehensible
and predictable.

3. Morality

We believe in the concept of enlightened self-interest as our moral
compass. Nature gives us many examples of morality and shows us that
a balance of cooperation and competition, of altruism and
selfishness maximizes mutual benefit.
-----------------------

I got tired here and there's plenty of holes in it, I'm sure, but
you get the basic idea.

Best regards,

Scott



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[reason]

I am not familiar with universal Immortalism.  How could we "bring back all persons that ever lived"?  I don't understand how that is even theoretically possible.  [mellow]

Tipler's Physics of Immortality is probably a good reference for this. Information theory would suggest that any sufficiently advanced entity could recreate everyone that has ever lived. Whether or not recreation equates to "bringing back" is between you and your feelings on pattern identity.

Reason
Founder, Longevity Meme
reason@longevitymeme.org
http://www.longevitymeme.org

[DJS]

Interesting guys, another thing to be added to my 'to read' list...

Here's an interesting piece I found regarding Transhumanism as a religion.

Transhumanism as a Religion

The transhumanist memes often bind to memetic receptors normally linked to religious memes, at least the typical western monotheistic religions. Both types of memes have similar baits: the promise of a brighter future, health, prosperity, freedom, happiness, immortality and eventual transcendence. The difference is mainly how these changes should be achieved and what implications they have. Both memes protect the host from many negative emotions by providing an explanation for things and most importantly a future goal. Like all good memes they protect themselves against competitors by denouncing foreign memes as "heretic" or "entropic", or by building a world-view where competing memes are obviously wrong. One of the more unique defenses of the transhumanist meme is its emphasis on openness and tolerance for all other memes as long as they are also tolerant; memes which reject this (like most religious memes) are themselves rejected (this is very similar to Axelrod's Tit-for-Tat strategy in the Prisoners Dilemma).

Its worth noting that Christianity and transhumanism doesn't necessarily contradict each other. The evolutionary theology of Teilhard de Chardin shows that it is possible for both memes to be combined, although this meme isn't very widespread, partially due to suppression from the Christian meme, partially due to inherent weaknesses. Currently this meme is mainly spread in a mutated, secular form among transhumanists as the belief in the Omega Point.

Note that this is both good news and bad news for transhumanism. Religoid memes have shown themselves to be extremely successful. But they also often promote irrationality and mindless acceptance of the meme. And transhumanism runs the risk of being subjected to convergent evolution, to end up a religion.

I have already noted disturbing signs that some transhumanists regard their views as so self-evident and morally sound, that any critique is dismissed or seen as an attack. This is natural, since successful memes tend to form strong emotional defences (partially because they protect the host from many anxieties and fears, and thus removal implies loss of protection). While these defences help the host, they also protect the meme by making it indispensable and causing any competing memes to appear as threat to the emotional wellbeing of the host.

The "Millennial Fever" is in the air right now. Its quite natural and common, regarding the ideas of the dominant religions in the world and the profound effect they have had on every aspect of culture. Although the outward reasons might be different (ecocalypse, the Singularity, the Aeon, the Rapture, WW III, etc), the meme itself is simple: Something Big Is Going To Happen. It can bind to just any other meme (a so called co-meme, and is attractive (and increases the attraction of the host meme somewhat, by making them more urgent and dramatic).

Just like the religoid memes, the millennial co-meme is neither good or bad. It can enhance the spread of transhumanism, but provokes irrationality and has a time-limit (less so for transhumanism than many other religoid memes, since we can always move the Singularity forward in time with little effort).

What is needed right now is to critically survey the memes linked to (or forming) transhumanism in its various forms, and to see which memes should be supported, which can be ignored and which should be resisted. I don't think many of us would like to see transhumanism turned into a religion (Frank Tipler may already have taken the first steps in this direction with his ideas about God-Omega), so we must endeavor to find ways to prevent this without making our memes too noncompetitive.

[Bruce Klein]

Link?

[hughbristic]

  All souls (past, present, and future) have a right to exist and grow and improve
  eternally. We regard it as a supreme tragedy that past souls have been lost and not
  preserved. To that end, we dedicate ourselves to finding a way one day to bringing
  back all persons that have ever lived, so that they can join us in our eternal
  adventure. This is the idea known as Universal Immortalism (R. Michael Perry -
  Forever for All).

Though Omega Point scenarios involving the resurrection of the dead are obviously speculative in the extreme, I like this as a tenet of a transhumanist faith. It gives a faint and distant hope in the face of oblivion (not unlike cryonics), but one that is empowering. Unlike faith in metaphysical immortalism, it encourages action to make it a reality. Even if it proves impossible, the struggle towards universal immortalism could serve as a means of binding men together in humanistic brotherhood. It could also provide succor by projecting the individual beyond his current mortal existence.

To become a truly successful meme, though, it might be better to limit the promise of naturalistic immortalism to dues-paying members of the church. (kidding on the square)

Hugh

[randolfe]

I think Omega Point scenarios involving the resurrection of the dead are beyond "speculative in the extreme". I think they are taking rationalist philosophy and/or theory to an irrational extreme in an effort to "match" the grandiose promises made by mythical religions.

Mythical religions promise us that all the dead will rise from the grave on "judgement day". Those who have become dust can never be retrieved. Just as energy can neither be created nor destroyed, science has its rules and its limits.

I for one would love to chat with Mozart, have lunch with Ceasar, sit under the tree with Buddha, wrestle with Zeus for Ganymede, but it is never to be. In fact, I'm not sure we could ever even determine where real people ended and mythological creatures commenced--as my list shows.

[DJS]

Ooops, sorry for not including the link BJ. Here it is [thumb]

Memetic Health of Transhumanism

[tripperm]

I apologize for not having posted in this forum sooner, but I was not aware that my statement of beliefs had been posted here. I'm glad to see all of the discussion this post has brought about. Only through discussing ideas with other rational people can we ever hope to come towards any glimmer of truth.

I think there have been some excellent posts on how potentially Universal Immortalism could actually be realized. So I don't have much more to say on that topic. But I would like to address some of the posters who claim that it is simply impossible to achieve.

So far I have never heard of any law of physics that Universal Immortalism would violate. I completely agree that it may not be possible from a practical point of view until very far in the future, if ever. But I don't think anyone can say with certainty that it simply is impossible. And if it might be possible I think it is worthwhile to explore further. History is littered with those who incorrectly said something was impossible.

Tripper McCarthy
President - Transhumanist Church
www.transhumanistchurch.org

[micah]

I agree (or don't disagree) with most of the statements of beliefs, and have simply called that "Christianity". I came to those beliefs from Christianity.

The reference to direct representative democracy seemed a little "18th-century" and liable to outdate rapidly.

-micah

[John Doe]

I think transhumanism should distinguish, rather than compare, itself to religions and churches. Transhumanists can do this by emphasizing our use of critical reasoning skills, the scientific method, our disbelief in a supernatural afterlife, and our willingness to entertain the possibility of catastrophe -- that a new virus, perhaps SARS2, could prevent the Singularity from happening before 3000.

[randolfe]

I have to take exception to John Doe (Jesus avatar-interesting). I think this entire debate should be framed by the debzates of the late 19th Century in which Ingersol declared:
“If God has made a revelation to man, it must have been addressed to his reason. There is no other faculty that could even decipher the address. I admit that reason is a small and feeble flame, a flickering torch by stumblers carried in the starless night, -- blown and flared by passion's storm, -- and yet it is the only light. Extinguish that, and naught remains……

“The truth is, that no one can justly be held responsible for his thoughts. The brain thinks without asking our consent. We believe, or we disbelieve, without an effort of the will. Belief is a result. It is the effect of evidence upon the mind. The scales turn in spite of him who watches. There is no opportunity of being honest or dishonest in the formation of an opinion. The conclusion is entirely independent of desire. We must believe, or we must doubt, in spite of what we wish.”
Those who would like to access this marvelous debater in its entirity should go to the following link: www.gaytoday.com and look under "viewpoints".

This is from the first article of the two that you can find in the left hand screen.
The www.gaytoday.com site is run by a friend of mine who is more of a militant atheist/anti-religionist than I am.
He tells me that he spent several years reading all the works of Ingersol. I must admit that I stand in awe of the verbal abilities of this deceased hero. If only we had some viable cells so we could clone him!!