This book explores intersections of science and religion, spirituality and technology, engineering and science fiction, mind and matter, and outlines a new cosmic, transhumanist religion. Hacking religion, enlightening science, awakening technology.

We must strenuously push toward our cosmic destiny among the stars. Beginning to expand beyond the Earth before it’s too late is our most important task at this moment in history. Many actors have important roles to play, and there’s room for everyone. Spaceflight will also help find viable solutions for current developmental, environmental, and social problems. But the road to the stars is full of impediments and roadblocks. We will not advance as fast as we wish. Therefore we must keep our mood strenuous and our drive strong. We need an optimistic spaceflight culture oriented to the future, with energizing visions of interplanetary, interstellar, and cosmic futures. We also need a futurist space philosophy.

Irrational mechanics is defined as a futurist science that will eventually open the door to faster than light travel, time travel, psychic engineering, God-like abilities, and the resurrection of the dead. This is not a scientific theory of irrational mechanics, but a narrative sketch that tries to communicate the flavor of what a futurist science of irrational mechanics could be. Irrational mechanics will eventually become the foundation of a new religion, one that is inspired by science instead of revelation, but is still able to offer all the comforts of traditional religion. Yes, the universe is striving toward a purpose, and we are part of that purpose. Yes, the cosmic operating system has the attributes that traditional religions have assigned to their God(s). Yes, you’ll live again after death with your loved ones.

What is artificial intelligence (AI)? How does AI affect death matters and the digital beyond? How are death and dying handled in our digital age? AI for Dying and Death covers a broad range of literature, research and challenges around this topic. It explores ethical memorisation, digital legacies and bereavement, post death avatars and AI and the digital beyond. It also analyzes religious perspectives on AI for death and dying, and planning for death in a digital age. Maggi Savin-Baden is a Professor of Education at the University of Worcester and has researched and evaluated staff and student experiences of learning for over 20 years and gained funding in this area (Leverhulme Trust, JISC, Higher Education Academy, MoD). She has a strong publication record of over 50 research publications and 17 books which reflect her research interests on the impact of innovative learning, digital fluency, cyber-influence, pedagogical agents, qualitative research methods and problem-based learning. In her spare time, she runs, bakes, climbs and attempts triathalons.

This book explores the concept that, as participation in traditional religion declines, the complex and fantastical worlds of speculative television have become the place where theological questions and issues are negotiated, understood, and formed. From bodies, robots, and souls to purgatories and post-apocalyptic scenarios and new forms of digital scripture, the shows examined – from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Westworld – invite their viewers and fans to engage with and imagine concepts traditionally reserved for religious spaces. Informed by recent trends in both fan studies and religious studies, and with an emphasis on practice as well as belief, the thematically focused narrative posits that it is through the intersections of these shows that we find the reframing and rethinking of religious ideas. This truly interdisciplinary work will resonate with scholars and upper-level students in the areas of religion, television studies, popular culture, fan studies, media studies, and philosophy.

At the forefront of science and technology there lie competing ideologies as to the nature of humanity and the future of human flourishing. Will technology become the ultimate savior, or has the work of salvation already been accomplished? Are we only creatures of mind and body or are we spiritual beings at our core? Reaching for Immortality bravely examines the agenda and ideals of the transhumanist movement, and compares and contrasts these with the biblical vision of a physical resurrection and a divine upgrade of the entire created order. Which vision of the future will inspire you, and capture your allegiance? This book is a primer to provoke deep thought about the impact of technological change on human personhood, and asks crucial questions facing our age: -What does it mean to be human, in light of exponential technological growth? -What is transhumanism and where is it leading us? -How important is embodiment for our personal identity? -How would the biblical understanding of personhood survive in a posthuman future?

“A remarkable combination of biology, genetics, zoology, evolutionary psychology and philosophy.” —Richard Powers, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Overstory “A brilliant, thought-provoking book.” —Matt Haig, New York Times bestselling author of The Midnight Library A wide-ranging take on why humans have a troubled relationship with being an animal, and why we need a better one Human are the most inquisitive, emotional, imaginative, aggressive, and baffling animals on the planet. But we are also an animal that does not think it is an animal. How well do we really know ourselves? How to Be Animal tells a remarkable story of what it means to be human and argues that at the heart of our existence is a profound struggle with being animal. We possess a psychology that seeks separation between humanity and the rest of nature, and we have invented grand ideologies to magnify this. As well as piecing together the mystery of how this mindset evolved, Challenger's book examines the wide-reaching ways in which it affects our lives, from our politics to the way we distance ourselves from other species. We travel from the origin of homo sapiens through the agrarian and industrial revolutions, the age of the internet, and on to the futures of AI and human-machine interface. Challenger examines how technology influences our sense of our own animal nature and our relationship with other species with whom we share this fragile planet. That we are separated from our own animality is a delusion, according to Challenger. Blending nature writing, history, and moral philosophy, How to Be Animal is both a fascinating reappraisal of what it means to be human, and a robust defense of what it means to be an animal.

A unique collection of essays that brings together contributions from; theology, aesthetics, social and political science, philosophy and cultural theory to examine the surge in the public visibility of religion.

In this book, Jorjani also calls the Prometheist partisan to rebel against the cynical, self-proclaimed elite of a Breakaway Civilization whose machinations threaten to forcibly regress humanity to a pre-industrial state of society before the advent of the Singularity.

This book looks to the rich and varied Islamic tradition for insights into what it means to be human and, by implication, what this can tell us about the future human. The transhumanist movement, in its more radical expression, sees Homo sapiens as the cousin, perhaps the poorer cousin, of a new Humanity 2.0: ‘Man’ is replaced by ‘Superman’. The contribution that Islam can make to this movement concerns the central question of what this ‘Superman’ – or ‘Supermuslim’ – would actually entail. To look at what Islam can contribute we need not restrict ourselves to the Qur’an and the legal tradition, but also reach out to its philosophical and literary corpus. Roy Jackson focuses on such contributions from Muslim philosophy, science, and literature to see how Islam can confront and respond to the challenges raised by the growing movement of transhumanism.