Archive 2019

A decade ago, Blake Ostler called me insane for believing in the Simulation Hypothesis. Today, a friend brought to my attention that Blake recently doubled-down on that characterization, in an episode of an Exploring Mormon Thought podcast, asserting that people like me “have serious problems in assessing reality.” My response? ... Read the article →

This is an edited transcript of my presentation at the 2018 Conference of the Mormon Transhumanist Association. I talked about the Return of Christ. I touched on how it relates to Transhumanism. But my focus was on some foundational theology that leads to what I believe is a more robust ... Read the article →

Yesterday and today, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the largest Mormon denomination, met together for our semi-annual General Conference. I participated in the conference via webcast and Twitter, watching and considering the thoughts shared, and expressing some of my thoughts along the way. Below is ... Read the article →

Imagine our surprise. Peter has finished preaching. We love him. We follow him despite the risks. After all, he teaches fulfillment of the Law in Messiah. He reveres the Law. He lives it. He still epitomizes all that was most grounding, meaningful, and purposeful in our lives before Messiah. And ... Read the article →

This is an edited transcript of my presentation at the 2019 Conference of the Mormon Transhumanist Association. At the conference last year, I told you that I didn’t know how to raise the dead. That might not have been entirely true. It’s true that I don’t know how to do ... Read the article →

In the New Testament, the apostle Paul prophesies about the end of death, forth-telling (yes, “forth-telling” in contrast to “fore-telling”) what he characterizes as a “mystery.” The mystery, he says, is that not all humans will die. But rather, some of us will transfigure from mortality to immortality without dying. ... Read the article →

Many anti-religious folks claim to value science. But that claim is too often merely lip-service, as evidenced by their anti-religiosity. How is that? Well, science has clearly and repeatedly demonstrated that religiosity generally results in greater physical, mental, and social well-being. So if you claim to value science then it’s ... Read the article →

On Saturday 3 August, I presented the New God Argument at the Sunstone conference in Salt Lake City. As part of the presentation, I simplified the formulation of the Compassion Argument slightly. And I spent more time than usual elaborating on how the first assumption of the Compassion Argument arises ... Read the article →

The New God Argument has evolved over the years, as I’ve worked to simplify it and present it in more accessible ways. There’s still a lot of work to do. Too bad I can’t work on it for more than small amounts of time on an occasional basis! But I ... Read the article →

After reading some of my recent posts about the New God Argument, a Transhumanist friend wrote to me with some questions about the nature of God. He was raised as a Christian. And he’s been wondering how God as described in the New God Argument relates to God as described ... Read the article →

A recent academic paper by Roba Megersa of Jimma University mentions my work on Mormon Transhumanism. The aim of the mention is to contrast my theology with that of persons who the author esteems to be “fundamentalists” and “bioconservatives.” There’s a clear contrast, for sure. But the author takes the ... Read the article →

As a teenager, I inherited an old filing cabinet from my father. The filing cabinet was made of black metal. It had four drawers, stacked on top of each other. And each drawer was filled with green folders. The folders were empty when I received them. My father had transferred ... Read the article →