Published on August 12, 2015  

Samford University’s Center for Science and Religion will host a conference on “Transhumanism and the Church: Theological Reflections on Technology and Human Enhancement” September 24-26. 

Transhumanism is the movement that embraces the opportunity to transcend humans’ physical and mental limits through new technology. Its most optimistic advocates predict a future in which death has been defeated through the power to reverse biological processes or offload mental states onto computers.

The Samford conference, funded by a generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation, will consider the ways the church might respond to Transhumanism and the technologies that could revolutionize our understanding of human nature.

Keynote Speakers will include:

Jeffrey Bishop, author, Chasing After Virtue: Neuroscience, Economics, and the Biopolitics of Morality

Michael Burdett, author, Eschatology and the Technological Future

Ron Cole-Turner, editor, Transhumanism and Transcendence: Christian Hope in an Age of Technological Enhancement

Steve Donaldson, author, Dimensions of Faith: Understanding Faith Through the Lens of Science and Religion

Joel Garreau, author, Radical Evolution:
The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies—and What It Means to be Human

Steven Kraftchick, author, Biblical Theology: Problems and Prospects

Christina Bieber Lake, author, Prophets of the Posthuman: American Literature, Biotechnology, and the Ethics of Personhood

Jeanine Thweatt-Bates, author, Cyborg Selves: A Theological Anthropology of the Posthuman



 
Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 6,101 students from 45 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks 6th nationally for its Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.