When I first encountered the Mormon Transhumanist Association it took about a nanosecond for me to get it: well, they already believe that they are going to become gods so such as association makes perfect sense.
Under consideration is Lincoln Cannon’s article, “How a Mormon Kid Recognized He Was a Transhumanist,” Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, January 30, 2017 AD.
He notes that “I’ve been a Transhumanist since childhood” and this was a direct result of Mormon theology (or misology) “My Mormon parents taught me, from before my earliest memories, that we are all children of God with potential to be God.” According to this 100% anti-biblical doctrine “We all” as Cannon puts it “have potential to be like Jesus” but note how he moves from “be like Jesus” to that “We all have potential to be Christ” (emphasis added). Now, when it comes to Mormonism it is imperative to keep in mind that the religion began as a full frontal and purposeful attack upon Christianity. Thus, Mormonism denies every Christian doctrine and so when they use the terms “God” or “Jesus” or anything else they do not mean by it that which Christianity has meant by it for two millennia.
Now, I stated that us having the potential to be “God” is “100% anti-biblical doctrine” but perhaps this is not accurate since, after all, in Genesis 3 Satan proposes this very idea to Eve: and they are both cursed for it.
Lincoln Cannon refers to Jesus (Satan’s “spirit brother” as per Mormon theology) and claim that we can become Christ so that you can discern his new age flavored push towards a so called Christ consciousness and a flavor which is also reflected in he seeks “to look at and interact with the mythical image in the mirror.” In fact, he continued directly by defining that which he means by “Christ” which is “a unified community of compassionate creators” which is to utterly abandon and radically redefine (as mis-define) that which “Christ” means which is anointed.
He also radically redefines “Faith in God” as “trust in human potential” which would be a blind faith indeed. He quotes James 2’s statement, “faith without works is dead” and tells us that “Faith is” to “act accordingly” with “human potential to be Christ” whereby we would create “a millennial world beyond present notions of suffering, poverty, and death, we act to make such a world. If we trust in a celestial heaven of sublime compassion and creation, we act to make such a heaven.” FYI: “celestial heaven” is one of Mormonism’s redefinitions of the biblical heaven.
Now, of course, you can see how appealing this is as most people are all for dealing with if not ending suffering, poverty, etc.
Lincoln Cannon notes that “As characterized in Mormon scripture, the person that waits for commands from God is ‘slothful and not a wise servant.’ Instead, everyone ‘should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness.’” Yet, he does not elucidate that this is because Mormonism is not about being saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2) but is a works based salvation scheme: work so as to purchase your own salvation.
I once had a Mormon missionary tell me as much and I decided to take him up on it, in a manner of speaking: I told him that I agree that we have to work for out salvation because after all, when Jesus was asked “What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” He replies, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent” (John 6).
He notes that “The Biblical narrative itself has a technological gist…Of course the scriptures also portray negative uses of technology, like the Tower of Babel” thus, he concludes, “technology is among the means prescribed and sanctioned by God for acting on our faith.” Yet, even if this is the case that is a far cry from placing circuitry inside of your skull which can be hacked by a teenager with a wired up Pringles can.
Lincoln Cannon tells us that “My father…introduced me to new ways of doing genealogy with databases…My father epitomized, for me, the complementarity of religion and technology.” Yet, he does not tell us that Mormonism’s obsession with genealogy is theological. They believe that they must find as many non-Mormon deceased ancestors as they can so that they, themselves, can undergo by-proxy baptisms for them so that even if they have been dead for centuries they can be counted as Mormons, etc.
He also states, “my father’s death figures prominently among the reasons I would eventually become an explicit Transhumanist” and I am empathetic with what an emotive such an impactful blow would have. As is the case with very many Atheists, et al., this led Cannon to “became increasingly skeptical of religion…becoming more seriously engaged in philosophical consideration of religion…become skeptical about aspects of my religious tradition…begun a formal study of philosophy at the university level.”
Surely, you know where this is heading, “I wondered how the existence of God could be compatible with the suffering we observe and experience in this world.” I will cut to the chase and note that if God (even the Mormon ones, as Mormons are henotheists) allows suffering then the neo-Mormon gods can end it: thus, Cannon sees himself as a god who is superior to “God”: a god-2.0.
He writes, “I knew religion had inspired people to evil acts, perhaps even the most horrible acts in human history. But I also knew religion had inspired people to good acts…I became persuaded that religion, like other artifacts of human culture, like all other technology, is inherently neither good nor evil. But rather, religion is simply power, unparalleled social power in this case, that we can use for good or evil.”
Thus, viewing “religion” as a styled socio-political change agent, as I will put it, Lincoln Cannon sought to establish his own, “a more practical faith as inspired by the Mormon tradition.” Thus, he founded the Mormon Transhumanist Association which is affiliated with the World Transhumanist Association which he had previously joined and then, “with some non-Mormon Christian friends, I helped to establish the Christian Transhumanist Association.”
He also stated that “Most Transhumanists weren’t or at least didn’t identify as religious, and in fact a significant portion were nominally anti-religious” and hold to “humanistic views” about which I will say whatever that means: for example, I often encounter self-professed humanist individuals and organizations that support abortion, how can someone even imagine being a humanist whilst supporting the brutal murder to millions upon millions of innocent and defenseless humans?
Lincoln Cannon seeks to “pursue technological realization of our visions for the future” and of course, it follows that self-professed gods would seek to accomplish “our visions for the future” or rather, their visions for our collective future: a future made in the image of people who declare themselves to be divine—or, that they become divine after death an order of events which Cannon, et al,. seem to want to change to becoming gods now via high tech.
In short, his utterly incoherent mixing and matching of terms and meanings he refers the “God that invites us all to become God – faith in Christ, by any other name as divine.” Well, Mormon Transhumanism is, by any other name, just fancy way of repeating Satan’s deception, “you shall be as God.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A plea: I have to pay for server usage and have made all content on this website free and always will. I support my family on one income and do research, writing, videos, etc. as a hobby. If you can even spare $1.00 as a donation, please do so: it may not seem like much but if each person reading this would do so, even every now and then, it would add up and really, really help. Here is my donate/paypal page.
Due to robo-spaming, I had to close the comment sections. However, you can comment on my Facebook page and/or on my Google+ page. You can also use the “Share / Save” button below this post.