Videos

Joseph West examines how shame and pride surrounding Mormon history shape Latter-day Saint identity and collective action, drawing on Kathleen Flake’s scholarship about the church’s turn-of-the-century transformation following the abandonment of polygamy. He argues that when faced with the Reed Smoot hearings, church leadership chose assimilation over resistance—publicly distancing from earlier practices and shifting the source of legitimacy from distinctive economic and family arrangements to the First Vision and continuing revelation. West suggests that this repression foreclosed the possibility of redeeming the “sins of polygamy” through internal reform, and uses the metaphor of the Salt Lake Temple’s buried sandstone foundation—later replaced with granite—to suggest that contemporary movements like the Mormon Transhumanist Association may be uncovering and rebuilding Mormon identity on stronger foundations.

Micah Redding explores how analytical thinking, while essential for progress, can dismantle the systems of meaning that give our lives coherence—much like dissecting a frog leaves something missing even when all the pieces remain. He argues that religious transhumanists often excel at analysis but struggle with the complementary task of building new meaning, leading to a sense of loss even among those who successfully reconstruct their worldviews. Redding proposes that the solution lies not in abandoning rationality but in becoming better storytellers, recognizing that religious transhumanism offers a uniquely powerful narrative—one that unites ancient questions with modern ambitions into a single story about what it means to be human.

This panel discussion, moderated by historian Paul Reeve and sponsored by the Mormon Transhumanist Association, brings together atheist leaders David Silverman and Joanne Hanks with BYU professors Richard Holzapfel and J.B. Haws to explore mutual misperceptions between Mormons and atheists. The conversation addresses stereotypes on both sides—including Mormon exclusivity and atheist immorality—while examining topics like baptism for the dead, church transparency about history, and whether religious belief constitutes “brainwashing” or represents a legitimate choice based on personal experience. The panelists ultimately find common ground in valuing charitable giving and civil dialogue, while disagreeing fundamentally about whether religious belief is intellectually honest and whether religion will persist or eventually disappear.

Brent Allsop presents highlights from the 2012 Mormon Transhumanist Association member survey, documenting the organization’s rapid growth and demographic diversity. He reflects on his personal journey through atheist and transhumanist organizations, contrasting their often-fractious nature with the sense of community and mutual support he has found in the MTA. Allsop celebrates the association’s exponential membership growth—at times exceeding twenty-five percent annually—and attributes this success to increasing member engagement and the collaborative spirit that distinguishes the MTA from other transhumanist groups.

Adam Davis, a physicist at Wayne State College, explores the concept of spirit matter—a theological necessity in Latter-day Saint belief—through a scientific lens. He examines three models: the “mirror model” (spirit matter mirroring physical matter), the “computational model” (spirit matter as information-based reality), and the “phase model” (different states of matter interaction). Finding problems with each approach, Davis concludes that while no current model fully explains spirit matter, continued exploration through eliminative reasoning can help narrow the focus toward viable theories.

James McLean Ledford presents his vision of Christian transhumanism, arguing that salvation requires both faith and works—a combination he illustrates through an information-time diagram depicting creation, cognitive evolution, and eventual theosis. Drawing on digital physics, the Nicene Creed, and the simulation argument, he proposes that reality may be fundamentally informational and that humanity could be living in a simulation created by an advanced civilization. Ledford sees this possibility not as undermining faith but as supporting it, suggesting that creators watching their simulations could perform what appear to be miracles—and that our own technological trajectory toward brain coprocessing and quantum computing may be part of a grand cosmic gathering back to a singular, Christ-like state of being.

Lincoln Cannon and Joey West present the New God Argument, a logical case for faith in God that diverges from traditional Christian apologetics to justify the distinctly Mormon conception of deity. Beginning with the “faith position”—that humanity probably will not go extinct before becoming an advanced civilization—they build through the “angel argument” (that advanced civilizations are probably common if basic life is common) and the “creation argument” (that if we would create many simulated worlds, then we ourselves probably live in a created world). Three “charity arguments” then establish that our probable creators are likely more benevolent than us, since civilizations that increase in destructive capacity without corresponding increases in benevolence tend to destroy themselves. The conclusion: if basic life forms are probable and advanced civilizations create worlds, we should trust that a benevolent advanced civilization—what Mormons call God—probably created our world.

Malcolm Dean, a research affiliate of UCLA’s Human Complex Systems Program, presents a cognitive thermodynamics framework for understanding mythology, religion, and culture as physical systems rather than mere stories. He argues that ancient myths and religious systems encode sophisticated understanding of complexity, scale invariance, and information theory in intuitive language—knowledge only recently rediscovered through modern science. Dean proposes that cultures, religions, and cognitive units form Boromean ring systems, where all three must exist together to maintain bonds; when one ring mistakes itself for another or claims fixed dominance, the result is pathology and violence. He concludes that humanity’s current planetary crisis is not an exception but the natural path of physical processes.

Roger Hansen examines the lives and ideas of three early twentieth-century thinkers—John A. Widtsoe, Alfred North Whitehead, and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin—whose work offers valuable insights for religious transhumanists. Drawing on their shared beliefs in evolutionary progress, the interconnectedness of life, and the compatibility of science and religion, Hansen argues that these “spiritual exemplars” provide a theological foundation for eternal progression and the ongoing technological revolution. He suggests that Widtsoe’s commitment to reconciling LDS theology with science, Whitehead’s process philosophy, and Teilhard’s vision of humanity evolving toward an “Omega Point” all resonate deeply with Mormon transhumanist aspirations.

Don Bradley, a historian specializing in Mormon origins, examines Joseph Smith’s identification of friendship as “the grand fundamental principle of Mormonism.” Drawing on LDS scripture—from the communal creation account in the Book of Abraham to Christ’s teachings against contention in 3 Nephi—Bradley argues that relationships of mutual support are essential to the divine nature, contrasting God as a harmonious community with Satan as the embodiment of antagonism. He connects this theological insight to Robert Wright’s concept of non-zero-sum games in evolution, suggesting that as human fates become increasingly linked, friendship and cooperation are not merely virtuous but necessary for civilization’s survival and progress toward the divine.