Videos

James Carroll argues that evolution—understood broadly as a search strategy producing complexity through cooperation, specialization, and trade—offers insights into the potential existence and nature of God. Tracing the pattern from RNA molecules forming symbiotic relationships with DNA, to eukaryotic cells, to multicellular organisms, to human collective intelligence, he identifies a consistent mechanism: simpler entities merging into more complex collectives. Carroll suggests this trajectory points toward future beings that are “one yet separate, separate yet one”—a description resonant with trinitarian theology. Rather than a supernatural creator outside nature, evolution predicts a God emerging within nature through the same processes that produced us.

Jared Anderson explores three approaches to faith crisis: apologetics, which defends inherited beliefs but leaves adherents vulnerable to new information; selective emphasis, which rebuilds meaning by highlighting a tradition’s most beneficial elements; and complete reconstruction through new myths and systems of meaning. Anderson argues that critical inquiry can only demolish worldviews—reconstruction is an art requiring theology, aesthetics, relationships, heritage, syncretism, and activism. He concludes that humanism and transhumanism offer frameworks for rebuilding when the “rabbit hole goes all the way down.”

Jessica Finnigan, completing her advanced diploma in religious studies at Cambridge with a certificate in international development, examines the intersection of religion, technology, and societal progress in developing nations. She explores how religious frameworks shape—and can enhance—human development efforts, offering insights into the role faith communities play in adopting and adapting technological solutions for social advancement.

John Niman’s presentation, “The Free Exercise Clause and Genetic Engineering Regulation,” explores the intersection of constitutional law and emerging technologies. Niman argues that religions, particularly Mormon transhumanists, should have access to special legal protections under the Free Exercise Clause, potentially accelerating scientific discovery in fields like genetic engineering. He examines the evolution of jurisprudence surrounding the clause, focusing on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and its impact on legal standards, and emphasizes the broad scope of religious exercise and the government’s burden to demonstrate compelling interest and narrow tailoring when infringing upon it.

Joseph West explores what constitutes authentic Mormonism and how a progressive religious movement might mobilize resources for collective action. Drawing on sociological theory and the work of Pierre Bourdieu, he defines authenticity in two senses: the subjective experience of resonance with one’s deepest interpretations of the faith, and the objective measure of whether a religious expression actually mobilizes people. West argues that early Mormonism’s authenticity lay not merely in its grand fundamental principles but in its radical economic and family practices—particularly its communalism, which Leonard Arrington documented as incompatible with liberal capitalism. He challenges the Mormon Transhumanist Association to tap into whatever made those practices authentic while acknowledging that the creative work of synthesis can only come from prophetic, charismatic vision rather than sociological analysis.

Leonard Reil, a founding member of the Mormon Transhumanist Association, shares his reluctant conversion to transhumanism through a phrase his late father used in a church talk: “There is no magic wand.” His father taught that God transforms us through a collaborative process of repentance and change—not by supernatural fiat. Reil extends this principle to the physical realm: if God works by natural law rather than magic in spiritual redemption, why not in physical redemption as well? He argues that striving to understand resurrection, healing, and immortality through science and technology may be exactly what God expects of us.

Lincoln Cannon opens the 2013 conference by articulating the Mormon Transhumanist Association’s core proposition: that humanity should learn to become gods—not gods who elevate themselves above others, but Christs who raise each other together. He traces this mandate through Mormon scripture, arguing that God wants us to use science and technology as ordained means to help one another attain glorified, immortal bodies. Cannon positions transhumanism not as redundant with Mormonism but as implicit within it, presenting a vision where religion functions as action on aesthetics and where the negation of one posthuman projection always implies another until humanity chooses to become posthumanity.

Marcus Flinders, an attorney specializing in corporate law, traces the history of legal rights from Socrates through the Declaration of Independence to modern United Nations conventions, examining how “power people” have historically granted or denied personhood to others. He uses the Dred Scott decision and the evolution of animal rights as case studies to illustrate how rights arguments develop gradually and depend on who holds power. Flinders then applies this framework to the coming question of machine rights, arguing that as artificial beings develop self-awareness, free will, and the capacity to feel pain, they will increasingly demand legal recognition. Drawing on LDS theology about spirits choosing bodies and intelligence attracting intelligence, he suggests that highly advanced machine bodies might attract souls seeking honorable vessels.

Micah Redding contrasts the failed end-of-world predictions exemplified by Harold Camping with the ancient Jewish prophetic tradition that viewed apocalypse not as history’s arbitrary termination but as moments when oppressive powers are overwhelmed by the rising tide of justice. He argues that this “better apocalypse” drew people more deeply into the world rather than out of it, inspiring figures like Martin Luther King Jr. to stand for truth even when victory seemed impossible. Redding suggests that spiritually oriented transhumanists can offer a similar forward-looking vision—one that calls humanity to courage and engagement rather than despair.

Mike Perry, a longtime cryonicist and author of Forever for All, proposes “parallel recreation” as an alternative to quantum archaeology for resurrecting the dead. While quantum archaeology attempts to retrodict the exact positions of atoms throughout history—an approach Perry finds implausible given quantum uncertainty—his method accepts some loss of historical information while still achieving meaningful resurrection through “informed guesswork.” Drawing on multiverse theory and an informational view of reality where identical copies are distributed across infinite universes, Perry argues that recreating persons consistent with surviving historical records would yield authentic versions of those who once lived. He views cryonics as the preferable path, allowing one to be a benefactor in future resurrection efforts rather than merely a beneficiary.