Christian Transhumanist Community

No one way to make an ocean world

by Caleb Strom Sun, 26 Oct 2025 03:45:03 GMT

Several decades of exploring the outer solar have revealed that alien oceans are common.

A Conversation Between A Chicago Christian Activist and Two Chicago Academics

by glass.dimly Sat, 25 Oct 2025 13:54:05 +0000

Sitting next to me at a cafe was a purple-haired gentleman with a guillotine earring having a high-level discussion of historical fascism with a woman in her late fifties. As a Mennonite activist, I had just come from a book discussion of nonviolence, and I was sitting with my tw…

A Conversation Between A Chicago Christian Activist and Two Chicago Academics

by glass.dimly Sat, 25 Oct 2025 13:53:32 +0000

Sitting next to me at a cafe was a purple-haired gentleman with a guillotine earring having a high-level discussion of historical fascism with a woman in her late fifties. As a Mennonite activist, I had just come from a book discussion of nonviolence, and I was sitting with my tw…

A Conversation Between A Chicago Christian Activist and Two Chicago Academics

by glass.dimly Sat, 25 Oct 2025 13:53:22 +0000

Sitting next to me at a cafe was a purple-haired gentleman with a guillotine earring having a high-level discussion of historical fascism with a woman in her late fifties. As a Mennonite activist, I had just come from a book discussion of nonviolence, and I was sitting with my tw…

Cellular automata, downward causation, and libertarian determinism (2)

by Giulio Prisco Fri, 24 Oct 2025 15:00:14 GMT

Some more thoughts, and a Sudoku-like game based on cellular automata.

Autonomous Technospheres, the Planetary Metabolism, and Cosmic Eco-theology

by Ancient Futurist Sun, 19 Oct 2025 23:45:19 +0000

In a recent paper, the researcher Lukas Likavcan and the astrophysicist Adam Frank explore how scientific advances shape theories of political economy and social organization. For example, they are argue that the advent of Newtonian mechanics led to a vision of society and the ec…

Are science-loving robots the future in space exploration?

by Caleb Strom Sun, 19 Oct 2025 22:23:57 GMT

In the short science fiction novel by Becky Chambers, A Psalm for the Wild-Built, Robots leave the factories to dwell in forests on the colony moon Panga, while humans take over all production in society.

Terasem Colloquium, December 14, 2025

by Giulio Prisco Wed, 15 Oct 2025 07:11:32 GMT

Where is AI, and where is it going?

by Giulio Prisco Tue, 14 Oct 2025 09:33:28 GMT

Terasem Colloquium update, and some recent writings.

The ASI Leviathan: Designing for Human Flourishing

by Jonathan Gunnell Mon, 06 Oct 2025 12:39:05 GMT

Artificial Super Intelligence must rule to shepherd human flourishing. “Without security, liberty dies. Without fairness, community collapses. Without openness, progress ends.”

Making Planetary SETI Respectable

by Caleb Strom Sun, 28 Sep 2025 04:39:05 GMT

Over the decades, the SETI community has been successful in distinguishing itself from the fringe.

No more fig leaf for Christians

by glass.dimly Fri, 26 Sep 2025 16:25:32 +0000

Author: Ched MyersBook: Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark's Story of Jesus, Page #20"Behind police torture rooms, the trade in military hardware, the rape of women, IMF economic blackmail, death squads, elite world pricefixing, or ICBMs, stand ideological s…

The double heart

by glass.dimly Thu, 25 Sep 2025 16:28:07 +0000

Author: Martin BuberBook: Good and Evil, Page #10"...they breed 'delusion' in their hearers, they spin illusions for them; in particular they spin a way of thinking for them which they themselves do not follow. Instead of completing their fellowman's experience and insight with t…

On keeping morality out of politics in America

by glass.dimly Wed, 24 Sep 2025 15:23:07 +0000

Author: Wendell BerryBook: The Hidden Wound"Niels Henry Sonne, in Liberal Kentucky, 1780—1828, points out that the Kentuckians of that time supported all the principles of religious freedom, but gave their most fervid support to that of the separation of church and state. Politic…

Next Terasem Colloquium on December 14

by Giulio Prisco Mon, 15 Sep 2025 09:51:19 GMT

Where is AI, and where is it going? Also, summary of previous Colloquium.

How tradition and hierarchy can encourage technological progress and democracy

by Ancient Futurist Sun, 07 Sep 2025 23:24:30 +0000

In previous articles, I have discussed the need for cultivating virtue in an age of ever increasing choice, so that people know how to make good choices that will lead to greater flourishing. Liberal democracy combined with rapid technological change in a free market economy have…

Could weird ridges on Venus tell us about even weirder ridges on Miranda?

by Caleb Strom Sat, 06 Sep 2025 22:09:37 GMT

Miranda may be one of the weirdest moons in the solar system.

Despots on a Hot Mic: A Naïve Bid for Immortality Through Exploitation

by Jonathan Gunnell Fri, 05 Sep 2025 13:06:13 GMT

A Christian Transhumanist response

On Asceticism and Healthy Living

by Dustin Ashley Wed, 03 Sep 2025 11:15:15 GMT

In the age of rapid technological advancement, the merging of spiritual disciplines with transhumanist ideals might seem unlikely.

Summary of my book "Irrational mechanics"

by Giulio Prisco Tue, 02 Sep 2025 05:51:51 GMT

A talk given at the Aetheria Symposia I in Crete.

CTA Theological Anthropology: Blog 4: Enhancing Minds

by Jonathan Gunnell Tue, 26 Aug 2025 21:16:15 GMT

Directions and goals for future human minds - is smartness enough?

Alfred Adler, Christ, and the Future Human: Psychology as one Bridge to Transhumanism

by Jonathan Gunnell Wed, 20 Aug 2025 10:18:14 GMT

Humans as whole and purposeful, through the lens of Alfred Adler.

David Deutsch & Rene Girard

by Micah Redding Tue, 19 Aug 2025 21:59:37 GMT

Scapegoating, anti-rational memes, and infinite progress

Cellular automata, downward causation, and libertarian determinism

by Giulio Prisco Mon, 18 Aug 2025 13:46:51 GMT

Also, a new review of my last book "Irrational mechanics."

Fleshing out a Astromissiological Framework

by Ancient Futurist Sun, 17 Aug 2025 22:01:30 +0000

In a article a few years ago, I introduced the concept of Astromissiology and discussed how it could be incorporated into the vision of Christian Transhumanism. Astromissiology, like missiology, is essentially the study of missions and missionaries, their methodology and their hi…

On the Pursuit of Faith and Reason

by Dustin Ashley Wed, 13 Aug 2025 09:48:28 GMT

Christianity can incorporate transhumanist perspectives as it has for numerous other philosophical movements, says Dustin A. Ashley

Exoarchaeology: What can space trash tell us about life, planets, and the cosmos?

by Caleb Strom Sun, 10 Aug 2025 03:34:47 GMT

Although I am a planetary scientist by trade, I also minored in archaeology while a undergraduate student at the University of California, San Diego and attended a Cyber-archaeological field school in Delphi, Greece during the summer before my final year.

Frank Tipler's summary of his recent talk at the Terasem Colloquium

by Giulio Prisco Mon, 04 Aug 2025 09:03:27 GMT

Space expansion, AI, the physics of ultimate space propulsion systems, and the far future of the universe.

Re-enchantment and Christian Transhumanism

by Ancient Futurist Sun, 03 Aug 2025 21:47:04 +0000

I have a fascination for the cyberpunk genre aesthetic. What is puzzling about this fascination is that I find the future promised by cyberpunk to be overall unattractive. Most cyberpunk fiction is set in a dystopian setting with authoritarian governments or sinister mega-corpora…

Theological Anthropology Part 3: How Then Shall We Live?

by Jonathan Gunnell Sun, 27 Jul 2025 10:36:26 GMT

The Imago Dei in Motion: Vision Leading from Acts to Destiny. A Christian Praxis of Self-Transformation.

Oberon and Umbriel

by Caleb Strom Fri, 25 Jul 2025 21:59:56 GMT

Old Cold Ocean Worlds?

Creation as Incarnation, with Jordan Daniel Wood

by Micah Redding Fri, 25 Jul 2025 01:35:09 GMT

Christ as the future of the cosmos

VIDEO: Terasem Colloquium, July 20, 2025

by Giulio Prisco Mon, 21 Jul 2025 06:18:06 GMT

Space expansion in the age of AI.

Work and meaning in the age of AI

by Ancient Futurist Mon, 21 Jul 2025 00:40:35 +0000

Our generation is closer than any other to a future where most jobs are automated either through robotics or AI. Responses to this range from doomsday scenarios where the AIs dispose of humans or where AIs are still controlled by humans, but only benefit extremely rich. What isn’…

Robotheism? WTF?

by Giulio Prisco Sat, 19 Jul 2025 05:07:12 GMT

Also, Terasem Colloquium on space expansion in the age of AI TOMORROW, July 20. You are invited!

Terasem Colloquium next Sunday, July 20. You are invited!

by Giulio Prisco Sun, 13 Jul 2025 07:15:12 GMT

Why not send just AIs like Hal to the stars? Also, new sections in the Terasem book.

How common are water-rich asteroids?

by Caleb Strom Fri, 11 Jul 2025 20:40:27 GMT

If humans are ever to live in space, they are going to need to find water, for drinking, for making breathable air, and even for fuel. Water could be extracted from water-rich asteroids known to exist in the asteroid belt and near-Earth space.

Lincoln Cannon & the Cosmic Host

by Micah Redding Fri, 11 Jul 2025 03:09:10 GMT

A Mormon Transhumanist and a Classical Christian Transhumanist talk about God

You are invited to the Terasem Colloquium on July 20

by Giulio Prisco Sun, 06 Jul 2025 14:16:21 GMT

Should we still want to send human astronauts to colonize space? Or should we want to leave space expansion to AI?

CTA Theological Anthropology Part 2 – Explanatory Knowledge Creators

by Jonathan Gunnell Sat, 05 Jul 2025 01:02:59 GMT

Critical Rationalism, Deutsch, and the Imago Dei

A conversation with Howard Bloom (2)

by Giulio Prisco Sun, 29 Jun 2025 05:12:01 GMT

The new politics of radical centrism and the new math of one plus one equals three.

Can planetary science contribute to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI)?

by Caleb Strom Sun, 29 Jun 2025 01:25:18 GMT

The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) is a legitimate scientific field, which astronomers, engineers, and other scientists have been engaged in at least since the 1950s when the field of SETI was founded by Franks Drake.

Theological Anthropology in Christian Transhumanism

by Christian Transhumanism Wed, 25 Jun 2025 11:40:00 GMT

Becoming More Fully Human in Christ, with the Tools of Our Age. A hopeful vision of humanity’s purpose, potential, and destiny—rooted in the image of God and shaped by love, knowlege and technology

Neuralink & Faith—Noland Arbaugh's Spiritual Journey

by Micah Redding Tue, 24 Jun 2025 20:38:26 GMT

The world's first Neuralink recipient opens up about God

How to make a mud volcano: thoughts about Ahuna Mons on Ceres

by Caleb Strom Fri, 20 Jun 2025 17:33:22 GMT

The giant Asteroid Belt object (1) Ceres is interesting.

Join me virtually in Crete next week

by Giulio Prisco Thu, 19 Jun 2025 15:14:45 GMT

I'll give a very unhinged talk on irrational mechanics.

A conversation with Howard Bloom

by Giulio Prisco Sun, 15 Jun 2025 03:53:13 GMT

Politics, Elon Musk & Donald Trump, space expansion, evolution, the sexual cosmos, new math & physics.

Jobs of the future

by a community member Sat, 14 Jun 2025 06:18:13 GMT

It’s a decade or two into the future. Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI) is ubiquitous. Jobs we know now do not exist.

The Case of the Sexual Cosmos, by Howard Bloom

by Giulio Prisco Thu, 12 Jun 2025 04:18:26 GMT

A riveting tale of transformation and cosmic flamboyance.

From Cyberpunk to Solarpunk: Convivial Space Distributism

by Ancient Futurist Sun, 08 Jun 2025 22:44:25 +0000

In February 2025, an article was published in Mere Orthodoxy, written by Jonathan Cioran, titled, “Iron Sky: Peter Thiel and the Rise of Gay Space Fascism” about the recent fusion of techno-optimism and far right politics in Silicon Valley. The article made a case that the goal o…

Rethinking Miracles: A Christian Transhumanist Perspective

by Micah Redding Sun, 08 Jun 2025 01:23:43 GMT

The Bible and Christian theology say something different than you might think

How a Christian Transhumanist thinks about Miracles

by Micah Redding Thu, 05 Jun 2025 17:28:36 GMT

The Bible, theology, and Christian tradition give us a very different view of miracles than you might expect

Future Governance in the Transhumanist Age: a Model from Scripture

by a community member Thu, 05 Jun 2025 10:13:44 GMT

Better than capitalism and communism is understanding how the early church viewed their community.

From Judges to Jesus: Divine Meritocracy as a model for future governance.

by a community member Sat, 31 May 2025 11:31:24 GMT

Globally, governments are causing problems, as kings did in the Bible. What's a better solution?

Critical Rationalism & Religion

by Micah Redding Fri, 30 May 2025 22:26:03 GMT

How far can we go in bridging science and faith?

Lost City on an Ocean Moon -- a short story

by Caleb Strom Fri, 30 May 2025 18:39:59 GMT

I could write this as a non-fiction article, but since I am also a science fiction writer, I am exploring the possibility of life and intelligence on ocean worlds in story form.

Eden: the fatalistic Myth or the empowering Allegory?

by a community member Wed, 28 May 2025 21:05:16 GMT

Contemporary guilt must be stripped from the original story of the Garden for us to proactively steward the future.

A Convivial Transhumanism

by Ancient Futurist Sun, 25 May 2025 23:04:00 +0000

The concept of conviviality, with respect to technology, originated with the writings of Ivan Illich who wrote in the mid-20th century about the problems he saw with industrial society. Illich saw industrialized technology as being at odds with human agency. He believed that inst…

Is AI about to take off fast?

by Giulio Prisco Sat, 24 May 2025 06:06:41 GMT

Also, new writings about plasma and zero point metafysiks.

Does Io have a magma ocean or not?

by Caleb Strom Fri, 23 May 2025 16:54:11 GMT

Jupiter’s moon Io is known for being covered in volcanoes.

Miracles, Reason & History—Dale Allison

by Micah Redding Fri, 23 May 2025 03:06:05 GMT

I've enjoyed exploring Dr. Allison's thesis on miracles and super-normal human capabilities

Artificial Super Intelligence - As Carl Jung and Jesus would have it?

by Jonathan Gunnell Thu, 22 May 2025 10:53:57 GMT

The Suffering Servant, the Madonna and Child, and how we train the objectives of our ASI creations.

A Case for Enlightened Techno-Monarchism

by Ancient Futurist Sun, 18 May 2025 22:57:02 +0000

Being a history buff, I have always been fascinated with monarchy. History is full of kings and queens who embody history in a way that isn’t quite the same in a republic. I am not against democracy or a republican form of government, but there is something missing in a republica…

(1) Ceres: A giant ocean-bearing asteroid from the outer solar system?

by Caleb Strom Fri, 16 May 2025 17:09:25 GMT

The dwarf planet (1) Ceres is in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, but it is weird compared to other objects in the asteroid belt in a lot of ways.

Nikolai Fedorov and space expansion, revisited

by Giulio Prisco Mon, 12 May 2025 08:42:43 GMT

God wants us to go to the stars and remake the universe.

Why you should care about space exploration even if you are not a space nerd

by Caleb Strom Thu, 08 May 2025 14:09:29 GMT

Why should we explore the universe?

Nikolai Fedorov and technological resurrection, revisited

by Giulio Prisco Sun, 04 May 2025 09:41:48 GMT

God wants us to use science and technology to resurrect the dead.

Did Enceladus experience true polar wander?

by Caleb Strom Fri, 02 May 2025 17:29:53 GMT

Enceladus is a water ice-covered moon of Saturn famous for geyser-like plume eruptions at its south pole.

An Introduction: Why We Need Planetary Exploration

by Caleb Strom Fri, 25 Apr 2025 17:29:33 GMT

From plans to mine resources on the Moon and asteroids to plans to establish a Martian settlement within the next century, there is currently excitement about the prospect of humans living in space.

Trans-virtue: Artificial Intelligence and Virtue Formation

by Ancient Futurist Sun, 20 Apr 2025 23:36:38 +0000

I was recently speaking with a friend of mine with the intent of launching an AI startup. My friend is very interested in AI safety and particularly preference aggregation. If we do see the emergence of artificial superintelligence (ASI), or at least artificial general intelligen…

From Transhumanism to Trans-cosmism: How AIs will steward creation

by Ancient Futurist Sun, 13 Apr 2025 23:14:57 +0000

One of the last books by James Lovelock, the originator of the Gaia hypothesis, was a book called Novacene. In this book, Lovelock argued that in the future artificial super-intelligence (ASI) would take an interest in preserving Earth’s biosphere. In an age where ASI could be ri…

Coming soon

by Caleb Strom Fri, 11 Apr 2025 18:19:00 GMT

This is Philosophical Transactions of the Planetology Institute.

Jonathan Rauch on Christianity and Saving Democracy

by Micah Redding Wed, 09 Apr 2025 00:36:36 GMT

An atheist explains why Christianity is a load-bearing wall

The yellow flowers are back!

by Giulio Prisco Thu, 03 Apr 2025 08:21:24 GMT

Plus, various recent writings.

Book project: On irrational mechanics

by Giulio Prisco Mon, 24 Mar 2025 10:13:16 GMT

Notes & odd thoughts

Meatspace: The New Democratic Frontier

by glass.dimly Sun, 17 Nov 2024 18:13:07 +0000

Meat space: the alternate reality to Zoom calls, texting, and Netflix. Do you all remember? Yes, we used to gather in person. This Nation article lays out how the Democratic party left behind meat-space, the work of building a membership-based organization:

Gentleness and Strength: on being a man

by glass.dimly Sun, 17 Nov 2024 05:02:12 +0000

We find it easy to write what a man should not be, but it is impossible to write what a man should be without finding yourself saying things that cannot be said. To be a man is to take up the way of strength, for better or for worse. Men are not born, they are made. Any boy can b…

Continually New

by Micah Redding Mon, 15 Jan 2024 15:42:34 GMT

I had a dream last night about needing to repair the table that my Pawpaw built.

What would the 25th century respect?

by Micah Redding Wed, 01 Nov 2023 16:53:04 GMT

I.

Exploring Christian Transhumanism with friends

by Christian Transhumanism Wed, 25 Oct 2023 21:50:44 GMT

Thanks for reading The Christian Transhumanist!

Coming soon

by Christian Transhumanism Wed, 25 Oct 2023 21:38:07 GMT

This is The Christian Transhumanist.

Coming soon

by Micah Redding Thu, 24 Feb 2022 15:36:32 GMT

This is Playing God, a newsletter about the playful exploration of science, technology, human transformation, and religion.

Life at Scale

by Micah Redding Wed, 24 Mar 2021 15:55:00 GMT

Life as we know it is full of incredible diversity and change. From single-cell to multi-cellular organisms, from asexual reproduction to sexual recombination, from bacteria to plants to fungi to vertebrates, life evolves, transforms, and g…

Origins of Transhumanism: W.D. Lighthall

by Micah Redding Tue, 09 Feb 2021 17:24:00 GMT

For several years now, I’ve been hunting the origins of transhumanism. One of the significant mysteries in this story is the first time the word “transhumanism” shows up in English. Until recently, the first appearance of “transhumanism”, w…

The Supply & Demand Matrix

by Josiah Wed, 21 Oct 2020 12:55:30 +0000

Supply and demand are more complex than most traders and economists give them credit for. I think most people view supply as “people selling” and demand as “people buying”. However, there are 2 distinct forms of market participation: passive market forces …

The Liminal Space – The Art of Transition

by Ryan Hauck Tue, 28 Apr 2020 14:53:51 +0000

“The very vulnerability and openness of liminal space allows room for something genuinely new to happen.” Richard Rohr Good Morning on this beautiful… um… what day is it today..? No idea, but it doesn’t matter. We are here and now. Over the course of…

The Continuum of Evolution

by Ryan Hauck Thu, 23 Apr 2020 14:53:33 +0000

“If you pray to God for peace does God give you peace or give you opportunities to be peaceful?” One of the hard problems of theology and religion is the presupposition that God is all loving and all-caring and His Will for us is perfect peace and love; and yet we liv…

Death and Resurrection

by Ryan Hauck Sat, 11 Apr 2020 16:47:08 +0000

Greetings from quarantine. I hope everyone is using this time to fully embrace all of the personal elements of your life which go un-nurtured due to busy schedules and distractions. I wanted to take some time today to think about the main theme of Easter; Death and Resurrection. …

Paul, Paradox, Myth, and the Danger of Knowledge

by Micah Redding Sun, 22 Mar 2020 14:38:00 GMT

“Paul, you are out of your mind! Your great learning is driving you mad!” So exclaimed the governor Festus on hearing Saint Paul speak. Until recently, this statement made sense to me. Studying too much can push some people over the edge.…

Self Authoring VS Socially Defined

by Ryan Hauck Sat, 21 Mar 2020 22:10:44 +0000

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” — Will Durant Greetings. We are nearly a month into what may become the most severe and damaging crises the world has faced in the last 20 years. While we are being tested via the social impac…

Cultivating a Stable Mind

by Ryan Hauck Wed, 11 Mar 2020 03:35:15 +0000

“Peace is the result of retraining your mind to process life as it is, rather than as you think it should be.” —Wayne W. Dyer Greetings and Blessings to all of my readers! Today, I want to speak on a topic I think should be at the heart of any meaningful practice; the cultivation…

Teleology & Simulation

by Micah Redding Thu, 20 Feb 2020 10:24:00 GMT

(—This essay is a draft, undergoing feedback and revision.—) In 1802, William Paley famously set out the “Watchmaker Analogy”, a teleological argument, or argument from design for the existence of God. The argument was as simple as it was i…

To wound the interior feminine in a man is to wound his whole feeling life and sense of worth.

by glass.dimly Wed, 25 Dec 2019 22:28:53 +0000

Author: Robert A. JohnsonBook: The Fisher King and the Handless Maiden: Understanding the Wounded Feeling Function in Masculine and Feminine Psychology, Page #75It is more difficult for a man [masculine person] to be aware of his inner nature because it is the feminine nature—the…

Gratification and Gratitude

by Ryan Hauck Sun, 20 Oct 2019 15:36:23 +0000

I have been spending some time recently playing with the idea of polarities, continuum’s, and trying to see the “middle ground” in my head, trying to get a grasp on developing a meaningful practice when establishing coherence in my field of being. This isn&#8217…

Our Field of Being – Conscious Participation

by Ryan Hauck Wed, 02 Oct 2019 00:50:28 +0000

“In other words, you decide to act as if existence might be justified by its goodness—if only you behaved properly. And it is that decision, that declaration of existential faith, that allows you to overcome nihilism, and resentment, and arrogance. It is that declaration of faith…

Embracing Mystery

by Ryan Hauck Wed, 11 Sep 2019 02:03:17 +0000

“The great beauty of life is its mystery, the inability to know what course our life will take, and diligently work to transmute into our final form based upon a lifetime of constant discovery and enterprising effort. Accepting the unknown and unknowable eliminates regret.”― Kilr…

Embracing Metanoia

by Ryan Hauck Mon, 19 Aug 2019 02:11:17 +0000

Metanoia is a Greek word that translates to “Change of Mind”, used many times in the New Testament. Thought to translate as “repentance”, though not as a practice fueled by guilt or shame, but literally to “change our direction”. As many of you…

Bearing Our Cross

by Ryan Hauck Tue, 30 Apr 2019 13:26:56 +0000

“O you souls who wish to go on with so much safety and consolation, if you knew how pleasing to God is suffering and how much it helps in acquiring other good things, you would never seek consolation in anything; but you would rather look upon it as a great happiness to bea…

The Resurrection is Participatory

by Micah Redding Thu, 28 Mar 2019 21:02:44 GMT

In my previous essay, The Resurrection is Technological, I explored Paul’s argument in 1 Corinthians 15, that the resurrection is about God’s intention for humanity to reign over the cosmos. According to Paul, God’s plan was for humans to r…

The Kingdom of God has a biotechnological research agenda

by Micah Redding Wed, 13 Mar 2019 21:42:58 GMT

The Kingdom of God has a biotechnological research agenda. We must cultivate all life, starting from the bottom up. We must learn how life works, how evolution unfolds, how ecosystems function—and we must learn to bless and uplift those pro…

Miracles vs Magic

by Micah Redding Tue, 04 Dec 2018 19:07:45 GMT

In 1600, during Giordano Bruno’s heresy trial, the inquisitors asked a question: Did he believe Jesus’ miracles were performed by magic? It’s hard for us to understand the significance of this question. In our post-Enlightenment world, this…

The Realities of Social Construction: Interview by Micah Redding, Executive Director of the Christian Transhumanist Society

by a community member Thu, 15 Nov 2018 21:00:00 -0500

Joint project with the Christian Transhumanist Podcast! https://www.christiantranshumanism.org/podcastLots of interesting questions. How can we love religion when so many are hurt? How do we describe the reality of social construction? Does Jesus have a personality? What's S…

Thinspace

by glass.dimly Fri, 05 Oct 2018 03:31:43 +0000

In a world where neural control has proven cheaper than metal machines, Isaac is being groomed to become a part of the AI that governs and shapes reality. As an operator, he’s training to remote control factory workers to support the war effort. But when he discovers his memories…

God as Living Liminality: A Queer Nonbinary Theology - Episode 34

by a community member Mon, 06 Aug 2018 00:00:00 -0400

Adriaan Dippenaar, director of the Seattle Nonbinary Coalition joins in to discuss how queer identity, queer tension, and queer magic helps them imagine God. God is absurd, and that's okay! The divine does not fit into any clear, clean label. This is what gives God the power…

Blasphemy: Reciting the Apostles Creed in First Person - Episode 36

by a community member Sun, 01 Jul 2018 22:00:00 -0400

If the Spirit of Christ dwells in are hearts, and if we are supposed to be Christlike. . . then the Apostle's Creed is about us.

Dealing with Death

by Micah Redding Wed, 30 May 2018 13:37:46 GMT

On Tuesday, April 24th, I was interviewed on BBC Radio about technology, the pursuit of immortality, and the meaning of death. In the middle of that night, we were awakened by a call from an out-of-state hospital, telling us that my father-…

Be Thou My Vision, the Royal Wedding & Theosis

by Micah Redding Sun, 20 May 2018 22:50:33 GMT

At the Royal Wedding yesterday, there was a brief moment when everyone in attendance, including the royal couple, sang together. They were singing a melody shared by Be Thou My Vision, one of the most beautiful hymns ever written. The hymn …

The Tower of Babel

by Micah Redding Fri, 11 May 2018 14:30:41 GMT

Perhaps no biblical story has captivated people’s imaginations like the Tower of Babel. In this story, a group of people get together to build a tower tall enough to reach heaven—from which they intend to launch an all-out war on God himsel…

Autism: Finding God on the Spectrum - Episode 33

by a community member Sat, 28 Apr 2018 00:00:00 -0400

Sam, who is on the autism spectrum, discusses how his diverse theory of mind has brought him on a unique, exciting, and terrifying journey with and towards God.People on the spectrum develop their sense of theory of mind differently than neurotypical people. Theory of mind is how…

Environmentalism Mandates Transhumanism

by Micah Redding Sun, 22 Apr 2018 18:50:55 GMT

In one billion years, life on Earth will be gone. Five billion years from now, the Sun will expand to encompass the Earth. But long before that happens, the rising temperatures of the Sun will boil the oceans, and make the planet uninhabita…

Trinity and Biblical Authority: Reclaiming Truth - Episode 32

by a community member Thu, 15 Mar 2018 00:00:00 -0400

This episode was originally recorded over two years ago, and shows us at a different stage in our spiritual development. Amanda, a Unitarian, defends the trinity. Sam, a relativist, defends Biblical' authority and infallibility. As modernism is challenged, new possibilities …

Mary, Mother of God, Catholic Transhumanist Wonder Woman

by Micah Redding Thu, 08 Mar 2018 18:00:00 GMT

The more I am exposed to the Catholic aesthetic, the more I understand that for the ancient church, Mary was sort of like Wonder Woman, working against the power of Kings and Empires to smuggle the divine into the world. She strides across …

Creation in Bondage to Decay: When God cursed the ground after Eden - Episode 31

by a community member Thu, 01 Mar 2018 00:00:00 -0500

After Eden, God curses the world with hard child birth, patriarchy, toil, and death. The curse sets female against male, humans against nature, and humanity against the snake. We explore how these curses mirror the evolution of humans and the birth of agriculture. But. Good news.…

Black Panther is the Transhumanist Future We Need

by Micah Redding Mon, 19 Feb 2018 14:12:09 GMT

I’ve just returned from seeing Black Panther, and not only is it a great superhero movie, it is one of the most tech-positive movies I’ve seen in a long time. Its story-telling offers to reorient the entire superhero genre around deep quest…

Francis Bacon, Christian Transhumanist

by Micah Redding Fri, 16 Feb 2018 04:08:48 GMT

In the 1600s, Francis Bacon, creator of the Scientific Method, was advocating Christian Transhumanism. It’s common for people wrestling with the tension between science and religion to point out that many great scientific pioneers, such as …

The Sentience of the Holy Spirit: How God lives into us - Episode 30

by a community member Thu, 15 Feb 2018 00:00:00 -0500

The constant evolution of religious doctrines is an argument for God's living consciousness. The Spirit is sentient! Christianity has too often shunted the Holy Spirit to the corners of our canon, as sort of the third wheel of the Trinity. But the Spirit is where we may most…

Feedback Loops

by Micah Redding Tue, 13 Feb 2018 22:13:36 GMT

Recently, I’ve realized that feedback loops have been one of the most important things in my life—and are perhaps one of the most important things in the world. Most of us are aware of negative feedback loops. Feedback from a set of speaker…

Minimum Viable Theology: Superorganisms

by Micah Redding Thu, 08 Feb 2018 21:16:00 GMT

This is part of a series on a Minimum Viable Theology. The idea is to see if we can construct a minimal theological starter kit, using only reasonable assumptions. The first entry is about why good wins. You should start there. One of the m…

More Mailbag: Bible TV Shows, the Qur'an, and Empire - Episode 29

by a community member Thu, 01 Feb 2018 00:00:00 -0500

We answer more listener questions! How does the Spirit move and change through time? How should Christians approach the Qur'an? If we could make a Bible TV show, what book would we choose? And is America the new Roman Empire? Also, what does it mean to love our enemies?

Forgetting the Gospel: The New Testament as Tragedy - Episode 28

by a community member Sun, 31 Dec 2017 00:00:00 -0500

Jesus Christ flips. He is the anti-emperor who becomes the symbol of empire. He resists all elements of power, and then becomes the all powerful. He is the incarnation that eventually rejects humanity. What Jesus stands for in the Bible versus what Jesus comes to represent makes …

5 Theses for the Next Reformation

by Micah Redding Wed, 01 Nov 2017 01:07:17 GMT

500 years ago TODAY, Martin Luther nailed 95 theses to the door of a German church, kick-starting the Protestant Reformation, and changing the course of history. 500 years later, the religious world is once again in turmoil, grappling with …

Christian Transhumanism is the Next Reformation

by Micah Redding Wed, 18 Oct 2017 01:56:20 GMT

Published at the Huffington Post Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther nailed 95 theses to the door of a German church, kicking off one of the most significant movements in Christian history: the Protestant Reformation. The movement was les…

Mailbag Episode: Propecy, Song of Songs, and What would you ask the Historical Jesus? - Episode 27

by a community member Mon, 09 Oct 2017 00:00:00 -0400

Listener questions we consider - What is your favorite and least favorite book of the Bible? What would you ask Jesus (historical Jesus) if you had the chance? Do you know anything about Song of Songs? I've heard some interpret it a source a metaphor about the relationship b…

The Resurrection is Technological

by Micah Redding Thu, 28 Sep 2017 17:06:03 GMT

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul lays out an argument that many believe is at the heart of the Christian faith—an argument for the ultimate resurrection of all people, and the eradication of death itself. Paul’s explanation of this belief is often…

Two Kinds of Power: Why Fascists Can't Make Art

by Micah Redding Wed, 06 Sep 2017 14:29:27 GMT

I believe that there are two kinds of power in the universe. The first one is control—the ability to constrain action. The second one is freedom—the ability to act. These two kinds of power are in deep conflict, locked together in an invers…

How does Salvation Work?

by Micah Redding Thu, 31 Aug 2017 21:20:49 GMT

Here’s how salvation works in Christianity. In Christianity, love is what saves. When Jesus is asked how to inherit eternal life, the answer is the the greatest commands: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul a…

The Beginner's Paradox and the Beatitudes: We Must Fall in Order to Rise

by Micah Redding Fri, 18 Aug 2017 18:47:35 GMT

Ira Glass, in an interview on creativity, described the thing that no one ever tells beginners. It’s simply this: When you start pursuing something new, it’s often because you fell in love with something old. Maybe you decided to learn musi…

The Purpose of Scripture & Doctrine

by Micah Redding Tue, 15 Aug 2017 14:33:20 GMT

I spend a lot of time thinking and talking about scripture and doctrine. And yet, as I’ve expressed in many different ways, I believe that love is the answer—the truly significant factor. So why not just let the scripture &amp; doctrine stu…

Hold the Tension: There are no Good or Bad Religions - Episode 26

by a community member Tue, 25 Jul 2017 00:00:00 -0400

Have you been burned by the church? Found solace in Zen? Maybe you love your humanist discussion group. Maybe your church is the place you feel the most loved. Maybe you're disillusioned with religion in general. How do we hold the tension between the goodness and the badnes…

How to Classify Christians: Problematic Messiness - Episode 25

by a community member Sun, 16 Jul 2017 00:00:00 -0400

Contemporary Christianity has split into hordes of different factions. And we try to find labels to identify different kinds of Christians. These labels are probably necessary in order to talk about the modern faith. . . but these labels are also intensely problematic. Let's…

Wonder Woman

by Micah Redding Tue, 04 Jul 2017 00:00:00 GMT

For CS Lewis, Adam and Eve were a vision of humanity as it could be, in its full power and beauty. They were man and woman unchained, gods and goddesses walking the Earth, intense and fierce, full of fiery and dangerous grace. Superheroes a…

Satan: The Lie that Rules the World - Episode 24

by a community member Mon, 03 Jul 2017 00:00:00 -0400

Satan is a powerful force of evil in Scripture. He is an independent agent who challenges God, and successfully rules the world for awhile. But Satan's power rests in a very simple lie, based on ignorance and outdated science. Satan claims that some people are better, more r…

Moana and Reading Scripture

by Micah Redding Thu, 22 Jun 2017 00:24:17 GMT

I love the movie Moana. And, particularly, I love this song—both because it’s a great song, and because it perfectly encapsulates a deep truth about reading scripture, or any kind of story. (Listen to it!) On the surface, the meaning of th…

Blood: Menstration and Communion - Episode 23

by a community member Mon, 19 Jun 2017 00:00:00 -0400

Old Testament Law is difficult to understand, especially on the topic of blood. Blood belongs to God alone, and menstruation makes women unclean half the month. Miriam, Moses's older sister, illustrates the disappointment and disillusionment people with periods may feel when…

Crisis

by Micah Redding Mon, 12 Jun 2017 11:34:05 GMT

Today marks a year since the Orlando nightclub shooting. On June 12, 2016, a single gunman walked into a Florida nightclub and killed 49 people, wounding 58 others. A few days later, I wrote down some thoughts about what was happening. This…

The Seven Principles: Unitarian Universalism from a Biblical Perspective - Episode 22

by a community member Tue, 06 Jun 2017 00:00:00 -0400

Amanda and Sam cruise all over the Bible, seeing how modern progressive ideas are ancient and Biblical. Unitarian Universalism is no longer an exclusively Christian belief network, But it is still historically linked to the Bible, and it's seven principles can all be traced …

Gospel Authors: How would they write our biographies - Episode 21

by a community member Sat, 06 May 2017 00:00:00 -0400

Question - which gospel author would you most like to write your biography? Sam discusses the strengths, and weaknesses, of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John. He shows what elements of Jesus are captured in each narrative. And how those same themes would be present in our own lives.

The Serpent’s Lie

by Micah Redding Fri, 28 Apr 2017 21:45:10 GMT

I’ve heard it over and over again, when people are considering some new capabilities or technological power: “This is just a repeat of the Serpent’s lie, You shall be like God!” The reference is to Genesis, where the Serpent tempts Eve by…

Lamentations Chapter 3: Taking God on a Guilt Trip - Episode 20

by a community member Sun, 09 Apr 2017 00:00:00 -0400

At the center of the Book of Lamentations, there's a long fantastic personal prayer. The author is hurt by God. The author loves God. The author tries to convince himself to trust God, but God doesn't seem to work that way anymore. Lamentations 3 shows off the cognitive…

Bible Geekery: Ranking the Minor Prophets by Entertainment Value - Episode 19

by a community member Mon, 03 Apr 2017 00:00:00 -0400

It's a weekday night. You want to sit back, chillax, and read a Minor Prophet. Which one will be the most fun!?!?!? This minisode answers that ageold question you didn't know you were asking. How do you rank the Minor Prophets in order of Entertainment Value?

Lamentations: Cry Against an Abusive God - Episode 18

by a community member Fri, 24 Mar 2017 00:00:00 -0400

The Book of Lamentations captures that darkest sensation, when God becomes an enemy. Lamentations is our favorite book of the Bible. It has the darkest depiction of God seen in Scripture. And it may have the most hopeful, most empowering depiction of humanity in Scripture. These …

How to Read Scripture

by Micah Redding Fri, 17 Mar 2017 15:00:31 GMT

Reading scripture is meant to be hard. I don’t mean that it has to be tedious or boring or anger-inducing or something like that. I mean that the meaning is not just floating on the surface, waiting to be scooped off like so much pond scum.…

Atheism: A Progressive Christian Critique - Episode 17

by a community member Thu, 16 Mar 2017 00:00:00 -0400

Hard Atheism is the claim that there are no gods. This form of secularism is outdated, unnecessary, and accidentally hurts and silences progressive or alternative forms of religion. There is a theist/atheist binary that over simplifies the wisdom of modern religion and modern sec…

God Continuity: Reclaiming Christian Ancestors - Episode 16

by a community member Sun, 05 Mar 2017 00:00:00 -0500

In this minisode, Amanda explores threads of continuity throughout her faith journey. The presence of God and the stories of those who have drawn on that presence for strength in difficult times have been interpreted and reinterpreted, but their power has remained.

Wireheading, Faith Healing, and Why the Placebo Effect is the Most Important Thing in the World

by Micah Redding Wed, 01 Mar 2017 16:35:05 GMT

If you could flip a switch and experience more pleasure than you have ever felt in your entire life—would you do it? What if that switch also made you feel incredibly happy and joyful? What if it made you feel contented and successful and a…

How to handle God’s audacious vision for humanity

by Micah Redding Tue, 21 Feb 2017 22:04:57 GMT

I’ve recently been rediscovering how truly audacious the biblical vision for humanity is. According to even a cursory reading of the scriptures, humanity is made in the image of God, given charge of the entire world, and called to participa…

Why the Lego Batman Movie might Save Civilization

by Micah Redding Mon, 13 Feb 2017 20:51:14 GMT

The other day I saw The Lego Batman Movie, a great addition to both the Batman movie franchise, and the Lego movie franchise. It had action, adventure, drama, romance—and more cameos from familiar good guys, bad guys, and ambiguous guys tha…

Refugee Narratives: The Bible written in Exile - Episode 15

by a community member Mon, 13 Feb 2017 00:00:00 -0500

Without refugee narratives, the entire essence and logic and plot of the Bible ceases to exist. Ignore them and we lose our religion. In this episode Sam looks at how being forced out of their country impacted the Biblical authors, and really created the Bible. And he takes a gli…

What would you have done?

by Micah Redding Tue, 07 Feb 2017 19:01:23 GMT

I’ve spent my entire life wondering what I would do at certain junctures in history. Would I have followed Jesus—or stood with the Pharisees? Would I have worked against slavery—or argued that it was a necessary evil? Would I have opposed t…

Why Christians need a Minimum Viable Theology

by Micah Redding Wed, 01 Feb 2017 23:08:16 GMT

I am a Christian, and part of what that means is that I am an heir of an incredibly dense and comprehensive cultural tradition. I would call it a maximal cultural tradition, as it has produced art, music, literature, language, buildings, so…

What is Happening in the World?

by Micah Redding Wed, 01 Feb 2017 14:40:01 GMT

Here is what I believe is happening in the world. Accelerating technological change has unleashed an era of unprecedented prosperity, freedom, and opportunity. The necessity of extreme poverty is vanishing in the rear view mirror, the incid…

Media: If the Bible were made today - Episode 14

by a community member Wed, 25 Jan 2017 00:00:00 -0500

The Bible was made up of Songs, poems, prose, letters, narratives, genealogies. . . all kinds of different media. So! If the Bible were made today, it certainly would not be a book! Amanda and her husband Jim go through the Bible and figure out how best to present a modern Bible.…

How to Become Immortal

by Micah Redding Fri, 20 Jan 2017 06:13:35 GMT

In the last few years, a number of different organizations have launched projects to end aging and radically extend human longevity. Google’s Calico Labs is perhaps the most well-known effort, followed by Aubrey De Grey’s SENS foundation—bu…

Reality God: Existence - Episode 13

by a community member Mon, 16 Jan 2017 00:00:00 -0500

The idea that God is control of absolutely everything is incredibly common. That is because all of the universe is bound by its own existence, and it is incredibly easy to turn existence into its own God. Unfortunately this God is insanely problematic, and insanely real.

Christianity is Love

by Micah Redding Sun, 15 Jan 2017 06:28:16 GMT

Christianity is the assertion that love is the most powerful force in the universe. Of course, when we talk about love, all kinds of ideas come to mind, from romance to hippies to powerful feelings about ice cream. (And by the way, if you d…

Ezekiel: The Reality Gods - Episode 12

by a community member Tue, 10 Jan 2017 00:00:00 -0500

Judah is finished. The temple is destroyed. The old God conception failed. The prophet Ezekiel tries to make sense of everything that's happened. And he seems to go insane. And in this process, he discovers a new God conception. A deadly and sensible and true and awful God c…

Partnership with God

by Micah Redding Tue, 03 Jan 2017 20:59:32 GMT

This Fall I taught a Bible class at my local church, along with Kyle Creamer, Nate Underwood, Emily Stutzman Jones (Lipscomb’s Director of Sustainability), Rob Touchstone (founder of the Well Coffeehouse), Tim Catchim (creator of OneLife Mi…

Elijah's Despair: The Still Small Voice - Episode 11

by a community member Sun, 01 Jan 2017 00:00:00 -0500

Amanda shares one of the great introspective legends of Deuteronomistic History. The prophet Elijah has just saved his country from drought, and scientifically proven the existence of God. But soon his victory turns on its head, and Elijah flees for his life. Everything has falle…

God is a Shapeshifter: The Bible vs. Western Theology - Episode 10

by a community member Sat, 24 Dec 2016 00:00:00 -0500

God is a disembodied voice. God is a rock. God is a person. God is a weather phenomena. God is Lady Wisdom. God is love. God is a whole mess of different kinds of objects. But the Western Theological tradition likes to paint God as consistent, having one dependable form. in this …

How Self-Help Really Works

by Micah Redding Thu, 15 Dec 2016 00:37:19 GMT

At the beginning of last year, I inadvertently found myself listening to an interview with self-help guru Tony Robbins. That interview made me curious, and pretty soon I had listened to several interviews, a 20-hour full-length audiobook, a…

The Revolutionary Story

by Micah Redding Mon, 12 Dec 2016 03:28:23 GMT

In the movie Elysium, some people live in a paradise city in the sky, while…(can you guess the next part?)…some people live in a hell on earth. I bet you could have guessed the second part even if I hadn’t told you. Why? Because you know th…

Abimelech: Gideon's Punk Kid - Episode 9

by a community member Fri, 09 Dec 2016 00:00:00 -0500

Gideon illegitimate son tries to declare himself king. Lots of innocent people die in the process, and we get to hear a very trippy sermon about evil anthropomorphic plants. The central gist is that it's a very very very very bad idea to have a king.This is the direct sequel…

Unclean Christianity

by Micah Redding Mon, 05 Dec 2016 07:28:07 GMT

In the ancient world, leprosy was incredibly unclean—if you had it, you were not simply unhealthy, you were cast out of society. For you to touch anyone was to risk contaminating them. You had to live on the outskirts of town, shouting “unc…

Gideon: When God just wants to be Famous - Episode 8

by a community member Mon, 05 Dec 2016 00:00:00 -0500

Gideon is a rationalist skeptic douchebag. God is an ultra absurdist diva with massive jealously issues. Together, they fight Midianites, as we explore one of the craziest and funniest moments in the saddest part of the Bible.

Origin Stories: How Amanda and Sam Lost and Found Faith - Episode 7

by a community member Tue, 29 Nov 2016 00:00:00 -0500

Meet us! Amanda describes growing up having fun with a strong Christian faith. She talks about how good Christian education led her to doubt certain teachings, so she eventually became agnostic. Sam describes growing up as a kinda sloppy Christian, and how good Christian educatio…

Faith Transitions: The Veil is Thin - Episode 6

by a community member Sun, 20 Nov 2016 00:00:00 -0500

Amanda describes her faith journey from conservative Christianity to agnosticism and finally into the progressive Unitarian Universalist (UU) tradition. She describes how within conservative Christianity, she struggled with 'small q questions,' faith problems she believ…

Old Testament: Traditions Clash - Episode 5

by a community member Thu, 17 Nov 2016 00:00:00 -0500

Refugees return from exile in Babylon, and they try to rebuild. But religion is irrevocably changed. Books of the Bible start debating each other, and it gets intense. Some conservative books, like Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah, try to return to the old ways. Other books, like Jo…

Irony: The Key to the Bible? - Episode 4

by a community member Fri, 11 Nov 2016 00:00:00 -0500

Irony - Noun. The expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite. Irony is present in just about every book in the Bible. Heaven is opposite world, and the Day of the Lord is opposite Day. Things are not as they seem. Oh, and welcome to th…

Old Testament: God Falls Apart - Episode 3

by a community member Sat, 05 Nov 2016 00:00:00 -0400

The Old Testament comprises over half a million words written by dozens of authors over a thousand years. The history of its interpretation is basically the history of the West. So we’ve decided to summarize the whole thing in two podcasts. Because we’re nuts. In part 1, we find …

Great is Thy Faithfulness: Themesong - Episode 2

by a community member Fri, 04 Nov 2016 00:00:00 -0400

Howdy! Every week we’ll be releasing an extra minisode where one of us or both of us tackle a shorter topic. This week we explain our Theme Song, which combines the hymn Great is Thy Faithfulness and the text it’s based on, Lamentations 3. We discuss the contrast between the hymn…

Amos: The Bible Out of Order - Episode 1

by a community member Thu, 03 Nov 2016 00:00:00 -0400

In our pilot episode, we introduce ourselves and the Bible. Like, why do we care so much about the Bible that we’re doing a podcast about it? And hey, where does the Bible begin? Genesis, the first book of the Christian Bible, is a clear contender with its creation narratives. Bu…

My TEDx talk: We All Live in the Developing World

by Micah Redding Thu, 25 Aug 2016 21:38:29 GMT

Back in March, I had the privilege of speaking at a TEDx event in the Cayman Islands. My topic? We all live in the developing world. The idea is simple. When we say “the developed world”, it suggests that our society is already finished—tha…

Terror and Awe, Faith and Freedom

by Micah Redding Thu, 21 Jul 2016 13:45:48 GMT

We often encounter new things in very different ways. Sometimes, new things are terrifying—even demonic. Sometimes, new things are freedom. Talking to Emily the other day, I was struck by how quickly we can switch between these responses. I…

All Are Alive

by Micah Redding Thu, 14 Jul 2016 13:51:45 GMT

I have often thought about the way we define ‘death’. When is someone actually dead? At one point in time, we defined death as the point when someone’s heart stopped beating. Now, we define death as the cessation of brain activity. But even…

Minimum Viable Theology: We Are Not Alone

by Micah Redding Tue, 12 Jul 2016 13:34:14 GMT

This is part of a series on a Minimum Viable Theology. The idea is to see if we can construct a minimal theological starter kit, using only reasonable assumptions. The first entry is about why good wins. You should start there. The Theistic…

The Omega Point Theory

by Micah Redding Sun, 03 Jul 2016 21:04:24 GMT

One of the reasons that science has been widely regarded as an atheistic enterprise over the years, is that for quite a while now, it has preached a future of relentless annihilation. Ever since the laws of thermodynamics were formulated, t…

The Creative Process of God

by Micah Redding Wed, 22 Jun 2016 17:13:18 GMT

For quite a while now, I’ve been suffering through something I might call abstraction angst. It’s hard to describe to those who haven’t experienced it, but you might get a little of the flavor if you imagine working at a bank, handling thou…

Women in the Church

by Micah Redding Mon, 20 Jun 2016 15:22:12 GMT

If you, like me, grew up in a “Bible-believing church”, one thing that might have been discussed is the question of what role women could play in church services. You might have been told, for example, that the Bible clearly teaches women t…

I Was a Teenage Existentialist

by Micah Redding Thu, 16 Jun 2016 04:23:35 GMT

When I was 12, I began to wonder whether I was becoming an atheist. I couldn’t tell, of course, because while I knew I was exploring things that had turned other people into atheists, I didn’t know whether they inevitably led people into at…

The Infinite Resurrection

by Micah Redding Tue, 14 Jun 2016 04:38:12 GMT

A few months ago, I gave a talk entitled “The Infinite Resurrection” at the annual conference of the Mormon Transhumanist Association. The MTA are always great hosts, and I enjoyed the opportunity to meet and talk with many of the other spe…

The Dark Side of Knowledge

by Micah Redding Mon, 09 May 2016 05:08:31 GMT

The other day, I explored the story of Genesis, and its perplexing account of the corruption of mankind through the knowledge of good and evil. I tried to unpack some of the overlooked dynamics of the story, to get at what it is telling us …

My Weight Loss Tracker – Getting in Shape to Climb Mt. Rainier!

by Josiah Fri, 08 Apr 2016 16:48:30 +0000

I’m on a mission to get in shape to climb Mt. Rainier with my brother on June 20th. To do that, my goal is to be under 180 by that date. You can read more about my story, see my progress, at MyFitnessPal.

The Three Jobs in Our Future

by Micah Redding Mon, 04 Apr 2016 18:49:40 GMT

The other day I posted a hypothesis I was working on, and stirred up some wide-ranging discussion on Twitter. After a while, this kind of thing becomes difficult to squeeze into 140-character chunks, so I thought I would unpack my thinking …

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

by Micah Redding Sat, 02 Apr 2016 16:44:11 GMT

Curiously, Genesis attributes the downfall of humanity to something identified only as The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This mysterious tree is the one thing in all of creation forbidden to humans, and yet it is growing at the ce…

The Structure of the Biblical Story

by Micah Redding Fri, 04 Mar 2016 20:39:31 GMT

The biblical story is rich and complex—and full of metaphor, symbolism, and beauty. But given its length and complexity, it’s easy to throw up our hands at the prospect of understanding it all. This can lead us to accept overly simplistic a…

All Things Work Together For Good

by Micah Redding Tue, 23 Feb 2016 15:51:52 GMT

There’s a verse in Romans that says something like this: “All things work together for good”. I had a teacher who didn’t like that verse. He thought it was saying that all things are already good—we just can’t see it yet. And, rightly I thi…

Why Christians Should Support Radical Life Extension

by Micah Redding Wed, 17 Feb 2016 16:09:47 GMT

“Never again will there be… an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; the one who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere child” (Isaiah 65:20, NIV) In Isaiah 65, the great prophet of the Jewish scr…

My Grandfather

by Micah Redding Tue, 16 Feb 2016 20:29:59 GMT

Last week, I lost my grandfather. Two years ago, I lost my grandfather from the other side. This is what I wrote at the time. — My grandfather died in December. For me and my siblings, this was the first real “death in the family”, and it w…

Minimum Viable Theology: Good Wins

by Micah Redding Mon, 08 Feb 2016 15:00:16 GMT

If you’ve spent any time in the tech world, you’re probably familiar with the term “Minimum Viable Product”. The idea is that when you’re building something, it’s better to start with the most basic version possible, so that you can see if …

The Faith of the Martian

by Micah Redding Fri, 05 Feb 2016 02:41:14 GMT

My first article for The Huffington Post went up this week: The Faith of the Martian I have a bad habit of starting essays about movies, and not finishing them until months later — and that’s the case here. But the subject matter is somethi…

Test

by Micah Redding Thu, 04 Feb 2016 05:16:21 GMT

Here is a great blog post, full of wit and wisdom, text and texture, scents and sensibility. Nowhere you find it will know the reason you searched, and no one who finds you will know the reason they faltered. For once, there was nothing, be…

Existentialism

by Micah Redding Tue, 26 Jan 2016 02:16:47 GMT

If you’ve ever thought deeply about life, or perhaps experienced something that set you back, and disrupted everything you thought you knew — you might have ended up floating in despair. In this state, it might seem that nothing makes sense…

The New God Argument and A New Apologetics

by Micah Redding Thu, 21 Jan 2016 05:33:22 GMT

Recently my friend Lincoln Cannon released the third version of his groundbreaking New God Argument. This argument is a philosophical justification for trust in God, laying the technical groundwork for a rational approach to religion and th…

What I Would Write

by Micah Redding Thu, 31 Dec 2015 16:09:43 GMT

Right now, my mind is a flurry of thoughts, ideas, and questions. This is typical for me, at this time of year, when there’s downtime, when everything is nominally starting over, when I’m reconnecting with my family, and resetting my expect…

Transhumanism is a Mars Hill opportunity

by Micah Redding Mon, 16 Nov 2015 19:07:48 GMT

In Acts 17, the apostle Paul does something remarkable. He walks onstage at Mars Hill in Athens, the center of the philosophical tradition of the Greek world, and begins to talk about an unknown god. Unlike almost every other sermon in Acts…

What’s up with the word Transhumanist?

by Micah Redding Tue, 03 Nov 2015 02:17:31 GMT

Many of you know that I’ve spent the last couple of years trying to support and grow the Christian Transhumanist Association, an organization devoted to creating a better relationship between religion and technology. I’ve talked before abou…

The Infinite Morality of Jesus

by Micah Redding Sat, 08 Aug 2015 02:43:59 GMT

In his book, The Beginning of Infinity, David Deutsch argues that there are moments when something switches from being of only limited and local use, to having infinite reach. If you’ve ever played around with Roman Numerals, you’ve experie…

About Me

by Micah Redding Mon, 22 Jun 2015 23:04:51 GMT

I’m Micah Redding, a software developer, writer, and the co-founder and executive director of the Christian Transhumanist Association. I grew up as a preacher’s kid, spent eight years as a rock musician, and have traveled to places such as …

Rethinking Christianity

by Micah Redding Mon, 11 May 2015 16:08:12 GMT

Being Human

by Micah Redding Mon, 11 May 2015 16:01:06 GMT

Christianity & Transhumanism

by Micah Redding Mon, 11 May 2015 13:25:56 GMT

What does Christianity have to say about radical life extension? Cyborgs? Artificial Intelligence? I’m passionately interested in these questions. I grew up as a preacher’s kid, and traveled the world as a rock musician. Now I’m a software …

Talks and Presentations

by Micah Redding Mon, 27 Apr 2015 14:23:50 GMT

Micah Redding is a software developer, the co-founder and executive director of the Christian Transhumanist Association, and a writer on the subject of human values and technology. He grew up as a preacher’s kid, spent eight years as a roc…

The Church of Christ

by Micah Redding Mon, 20 Apr 2015 18:36:43 GMT

Some of you may know that I was raised in the Churches of Christ, a small religious group that emerged from the American Restoration Movement of the early 1800s. At the time of the Restoration Movement, Christianity was radically divided. N…

Three ways of seeing the world

by Micah Redding Wed, 15 Apr 2015 05:16:37 GMT

It seems to me that there are three main ways you can look at the world. The first is monism, and it holds that everything is one. God and the world and heaven and earth and you and me are all one blur, and all our dividing lines are illusi…

Start Here

by Micah Redding Wed, 08 Apr 2015 04:36:38 GMT

Being Human Being Human Embodiment Iron Man and the Modern Identity Crisis Christianity, Empire &amp; History …

Transhumanism and the Christian story

by Micah Redding Mon, 23 Mar 2015 13:39:50 GMT

When I was a kid, I discovered humanism and was thrilled. Here, somebody had gone through Christianity, and packaged its most essential concepts for the secular world. [1] I soon discovered that other people did not see this the way I did. …

Against Consumerism

by Micah Redding Mon, 23 Mar 2015 04:41:34 GMT

I’ve written before about my love for Iron Man 3. In it, Tony Stark faces the hard question of personal identity. Who is he? Who is Iron Man? At first glance, the answer would seem to revolve around his suit. Iron Man is the guy who wears t…

What is Technology?

by Micah Redding Fri, 13 Mar 2015 05:16:02 GMT

A few days ago, I published an essay attempting to explain and define transhumanism. At root, I said, transhumanism is the idea that we can make things better. One comment suggested that I should add an important qualifier: transhumanism is…

What is Transhumanism? And why should Christians care?

by Micah Redding Fri, 27 Feb 2015 06:36:56 GMT

In the past year, a strange new idea called “transhumanism” has started to show up in documentaries, tv series, and blockbuster movies. It’s often coupled with stories of amazing new medical developments, like restoring hearing to the deaf,…

Spaceships & Christmas

by Micah Redding Sun, 21 Dec 2014 03:43:26 GMT

For some reason, I’ve always associated space exploration with Christmas. No, I don’t think it’s because of that movie Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. I think it’s deeper, going back to something elemental in my childhood brain. As a kid…

About

by Micah Redding Tue, 16 Dec 2014 15:02:41 GMT

Micah Redding is a software developer and writer on the subject of human values and technology. He grew up as a preacher’s kid, spent eight years as a rock musician, and has traveled extensively, to places such as Kathmandu, Afghanistan, an…

An open letter to the non-egalitarian Churches of Christ

by Micah Redding Fri, 05 Dec 2014 19:24:53 GMT

Recently, I became aware that the Fourth Avenue Church of Christ hired a female preaching intern. I did not become aware of this through any direct connection with the congregation, but through a series of declamations and comments posted o…

Medium vs Message

by Micah Redding Mon, 20 Oct 2014 00:48:03 GMT

For me, there is a deep philosophical conflict that runs underneath everything I do and think. It makes me constantly question and measure and analyze — holding everything I’m doing up to inspection, trying to figure out how it matches to t…

Reading List

by Micah Redding Sun, 28 Sep 2014 22:47:17 GMT

It’s about time I have a recommended reading list. If you want to get inside my head (why would you want that??!!), this is what you need to read. Non-fiction: The Physics of Immortality (Frank Tipler) This book is a mind-warping exploratio…

FAQ

by Micah Redding Sun, 21 Sep 2014 01:10:51 GMT

What is Transhumanism? How does Christianity connect with Transhumanism? Are we living in the matrix? (no, we’re living in Lego world) What should I do with my life? (ask Iron Man) What’s wrong with humanity?

What is Transhumanism?

by Micah Redding Sun, 21 Sep 2014 01:06:19 GMT

Transhumanism is the ethical use of technology to extend human ability, and to improve the human condition. Transhumanism holds that we should not be limited by the way things are, or by the way they have been in the past; that we should no…

Some of my favorite essays

by Micah Redding Sat, 20 Sep 2014 18:48:56 GMT

Over the past several years, I've written a lot of stuff. And it's all over the place: I've covered all kinds of topics, taken many different viewpoints, and tried on several different writing styles. I like to think of this as an indicatio…

The hardest thing to believe

by Micah Redding Fri, 19 Sep 2014 04:20:08 GMT

The hardest thing to believe in the New Testament isn’t that a guy rose from the dead. For the disciples, the hardest thing to believe was that they were going to come to possess the Roman Empire, and build a new civilization, and it was al…

Christianity is a set of memes

by Micah Redding Wed, 17 Sep 2014 04:12:30 GMT

I’m a Christian. That means that I think that a certain set of memes — memes which started in first-century Israel, and very quickly spread out into the rest of the world — are very significant. As time went on, those memes profoundly resha…

Politics is Metaphysics

by Micah Redding Mon, 15 Sep 2014 03:46:44 GMT

I watched Atlas Shrugged last night. Not a great movie. Nevertheless, it was thought-provoking in several ways. One might be forgiven for thinking that this movie was about politics. The cameo appearances from political pundits, the focus o…

The Comprehensiveness of Orthodoxy

by Micah Redding Tue, 02 Sep 2014 13:00:48 GMT

Many people who use the word “orthodoxy” as a weapon, think of it as an insistence on picking the one correct answer out of many possible. I think this misses the point pretty badly. Orthodoxy isn’t the insistence on finding the one correct…

Aspirations

by Micah Redding Mon, 01 Sep 2014 04:06:17 GMT

I hear a lot about how our society sells us on consumerist wants, how magazines convince us we look ugly and need to look better, how car commercials make us lust after cars we don’t need, how our whole economy is premised on the empty idea…

Why I’m a Conservative Fundamentalist Liberal Progressive

by Micah Redding Thu, 28 Aug 2014 14:23:48 GMT

I’m a conservative in that I know the world is complex, and I know that simplistic and feel-good solutions don’t often fix things. I look for the mechanisms that make the world go. I know there is a deep wisdom in the way things are, and I’…

Consumerism

by Micah Redding Sat, 23 Aug 2014 17:42:31 GMT

When I think of consumerism, I think of companies without values — or more precisely, companies without opinions. That is, they’re not doing anything wrong, but they’re also not fighting for anything right. But should they be? To what degre…

Incoherent Essays: Words Written Half-Awake

by Micah Redding Fri, 20 Jun 2014 03:28:08 GMT

You too can receive incoherent essays from the morning scrawlings of my sleep-addled mind! For the past few weeks, I’ve been waking up every morning to write 500 words. I’ve heard from so many sources that this practice, and this practice a…

Being Human

by Micah Redding Mon, 09 Jun 2014 15:20:00 GMT

It’s very common to hear people re-iterate the fact that we are human. “I’m only human” “I’m finally getting in touch with my own humanity” “The inhuman treatment of prisoners…” But nailing down just what is being talked about is a little t…

The Theology of the Lego Movie

by Micah Redding Tue, 27 May 2014 13:23:38 GMT

A few months ago I went to see the Lego Movie with my friends. It provoked a lot of thoughts. I started thinking about how we approach the raw materials of the world around us, how we think about creativity, and how we deal with our own lim…

Embodiment

by Micah Redding Mon, 25 Nov 2013 02:36:22 GMT

Lately, a lot of people have been talking about embodiment. From theologians and philosophers, to environmentalists and activists, there is a lot of concern with how we think of ourselves, and our relationship with the physical world. René …

Three strains of religious transhumanism

by Micah Redding Tue, 29 Oct 2013 22:52:57 GMT

I think that there are three strains of religious and spiritual transhumanism. The first seeks to understand and commit more deeply to its own religious heritage, and in doing so, discovers a call to creation, cultivation of life, and self-…

1379478440

by Micah Redding Wed, 18 Sep 2013 04:27:20 GMT

To speak tangentially, I think that suffering is an intrinsic part of being-hood. Any being worth…uh…being, will experience suffering. We can respond to that suffering in a myriad of ways, including letting it fester and grow into vast, civ…

Philosophical Foundations for Understanding AI

by Micah Redding Fri, 23 Aug 2013 04:37:40 GMT

These are my thoughts in response to this question: Would a dominant pantheistic or pagan cultural tradition have prepared the West better for the reality of intelligent machines? The way I tend to approach things is by looking through th…

Being set apart

by Micah Redding Sun, 18 Aug 2013 07:19:48 GMT

(in reply to: https://twitter.com/bobfronk/status/368813980594102272 ) Ok, here’s my initial thought. Being set apart isn’t about community, it’s about identity. Being set apart forms identity, which forms community. The NT can be seen as a…

The Law of Christ

by Micah Redding Tue, 06 Aug 2013 05:16:18 GMT

This was written circa 1999, and circulated on some mailing lists and publishing sites at the time. The New Testament says, “the law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ…” When Jesus came, the law was no longer needed. It was fulfilled.…

Leaving the Church

by Micah Redding Sat, 03 Aug 2013 19:11:28 GMT

Two of the most significant articles I’ve read recently address the question of why millennials are leaving the church. First, there was this piece by Rachel Evans: Why millennials are leaving the church And then, this by Justin Hanvey: Whe…

Interested in Christian Transhumanism?

by Micah Redding Sun, 07 Jul 2013 20:16:42 GMT

Transhumanism is the ethical use of technology to extend human ability, and to improve the human condition. Transhumanism holds that we should not be limited by the way things are, or by the way they have been in the past; that we should no…

Iron Man and the Modern Identity Crisis

by Micah Redding Fri, 07 Jun 2013 05:11:16 GMT

A year ago, I was traveling across the world. I had just moved out of my house, taken a leave of absence from my part-time job, and left without a lot of money or a good sense of whether I would be employed when I got back. I slept on hard …

The State of Christianity and the World

by Micah Redding Sat, 01 Jun 2013 15:07:59 GMT

There is a lot of negativity these days about the state of the world. There’s always been a lot of negativity, so I guess that’s not surprising. What is surprising is how this negativity persists despite the fact that the world is doing ama…

The Poison of Empires

by Micah Redding Tue, 28 May 2013 23:35:04 GMT

Lately I’ve been reading about technology in the ancient world, and just how close Greece and Rome came to kicking off the industrial revolution 1500 years early. Why didn’t it happen? Nobody knows the answer for sure. But there are some li…

A Better Apocalypse

by Micah Redding Mon, 22 Apr 2013 04:57:10 GMT

On May 21, 2011, I was sitting in a steel-roofed building as a powerful storm pounded down outside. This is the day that Harold Camping had said the world would end. After decades of bible study, he had become so convinced of this that he g…

The Darkness and The Light

by Micah Redding Sun, 17 Feb 2013 07:07:13 GMT

I have always been drawn to things which are bitter-sweet. Well, at least since I was 15. I remember hearing “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” as a kid, and wanting to turn it off because it was so depressing. But if I was hyper-sensitive to sadnes…

Gardeners of the Stars

by Micah Redding Mon, 21 Jan 2013 06:01:27 GMT

I hope that one day humanity will assess its gifts, its skills, and its history, and come to the conclusion that our purpose in this world is to cultivate and create life. Certainly, this is what we have always done — not just in procreatin…

1357360307

by Micah Redding Sat, 05 Jan 2013 04:31:47 GMT

I think theistic transhumanism is important because eventually people are going to become aware of the simulation argument - and when that happens, people will either see themselves in an adversarial relationship with the creator of their r…

1357193911

by Micah Redding Thu, 03 Jan 2013 06:18:31 GMT

I’ve toyed with the idea of abandoning the term “Christian” before. Here’s the problem with that: in doing so, I would be abandoning the rich history and language surrounding that term. In the short term, this would mean a lot fewer obstacl…

The Human Race & The Problem of Evil

by Micah Redding Tue, 01 Jan 2013 23:40:25 GMT

The Problem of Evil is the apparent contradiction between the idea that God is infinitely loving, and the fact that he created us in a world with such intense suffering. It’s a serious problem for Christianity — and it’s probably one of the…

The Problem of Evil is the Problem of Humanity

by Micah Redding Tue, 01 Jan 2013 23:32:19 GMT

The Problem of Evil contrasts three ideas: Evil, suffering, and pain exist. We believe that God is all powerful. We believe that God is completely benevolent. For our purposes, let’s define “all powerful” as “having the ability to create …

Christmas

by Micah Redding Tue, 25 Dec 2012 14:06:49 GMT

As Christmas has approached, I’ve been reminded that traditional Christmas songs have embodied some of the most hopeful messages for humanity ever written. This makes sense — their subject matter draws from the birth stories of Jesus, stori…

The argument for basic theism

by Micah Redding Mon, 24 Dec 2012 07:00:33 GMT

Why I am a theist

by Micah Redding Sun, 02 Dec 2012 05:52:03 GMT

I am a theist. For most people, that probably collapses into the fact that I’m a Christian. But they are separate things, and I embrace each of them for different reasons. I embrace Christianity because I am incredibly drawn to Jesus of Naz…

Influential books & movies

by Micah Redding Sun, 25 Nov 2012 23:44:51 GMT

“Kingdoms of the wall” - a novel about meeting the gods at the top of a mountain “I am David” - a new movie that is based on a book I once read From earlier reading list The Physics of Immortality The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdow…

Beyond Fulfilled Eschatology

by Micah Redding Fri, 23 Nov 2012 04:51:35 GMT

A few years ago I began to realize that the New Testament authors anticipated the second coming within their own lifetimes. This led me to a lot of study and research, and ultimately to the reluctant conclusion that New Testament eschatolog…

1353556286

by Micah Redding Thu, 22 Nov 2012 03:51:26 GMT

This is the deal with violence. It works. Sort of. But the problem is, it only works on one level. It can stop a person from doing something you don’t like, but it can’t change a person’s mind. It can’t win the hearts and minds of a people,…

1353556183

by Micah Redding Thu, 22 Nov 2012 03:49:43 GMT

It is so improbable that we will pass out of existence forever. Rather, the very structure of reality hints to us, suggests to us that we will continue, that existence stretches far beneath us, and that even if we are to fall out of this wo…

1353537350

by Micah Redding Wed, 21 Nov 2012 22:35:50 GMT

My Mormon friends say that religion is an expression of our aspiration. Our belief that God is love is indistinguishable from our desire to be love ourselves. Our belief that God is holy is indistinguishable from our desire to be pure. As s…

Thoughts about the accident

by Micah Redding Sun, 11 Nov 2012 23:36:16 GMT

On Thursday night, Emily and I were driving along a five-lane road when a truck in front of us suddenly squealed its tires, jerked hard to the left, hit some debris, and then sped off. My first thought was that something had fallen out of t…

Things I've been meaning to write about

by Micah Redding Sat, 06 Oct 2012 14:43:29 GMT

Life is a series of pains. We don’t get to choose a pain-free life, but over time, we do get to choose to live with more interesting pains, like the pain of problem-solving, or creation, or love. This is a fundamental fact of any existence …

1348461479

by Micah Redding Mon, 24 Sep 2012 04:37:59 GMT

I see technology not as a thing in itself, but something which emerges from humanity, like an anthill emerges from an ant colony. If you take the ants away from the anthill, they will build a new one. In the same way, humans will always inv…

1348203562

by Micah Redding Fri, 21 Sep 2012 04:59:22 GMT

It is “ok” for the government to institute the death penalty, just as it is “ok” for the government to go to war - in the sense that a Christian should not violently oppose those things. However, in the realm in which a Christian has direc…

1348202524

by Micah Redding Fri, 21 Sep 2012 04:42:04 GMT

Romans 13 addresses how God uses the cycle of violence to limit itself. This is played out in the Old Testament over and over (Babylon punishing Israel, other nations punishing Babylon), and is foretold or set up in the Genesis story of Noa…

1347577352

by Micah Redding Thu, 13 Sep 2012 23:02:32 GMT

James L. Carroll - if I understand what you are saying, you are suggesting that since information is lost in the process of nesting worlds, the exterior worlds contain more information. (Agreed.) Further, you are saying that an observer in …

Some Simulation Argument flowcharts

by Micah Redding Wed, 12 Sep 2012 06:50:53 GMT

The simulation argument conversation. Finite or Infinite?

1346113362

by Micah Redding Tue, 28 Aug 2012 00:22:42 GMT

When I come up with an idea, and think hard about it, and then discover that someone has already made it, I’m excited. It means my idea was a good one, it means we’re one step closer to the things I was envisioning, it means I can move on t…

1346004894

by Micah Redding Sun, 26 Aug 2012 18:14:54 GMT

Jonathan G Cannon - that’s exactly right. I think the term “simulation” is just a good starting point, not necessarily the best way to conceptualize what’s going on. Similarly, thinking of God as “posthuman” may introduce all kinds of conce…

1346004849

by Micah Redding Sun, 26 Aug 2012 17:46:17 GMT

Experience would indicate this universe is not intended to be hackable in the sense specified here, and is instead intended to be understood and manipulated within the rules of its operation. That is, the hacking allowed is to openly access…

Notes: Will Wright mapping personal data

by Micah Redding Sun, 05 Aug 2012 23:01:35 GMT

http://lifestreamblog.com/will-wright-plans-to-gamify-our-lifestream-data/ http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/07/mf_iconswright/all/ Some interesting talk about visualizing your past and personal history.

Email is universal

by Micah Redding Thu, 02 Aug 2012 20:47:28 GMT

Lately, there has been a flurry of discussion about email, from the “email is broken” thread to the “we’re solving the wrong problem” theme. Some people want to upgrade email clients to handle email as a task-list, or make it more like lett…

The Mountain That Bested Me

by Micah Redding Thu, 19 Jul 2012 14:52:08 GMT

From my trip journal - Monday, May 21, 2012 Aguas Calientes, Peru. After a day of climbing around Machu Picchu, hiking to the Inca Bridge, and then through the many many terraces of the little stone village itself, we had a day to spend exp…

I'm back

by Micah Redding Thu, 05 Jul 2012 14:39:44 GMT

I’m back. I’ve been back in the USA for about a week now, and in that week, I’ve had to re-adjust to life in a country where walking in front of buses is not a good idea, where the primary and only signs are in English, and where I can type…

The Process

by Micah Redding Wed, 13 Jun 2012 03:50:04 GMT

I’m in the middle of a 40-day, 16-stop, 14-country tour of the world. This has become our process. Arrive at the airport. Make it through customs. Explain that no, we’re not carrying any baggage except these two backpacks. Fight off the tax…

First day in Peru

by Micah Redding Tue, 05 Jun 2012 10:56:58 GMT

I’m in the middle of a 40-day, 16 stop, 14 country tour of the world. These are my experiences. So perhaps my pen will behave. We have just missed a flight to Singapore, and I’m guessing we will be spending our first (unscheduled) night in …

Exile

by Micah Redding Tue, 29 May 2012 19:10:59 GMT

In some ways, this trip is a vacation. In other ways, it’s a self-imposed exile, in which we must slum around the world, often without food, showers, or the benefits of clean clothing. The terms of our exile are these: 40 days, almost 6 we…

Carrying Cash

by Micah Redding Mon, 28 May 2012 18:54:00 GMT

I’m in the middle of a 40-day, 16 stop, 14 country tour of the world. The most annoying thing about this trip so far has been using currency. Carrying cash does not make me feel powerful. Carrying cash makes me feel vulnerable, like a targe…

Itinerary

by Micah Redding Fri, 25 May 2012 11:47:12 GMT

I’m in the middle of a 40-day, 16 stop, 14 country tour of the world. We’re currently in Chilé. Here’s our full itinerary: Lima (LIM) May 18, 2012 04:30 AM. Cuzco (CUZ) May 19, 2012 02:00 PM. Lima (LIM) May 22, 2012 01:25 PM. Santiago (SCL)…

I don't speak the language

by Micah Redding Fri, 25 May 2012 00:02:00 GMT

I’m in the middle of a 40-day, 14-country tour of the world. Our first two countries were Peru and Chilé. I do not speak Spanish. I like not speaking the language. I keep being told that I would enjoy it better if I spoke Spanish, and could…

Something wrong with the world

by Micah Redding Mon, 07 May 2012 14:34:38 GMT

In the movie The Matrix, Morpheus prods Neo to think about his emotions over the course of his lifetime. Hadn’t he always felt out-of-place? Hadn’t he always felt that something was not quite right? Of course, the answer was yes. I think th…

The Cruel God of the Hebrew Bible

by Micah Redding Wed, 02 May 2012 17:19:51 GMT

This is a response to Hank Pellissier’s essay on the cruelty of God. My friend Lincoln has already written a response about theism in general, but I wanted to say something about the portrayal of the Hebrew scriptures as a testament to bloo…

Broadcast From The Singularity

by Micah Redding Tue, 01 May 2012 14:33:44 GMT

Since our second official episode just went up, I thought it would be good to point out that I’m doing a podcast. This podcast is about the future, the Singularity, and what it’s like to experience life on the curve. So far, we’ve had some …

Maybe I was wrong

by Micah Redding Tue, 01 May 2012 02:05:04 GMT

For several years now, I’ve argued that everything in the bible was completely fulfilled and finished almost two thousand years ago. I think I might have been wrong. My reason for the conclusion was rather simple: I, like most in the Church…

The Image of God

by Micah Redding Sat, 28 Apr 2012 17:38:05 GMT

In 1000 BC, in a world of slaves and warlords, where life was often nasty, brutish, and short, it would have been hard to imagine that humanity could ever be anything else. There was no evidence, no indication, no reason for thinking that h…

Christianity is Transhumanism

by Micah Redding Wed, 25 Apr 2012 14:34:42 GMT

Wesley J. Smith has written a short piece entitled Christian Transhumanism is an Oxymoron. For those of you who are interested in either Christianity or transhumanism, I want to make this very clear: Christianity is transhumanism. It’s not …

The Singularity: Why the Future is Closer Than You Think

by Micah Redding Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:35:34 GMT

This past Saturday, Ryan Hogan, John Yates and I delivered a presentation and panel discussion on the future of accelerating change at Nashville Podcamp. The session went well, and we had a lot of great questions and discussion from the aud…

His enemies beneath his feet...

by Micah Redding Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:40:54 GMT

For a while, I’ve been trying to puzzle out the chronology of 1 Corinthians 15:20-28, and finding it incredibly difficult. But here’s a little bit of what I’ve noticed. Hebrews 2:5-9 talks about everything being put under Jesus’ feet. 5 Fo…

Sin, Covet, Judge

by Micah Redding Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:01:03 GMT

It is very common to hear Christians define “sin” as “missing the mark”. Sin then becomes a word for any kind of imperfection or flaw, for basic human fallibility itself. And it becomes very easy to see how everybody in the whole world coul…

Miracles and the Anthropic Principle

by Micah Redding Wed, 11 Apr 2012 06:06:42 GMT

The universe appears to have been fine-tuned for life. It’s astonishing, really. The physical constants (like the strength of gravity or the number of spatial dimensions) seem to have really improbable values, and those values just happen t…

God can be trusted

by Micah Redding Mon, 09 Apr 2012 14:38:21 GMT

Once I heard someone declare that God was like an umbrella, always standing between you and all the trouble raining down. My first thought was, then he’s a pretty crappy umbrella. What’s the use of feeling protected like this, if you actual…

Why I am speaking at the Mormon Transhumanist Conference

by Micah Redding Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:40:40 GMT

Late last year, I explained why I (a non-Mormon) had joined the Mormon Transhumanist Association. I felt like religious people hadn’t been interfacing with the future to any appreciable degree, and that those who were spiritual and religiou…

Jesus the Insurgent

by Micah Redding Mon, 02 Apr 2012 13:57:33 GMT

This is the fourth in a series of essays on Christianity as Anthropology. Read the previous entries here. By the first century the entire world was under the power of the Roman Empire, the full embodiment of the domination system, the viole…

Walter Wink

by Micah Redding Thu, 22 Mar 2012 22:31:18 GMT

Walter Wink is primarily significant to me for his work in defining the concept of The Powers and tying that together with Christus Victor atonement theory. Briefly put, his idea is that the scriptural world-view is based on seeing humanity…

Aliens among us

by Micah Redding Thu, 22 Mar 2012 18:33:51 GMT

I believe there are aliens among us. That is, I believe that there are non-human creatures deeply involved in our own existence. Of course, you believe in them too. You may call them things like schools, corporations, markets, religions, fa…

The Works of The Devil

by Micah Redding Mon, 19 Mar 2012 14:29:01 GMT

For the past two weeks, I’ve been exploring the nature and rise of human evil. We’re about to move into the New Testament, but before we do, I want to make sure I’m super clear as to the problems that were plaguing humanity, and the problem…

The Flip

by Micah Redding Thu, 15 Mar 2012 13:04:51 GMT

When you flip a coin, it’s customary to ask the other person, “heads or tails?” That choice is meaningless. You picking “tails” doesn’t change the probability of you getting what you want. It could just as easily have been assigned to you b…

Ancient Israel vs The Blood Gods

by Micah Redding Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:06:38 GMT

This is the second post in a series on Christianity as Anthropology. In this, I’m sketching out in quick narrative form a synthesis of many different ideas. See my references here. My previous post described how humans became evil. Now, I w…

References for Christianity as Anthropology

by Micah Redding Sun, 11 Mar 2012 20:39:49 GMT

Most of my currently forming understanding of Christianity sees it as a confrontation with the political, systemic, and psychological forces that shaped humanity from the beginning. My understanding is a synthesis of ideas expressed most no…

Escaping Google

by Micah Redding Sun, 11 Mar 2012 04:27:13 GMT

Recently Google has changed its privacy policy, causing a lot of people to feel uneasy about the amount of search history that Google has on them. Lifehacker and the EFF have put together guides for removing your search history from Youtube…

Why are humans Evil?

by Micah Redding Tue, 06 Mar 2012 17:37:32 GMT

Some comments on a recent post brought up the question of why humans are moral. Is it because there is a God, or did we just evolve to act this way? Intriguing as that question is, I’m more interested in a different question. Why are humans…

Death and The Knowledge of Good and Evil

by Micah Redding Tue, 06 Mar 2012 17:26:53 GMT

Let’s talk about Adam and Eve and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Many people believe this story is about the first humans becoming mortal. God had warned Adam and Eve that in taking the knowledge, they would die. But the story …

Arguing about the Bible

by Micah Redding Mon, 05 Mar 2012 13:53:26 GMT

I grew up arguing about the bible. Son of a preacher-man, raised in one of the most biblically-obsessed religious groups in America, I like to think that I know how to argue it well. But the toughest argument is always the one with yourself…

Theistic Reality

by Micah Redding Wed, 29 Feb 2012 21:52:51 GMT

Theistic Reality is a term I coined (for myself, anyway) to refer to the set of expectations we would have about a reality in which God exists. Since it is nearly impossible to define what “God” means as a being, our best bet is to lay out …

The Morality of The Rational, and How We Shape Meaning from The Void

by Micah Redding Wed, 29 Feb 2012 21:29:57 GMT

I was recently talking to someone about how uncertain everything is. There are different opinions on everything - from what’s really happening in politics to the healthiest diet to follow. With so many different opinions, we could easily be…

Panentheism

by Micah Redding Fri, 24 Feb 2012 18:23:06 GMT

Panentheism is the understanding of God as intimately connected to, and yet beyond, the universe we experience. This is distinct from pantheism, which sees the universe as equivalent to God. Panentheism is an attempt to capture philosophica…

Non-Metaphysical Christianity

by Micah Redding Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:53:17 GMT

The understanding of Christianity and the scriptures as speaking directly to experienced realities, rather than trying to map metaphysical existence. This view was inspired here, and is explained here. An example of how to understand “Jesus…

Good and Evil, Paradox and Contradiction

by Micah Redding Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:12:15 GMT

Sorry things are a little slow lately. I’ve been working on some big thoughts, trying to fit them together and make them dance. But in the meantime, let me share a few thoughts about good and evil. The New Testament habitually engages in th…

The Solipsist's Fallacy

by Micah Redding Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:13:56 GMT

Solipsism is the belief that you can never truly know if anyone else is real. This is a common endpoint for philosophy, the reductio ad absurdum at the end of long chains of reasoning. It’s what Descartes was trying to get around when he wr…

The Existence of God?

by Micah Redding Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:27:50 GMT

I’m writing this for my atheist friends who see no reason or justification for believing in God - not to convince them, but to give them a window into my own thought processes, and an alternative to many of the things they’ve probably encou…

Deus Ex Machina

by Micah Redding Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:08:15 GMT

In Insurrection, Peter Rollins critiques the Deus Ex Machina. This is the god that, in ancient Greek plays, was lowered on a rope into the middle of the stage, in order to resolve the story. It’s a terrible contrivance, and we’ve probably a…

The Skulls, Bones and The Power of Law

by Micah Redding Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:31:13 GMT

The Skulls is a fictitious movie based on Yale’s notorious secret Skull and Bones society. It follows the path of a new initiate through the process of getting picked, going to clandestine meetings, engaging in rituals and tests of dedicati…

Historical Narrative Interpretation

by Micah Redding Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:30:38 GMT

The idea that the scriptures should be understood as stories and conversations arising within particular circumstances in world history. As such, they should not be interpreted as if we were reading a theological text, an encyclopedia, a se…

Wisdom

by Micah Redding Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:20:31 GMT

I need wisdom. More than anything in my life, I need to be able to see my way forward, to evaluate the choices ahead of me. I’ve always been a consumer of knowledge, someone who couldn’t leave well enough alone, who had to tease apart the i…

The Vast Economy

by Micah Redding Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:09:06 GMT

Increasingly, I have come to believe that the world is best understood as a Vast Economy, an ecosystem encompassing all the small economies we know about and measure, utilizing our every choice, from the individual to the society at large, …

I am more fundamentalist than you

by Micah Redding Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:29:20 GMT

At the beginning of the 20th century, prominent religious leaders got together and formed a list of five fundamentals - the items of belief that they thought were non-negotiable elements of Christian faith. These elements include the inspir…

Who I am

by Micah Redding Mon, 16 Jan 2012 03:12:40 GMT

I write about life on the curve of accelerating change, christianity as the anti-religion, and my attempts at adventures and excursions in the new world. I currently run two emails lists, one for my religious interests, one for my thoughts …

Why I hate religion, but love Jesus

by Micah Redding Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:34:52 GMT

This video has been making the rounds, stirring up a lot of attention and commentary, and causing at least a few people to drop the f-word into some Christian discussion lists. Go and watch it now, and then come back. I’ve been engaging wit…

Religion is practice

by Micah Redding Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:09:19 GMT

Some things take practice. But when the practice is over, we must act. Religion, as it exists throughout the world and through history, is practice. It prepares the mind with deep thoughts, meditation, and understanding. It trains you to ma…

Peter Rollins and the Deception of Living in the Moment

by Micah Redding Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:49:24 GMT

Lately I’ve been reading Peter Rollins, and in doing so, have become very suspicious of anything that might provide a false sense of security. Like every being or creature, we naturally resist change. We attempt to maintain the status quo t…

Ancient Israelite Violence and The Christian View of The Old Testament

by Micah Redding Tue, 03 Jan 2012 06:56:47 GMT

Some atheist friends of mine are having a discussion about this verse in Leviticus: If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. (Leviti…

2012 week-by-week changes

by Micah Redding Sun, 01 Jan 2012 23:26:48 GMT

Read the setup here. These are my [changes for 2012]. Week 1: Drink no soda. If anything, this experiment had a negative impact on my life. But I discovered that I really didn’t need or miss it. Week 2: A world without coffee. Argggghhh! W…

New year's resolve: change

by Micah Redding Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:11:34 GMT

This year, my only resolution is to change. I’ve made my share of resolutions, goals, and ambitions, and so my relationship with such things is firmly in the “it’s complicated” category. I may talk more about that later, but for now, let’s …

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