Date of Award
5-2015
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts in Religious Studies (MARS)
Department
Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies
First Advisor
Dr. Onoriode Ekeh
Abstract
Transhumanism is a philosophical, political, and social movement that asserts that human well-being will be dramatically improved through the radical integration of new technologies into the human body and/or through the replacement of the organic human body with a synthetic 'body.' Ray Kurzweil, a dynamic, articulate, and leading transhumanist, offers an anthropological understanding that represents the main strand of transhumanist though about the human person: humans are patterns of information that can adjust themselves, and overcoming limitations is the defining human characteristic. This anthropology is implicit in many aspects of Western civilization already: law, medicine, and the military are a few examples of where it currently exists. This anthropology is attractive to modern people because of its promise of self-enhancement, but it is dangerous because it objectifies the human person, especially the body. The Roman Catholic Church's anthropology, as explained in the document Gaudium et spes, offers a more authentic understanding of the human person, and the Church must act now to share its anthropology with both Catholics and non-Catholics in order to better fulfill its mission.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
St.Onge, Joshua, "Shepherding Electric Sheep: A Roman Catholic Response to the Emerging Challenge of Transhumanism" (2015). Master of Arts in Religious Studies (M.A.R.S. Theses). 27.
https://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/rel_theses/27
Included in
Biotechnology Commons, Catholic Studies Commons, Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons
Comments
Master's thesis submitted to the faculty of the Theology and Religious Studies Department of Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, Connecticut, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Arts of Religious Studies.