Religion and the New Technologies Edited by Noreen Herzfeld Printed Edition of the Special Issue Published in Religions www.mdpi.com/journal/religions Religion and the New Technologies Special Issue Editor Noreen Herzfeld MDPI • Basel • Beijing • Wuhan • Barcelona • Belgrade Special Issue Editor Noreen Herzfeld St. John’s University USA Editorial Office MDPI AG St. Alban-Anlage 66 Basel, Switzerland This edition is a reprint of the Special Issue published online in the open access journal Religions (ISSN 2077-1444) from in 2017 (available at: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues/new_technologies). For citation purposes, cite each article independently as indicated on the article page online and as indicated below: Author 1, Author 2. Article title. Journal Name. Year. Article number/page range. 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Table of Contents About the Special Issue Editor ..................................................................................................................... v Noreen Herzfeld Introduction: Religion and the New Technologies Reprinted from: Religions 2017, 8(7), 129; doi: 10.3390/rel8070129 ......................................................... 1 Ted Peters Should CRISPR Scientists Play God? Reprinted from: Religions 2017, 8(4), 61; doi: 10.3390/rel8040061 ........................................................... 4 Brian Patrick Green The Catholic Church and Technological Progress: Past, Present, and Future Reprinted from: Religions 2017, 8(6), 106; doi: 10.3390/rel8060106 ......................................................... 15 Whitney A. Bauman Incarnating the Unknown: Planetary Technologies for a Planetary Community Reprinted from: Religions 2017, 8(4), 65; doi: 10.3390/rel8040065 ........................................................... 32 Cory Andrew Labrecque The Glorified Body: Corporealities in the Catholic Tradition Reprinted from: Religions 2017, 8(9), 166; doi: 10.3390/rel8090166 ......................................................... 42 Jeffrey C. Pugh The Disappearing Human: Gnostic Dreams in a Transhumanist World Reprinted from: Religions 2017, 8(5), 81; doi: 10.3390/rel8050081 ........................................................... 51 Levi Checketts New Technologies—Old Anthropologies? Reprinted from: Religions 2017, 8(4), 52; doi: 10.3390/rel8040052 ........................................................... 61 Brent Waters Willful Control and Controlling the Will: Technology and Being Human Reprinted from: Religions 2017, 8(5), 90; doi: 10.3390/rel8050090 ........................................................... 70 Calvin Mercer Resurrection of the Body and Cryonics Reprinted from: Religions 2017, 8(5), 96; doi: 10.3390/rel8050096 ........................................................... 77 Michael Fuller Big Data, Ethics and Religion: New Questions from a New Science Reprinted from: Religions 2017, 8(5), 88; doi: 10.3390/rel8050088 ........................................................... 86 Sara Lumbreras The Limits of Machine Ethics Reprinted from: Religions 2017, 8(5), 100; doi: 10.3390/rel8050100 ......................................................... 97 iii Tracy J. Trothen Moral Bioenhancement through An Intersectional Theo-Ethical Lens: Refocusing on Divine Image- Bearing and Interdependence Reprinted from: Religions 2017, 8(5), 84; doi: 10.3390/rel8050084 ........................................................... 107 Ionut Untea Awe and Artifacts: Religious and Scientific Endeavor Reprinted from: Religions 2017, 8(5), 85; doi: 10.3390/rel8050085 ........................................................... 121 iv About the Special Issue Editor Noreen Herzfeld, Nicholas and Bernice Reuter Professor of Science and Religion at St. John’s University and the College of St. Benedict, holds degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics from The Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. in Theology from The Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. Herzfeld is the author of In Our Image: Artificial Intelligence and the Human Spirit (2002), Technology and Religion: Remaining Human in a Co-Created World (2009), and The Limits of Perfection in Technology, Religion, and Science (2010), as well as numerous articles exploring the intersection between religion and modern technology. v religions Editorial Introduction: Religion and the New Technologies Noreen Herzfeld College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University, 207 Peter Engel Hall, St. John’s University, Collegeville, MN 56321, USA; [email protected] Received: 17 July 2017; Accepted: 19 July 2017; Published: 21 July 2017 In April 2000, Wired published a controversial article entitled “Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us” by Joy (2000), co-founder and chief scientist at Sun Microsystems. In this article, Joy called for a moratorium on research in three technological fields—artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and genetic engineering. He noted that, while we were poised to make rapid technological advances in each of these three areas, our understanding of the ethical questions these technologies would inevitably raise was lagging far behind. Fearing that a convergence of these technologies could be deadly, Joy writes, “We are being propelled into this new century with no plan, no control, no brakes. Have we already gone too far down the path to alter course? I don’t believe so, but we aren’t trying yet, and the last chance to assert control—the fail-safe point—is rapidly approaching.” The intervening years since Joy’s warning have indeed brought significant advances in each of these technologies—Deep Learning, nanobots, CRISPER-Cas9, just to name a few. While a moratorium on their development was never in the cards, Joy was right about one thing. These technologies have huge implications for how human life will unfold, indeed, for what it might mean to be human in the coming decades. Each holds great promise—for new medical cures, for new materials, and for new insights into our world. They will bring great wealth to some and could ease the human condition for many. However, as Joy warned, each of these technologies also brings the possibility of great peril. Science fiction writers have explored the worst-case scenarios. But we need not go to extremes to find reasons for concern. Artificial intelligence may not surpass human intelligence in the foreseeable future, but it is likely to soon displace many workers from their jobs. Nanotechnology may not end in the whole world converted to “grey goo,” as engineer and futurist Eric Drexler once suggested, but we do not know what long term effects nanoparticles, and other technological innovations, could have on the environment. Genetic manipulation may not end in biological warfare, but it is likely to exacerbate the divide between those who can afford it and those who cannot. For good or ill, these technologies will change the way we work, live, think, and love. Thus, it makes sense to approach them from a religious perspective. How do these technologies change our understanding of ourselves, our place in the world, our relationships to one another, the way we face death, or our relationship to God? These are not new questions. Since the first humans fashioned weapons and clothing and controlled fire, humans have been using technology to master our environment. French philosopher Jacques Ellul describes the purpose of technology as “to defend man” (Ellul 1964, p. 405). Through technology we seek shelter from the elements and from predation, cure from sickness, and ways to make our lives safer, longer, and more comfortable. But our technologies go beyond a defensive role. Early humans also mixed paint and fashioned brushes in order to express their awe of the natural world. Technology provides us with means for communication and creation. Through the three new technologies Joy mentions, we seek not only to make our lives safer and easier but also to create new intelligences or to use genes or atoms as the building blocks of a species or material that has never existed before. In so doing, we risk making fundamental changes to both the world around us and to our very nature as human beings. Are we, therefore, “playing God?” Is this a proper role for us? If it is, how do we exercise such tremendous power wisely, with humility and compassion? Religions 2017, 8, 129 1 www.mdpi.com/journal/religions Religions 2017, 8, 129 Each of the authors in this volume grapple with one or more of these questions. Ted Peters examines this charge of “playing God” through the lens of CRISPR-Cas9, a technique that allows us to easily edit the genomic sequence, thus opening the door, not only to cures for a variety of genetically based illnesses, but also to the making of new creatures and the enhancing of our own genetic code. Who should regulate this technology? Should religious bodies have a say? Brian Green points out that through much of history the Catholic (and, thus, Christian) church