of Faith
Transhuman The Altars
Modern Mirror for Psychology Poetry
Art
Gallery
Technology the Soul
Transhumanism and the
Image of God
Jacob Shatzer
Shatzer: These are two terms that are relat-
ed and sometimes overlap. The best way that
I try to explain the basic difference between
them is both are working with this idea that
we can and should move beyond what we
currently think of as human. Posthumanism
is the destination of what that might be
beyond the human. Transhumanism focuses
on the process, the desire, the movement
towards that goal.
So when we say posthuman and some-
thing new, we’re not discussing the resur-
rected body then, right?
No, no. These are usually… well, there are
some Christians that are engaging these
ideas more and more in a positive way, but
most of the time and especially as the dis-
cussion of these terms has evolved over
the past twenty to thirty years, it’s usually
from an atheistic standpoint of what we as
humans should do to extend our lives, to
overcome things that are perceived as prob-
lems and what it means to be human. Fixing
the glitches in the system or even rebuilding
the system altogether.
Did God do the job right the first time? Did he create humans to be what we should be and
to grow in that direction or are we to determine a deferent course as we develop technolo-
gies that develop faster now than we have time to think them through and decide whether
they are always the best moral choice. Let’s have a conversation with Jason Shatzer and
think about where we stand on these issues.
EOF: Let’s just start with a couple of terms so that we can get the reader on the same
page with us. Can you discuss a little bit about transhumanism and posthumanism?
Yeah, as humans we are very good at fix-
ing those kinds of things. As I was read-
ing your book, I came to the discussion
where it’s linking everyday technology
usage and transhumanism. I found it dis-
turbing and really frightening how some
of that technology use actually has the
possibility of changing us both emotion-
ally, which most people are aware of, but
neurologically, as well. Could you elabo-
rate a little bit about that issue?
Yeah, certainly. One of the things I’m try-
ing to do with the book is to deal with this
task for most Christians, this idea of trans-
humanism and posthumanism. We think
[Christians], ”no, we don’t want that. We
believe that we are being transformed in
the image of Christ and that Christ brings
healing and hope and things like that. We
aren’t interested in the idea of transhuman-
ism and posthumanism.” But the more that
I dug into the logic behind transhumanism
and posthumanism, the more I realized that
actually, the way that we engage with our
everyday technology is a lot more transhu-
“... it’s just changing the
way that we interact with
people around us, with the
environment around us,
what we value in life, with
how we experience reality,
how we experience experi-
ences.”
man and posthuman than we think. We are
buying into these values bit by bit. Without
examination we just take on the progress
that’s all around us. Especially the way that
we use digital technology and smart phones,
just because of how interwoven these are