{"product_id":"machines-for-making-gods-mormonism-transhumanism-and-worlds-without-end-hardback-9780823299355","title":"Machines for Making Gods; Mormonism, Transhumanism, and Worlds Without End (Hardback) 9780823299355","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eMachines for Making Gods\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eMormonism, Transhumanism, and Worlds Without End\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eJon Bialecki (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780823299355\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 1 March 2022\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e368 pages\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 3 cm, 0.73 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Mormon faith may seem so different from aspirations to transcend the human through technological means that it is hard to imagine how these two concerns could even exist alongside one another, let alone serve together as the joint impetus for a social movement. \u003ci\u003eMachines for Making Gods\u003c\/i\u003e investigates the tensions between science and religion through which an imaginative group of young Mormons and ex-Mormons have found new ways of understanding the world.\u003cbr\u003e The Mormon Transhumanist Association (MTA) believes that God intended humanity to achieve Mormonism's promise of theosis through imminent technological advances. Drawing on a nineteenth-century Mormon tradition of religious speculation to reimagine Mormon eschatological hopes as near-future technological possibilities, they envision such current and possible advances as cryonic preservation, computer simulation, and quantum archeology as paving the way for the resurrection of the dead, the creation of worlds without end, and promise of undergoing theosis—of becoming a god. Addressing the role of speculation in the anthropology of religion, \u003ci\u003eMachines for Making Gods\u003c\/i\u003e undoes debates about secular transhumanism's relation to religion by highlighting the differences an explicitly religious transhumanism makes.\u003cbr\u003e Charting the conflicts and resonances between secular transhumanism and Mormonism, Bialecki shows how religious speculation has opened up imaginative horizons to give birth to new forms of Mormonism, including a particular progressive branch of the faith and even such formations as queer polygamy. The book also reveals how the MTA's speculative account of God and technology together has helped to forestall some of the social pressure that comes with apostasy in much of the Mormon Intermountain West.\u003cbr\u003e A fascinating ethnography of a group with much to say about crucial junctures of modern culture, \u003ci\u003eMachines for Making Gods\u003c\/i\u003e illustrates how the scientific imagination can be better understood when viewed through anthropological accounts of myth.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003ePreface \u003c\/i\u003e  ix\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eA Note on Names and Terms\u003c\/i\u003e   xxiii\u003cbr\u003e Series Zero: \"Children of God would try to play God\"   1\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003ePart I: Dramatis personae\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e First Series: Mormonisms   55\u003cbr\u003e Second Series: Transhumanisms   76\u003cbr\u003e Third Series: Mormon Transhumanism   94\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003ePart II: Mormon\/Transhuman\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Fourth Series: Kolob runs on Domo   113\u003cbr\u003e Fifth Series: Discipline, Belief, and Speculative Religion   136\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003ePart III: Science Fictions\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Sixth Series: Freezing, Burying, Burning   161\u003cbr\u003e Seventh Series: \"as if awakening from a night's sleep\"   211\u003cbr\u003e Eighth Series: Worlds without End   240\u003cbr\u003e Ninth Series: Queer Polygamy   256\u003cbr\u003e Series: Problems, Planes, and Lines of Flight   293\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eAcknowledgments \u003c\/i\u003e  303\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eNotes \u003c\/i\u003e  307\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eBibliography \u003c\/i\u003e  327\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eIndex \u003c\/i\u003e  353\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Fordham University Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52580467310872,"sku":"9780823299355","price":81.49,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/machines-for-making-gods-mormonism-transhumanism-and-worlds-without-end-hardback-9780823299355","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}