My Moment of Zen...

Years ago my search for meaning ended with the frightening yet liberating conclusion that all efforts of the Human to find meaning in the universe will ultimately fail because no such meaning exists. The Human has therefore the freedom and responsibility to give his life a meaning which is harmonious with his being, other beings and nature.

I found this meaning in posthumanism, an ethical philosophy which affirms the dignity and worth of all persons, based on our ability to determine what is right using the qualities innate to personhood, particularly rationality and compassion. This form of posthumanism, however, should not to be confused with transhumanism, an ideology of technology I adopted much later.

During this search, one question kept puzzling me: Since knowledge of the existence or non-existence of God is impossible and irrelevant to human welfare, why does the Human have a visceral need to believe in a higher power?

Beyond blaming it on a catastrophic failure in critical thinking or the mental conditioning that comes with being raised and living in a particular family and society, I found one answer in biotheology, a protoscience which explains the evolutionary and neuro-psychological origins of the spiritual impulse. According to biotheologians, the Human animal may be 'hardwired' to seek solace in mysticism to cope with existential angst.

Now that I am a transhumanist, a new question puzzles me that he is also being asked and actually researched by Dr. James Hughes: As neurologists identify the parts of the brain implicated in so-called spiritual experiences, what will be the effect on religion once divine awe, ecstatic bliss, meditative absorption, compassion, and renunciative detachment are all available in a pill or with the flick of a switch?