Why Christians Should Not Embrace Extreme Transhumanism

Abstract Extreme transhumanism involves prolonging our existence by sustaining our mental life without all of our body’s organic parts. Christians should be wary of these aims for metaphysical, moral, and theological reasons. The metaphysical qualms are based on our being human animals rather than distinct persons. So, extreme transhumanism will eliminate rather than enhance us because animals cannot become inorganic. Even if we are persons distinct from our animals, the moral worry is that extreme enhancements of persons will kill their human animals. Appeals to double effect in making such killings unintentional will fail as one cannot intend to so reconstruct a person without intending lethally to deconstruct the animal constituting the person. The theological concerns arise because inorganic enhancements of the person could produce the death of an animal composed of organic parts. The death of the animal would mean the overlapping person would also cease to instantiate life processes. This would initiate the onset of a divinely ordained intermediate state between death and resurrection.