The US Religious Public and Radical Human Enhancements

ABSTRACT A radical enhancement to the human body or brain is defined as giving human capabilities that no past or present human has possessed. These are being developed by scientists and bioengineers and backed by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. This article reports on the first study of the US religious public's views of radical enhancements using a nationally representative survey. Church‐attending conservative Protestants are more opposed to enhancement—and atheists/agnostics are more supportive—than are the religiously indifferent. These differences are fully explained by three secular ideologies previous studies have found to be important in studies of biotechnology. Additionally, restricting analysis to variation among Christians, theological beliefs about the role of humans in the natural world that cross traditions also explain differences in support and opposition. However, among Christians it is secular ideologies, not theological beliefs or religious identities, that explain support or opposition to radical enhancement.