One of the attractions of religion for many people is that it offers the promise of immortality, if not of the body, at least of the soul. Today, many boosters of biotechnology and transhumanism are offering the same thing—but not tending to believe in the soul, they suggest that it can be attained in the body. Here is a story about one such scientist, who claims people alive today can, through the magic of biotech, live for thousands of years. Such assertions offer a corporeal “new Jerusalem,” and induce in some a faith in science as the source of salvation—sometimes called scientism—that can be as intensely devout as religious belief.
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