Transhumanism is Religion for Atheists

The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET) is one of the major transhumanist Websites.  The writers there really take the nonsense of uploading minds into computers and fashioning a post humanity seriously.

I have opined often that transhumanism is a religion, that is, a rather sad (in my view) and desperate attempt to find the benefits of faith in the sterility of a purely nihilistic and materialistic world view. And now, a little more evidence supporting tht opinion. The IEET did a poll and found that most of its readers are atheists and agnostics.  From, “Large Majority of IEET Readers Are Atheists/Agnostics:”

A recent survey revealed that 70.66% of IEET readers were either atheist (59.88%) or agnostic (10.78%). The remaining 29.34% religionists were divided between Christian (10.78%), Buddhist (3.59%), Muslim (3.59%), Cosmist (1.8%), Jewish (1.2%), and Mormon (1.2%). An additional 7.19% reported that they adhered to other belief systems; PanPsychism and Raelism were mentioned.

Well, Raelism is also a materialistic flying saucer religion, with the perk of open sex availability. I have never heard of “Cosmist,” and as for Buddhism, some transhumanists—-J. Hughes, for example—try to associate themselves with that religion. But transhumanist Buddhist is an oxymoron: Ts believe that materialism is all that there is while Bs hold that the material world is entirely an illusion.

I believe human beings are hard wired to believe. Our whole history as a species shows a yearning for TRUTH, goodness, transcendence, meaning, morality, hope, and purpose—the need for which religion provides.  Having generally rejected faith and the deeper realms, transhumanists seek to fill the dark hole left in soul or psyche (take your pick) from embracing the reductionist worldview in which all that really exists are atoms and molecules that come together in novel shapes, forms, and functions.