{"product_id":"machines-for-making-gods-jon-bialecki-9780823299355","title":"Machines for Making Gods: Mormonism, Transhumanism, and Worlds Without End","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Mormon faith may seem so different from aspirations to transcend the human through technological means that it is hard to imagine how these two concerns could even exist alongside one another, let alone serve together as the joint impetus for a social movement. \u003ci\u003eMachines for Making Gods\u003c\/i\u003e investigates the tensions between science and religion through which an imaginative group of young Mormons and ex-Mormons have found new ways of understanding the world. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe Mormon Transhumanist Association (MTA) believes that God intended humanity to achieve Mormonism's promise of theosis through imminent technological advances. Drawing on a nineteenth-century Mormon tradition of religious speculation to reimagine Mormon eschatological hopes as near-future technological possibilities, they envision such current and possible advances as cryonic preservation, computer simulation, and quantum archeology as paving the way for the resurrection of the dead, the creation of worlds without end, and promise of undergoing theosis--of becoming a god. Addressing the role of speculation in the anthropology of religion, \u003ci\u003eMachines for Making Gods\u003c\/i\u003e undoes debates about secular transhumanism's relation to religion by highlighting the differences an explicitly religious transhumanism makes. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eCharting the conflicts and resonances between secular transhumanism and Mormonism, Bialecki shows how religious speculation has opened up imaginative horizons to give birth to new forms of Mormonism, including a particular progressive branch of the faith and even such formations as queer polygamy. The book also reveals how the MTA's speculative account of God and technology together has helped to forestall some of the social pressure that comes with apostasy in much of the Mormon Intermountain West. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA fascinating ethnography of a group with much to say about crucial junctures of modern culture, \u003ci\u003eMachines for Making Gods\u003c\/i\u003e illustrates how the scientific imagination can be better understood when viewed through anthropological accounts of myth.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Jon Bialecki\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 082329935X\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780823299355\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Fordham University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/01\/2022\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 368\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.55lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 1.00d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/01\/2023","brand":"Jon Bialecki","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":43987079790847,"sku":"9780823299355","price":125.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_c287fa3d-96ec-429c-abca-2a7a542a634f.jpg?v=1683286891","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/machines-for-making-gods-jon-bialecki-9780823299355","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}