Author: Clayton Mitchell

On Sunday, December 4, members of the local Soka Gakkai International community (which practices Japanese Nichiren Buddhism) will visit to Drake University to speak about their religious faith and show how they practice it. The event, which will take place in the second-floor “Reading Room” in Cowles Library from 4:00 to 5:00 pm, will feature an introduction to Buddhism and a demonstration of how the local Soka Gakkai community conducts their meetings, especially their practice of chanting and their discussion of Buddhist study topics. Attendees are invited to participate or just to observe. This is the fourth “Meet My Religious Neighbor” event of the semester, most of which feature “religions without sites.” (MMRN is co-programmed by CultureALL, the Des Moines Area Religious Council, and Interfaith Alliance of Iowa.)

Below please find more information about the event from the local SGI community. 

Who we are and how we gather

“The Soka Gakkai International-USA (SGI-USA) is part of a global community-based network of more than 11 million people in 192 countries and territories that practice the humanistic philosophy of NichirenBuddhism centered on respect for the dignity of life. 

As members of the SGI, we are committed to dialogue and nonviolence based on the conviction that individual happiness and the realization of peace are inextricably linked.

The SGI-USA, the most diverse Buddhist community in the U.S, gathers monthly for small-scale discussion meetings where we study Buddhist principles and share our experiences of applying Nichiren Buddhism to the challenges of life.“ (Source:About Our Community – SGI USA (sgi-usa.org) 

Representatives from the local SGI-USA will demonstrate how we hold our meetings, including chanting, an introduction to Buddhism, and open discussion of a Buddhist study topic.

In Fall 2022 (Oct. 28-30, the Iowa Interfaith Conference was hosted by Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa. Participating schools visited the Tristate Islamic Center, a Catholic Worker Farm, Native American burial mounds, a Greek Orthodox church, and a non-denominational church. Students also engaged in interfaith learning, discussion, exchange, and engagement on Loras’s campus. Those who arrived a day early (on Oct. 27) participated in the monthly meeting of the Children of Abraham.

On March 18-20, 2020, nearly two dozen global-critical philosophers of religion will participate in a NEH-supported mini-conference that explores alternative sets of topics, methods, and aims for global-critical philosophy of religion. Presentations will later be developed as essays and collected into a volume to be published with Bloomsbury. Below is a list of the papers delivered at the conference:

East Asian Philosophies of Religion

Leah Kalmanson, “Investigating Ultimate Things: Ru Philosophy of Religion”

Louis Komjathy, “Thinking about ‘Tradition’ from a Classical Daoist Perspective”

Gereon Kopf, “The Mummy of PoR: Kūkai’s Discussion of the 10 Hearts/Minds as Global/Critical Approach”

Jin Park, “Philosophy of Religion from the Perspective of Modern East Asian Buddhism”

Li-Hsiang (Lisa) Rosenlee, “Using Gender as a Category of Analysis to Interrogate Confucianism”

African and American Philosophies of Religion

Fritz Detwiler, “Seeing through Native Eyes: A Lakota approach to Philosophy of Religion”

Herbert Moyo, “The Nguni Philosophy of Life and Afterlife as Imbedded in Rituals for the Living Dead in the Christianized Nguni Cultural Context”

Ayodeji Ogunnaike “Get Your ‘Head’ in the Game: Philosophizing about Religion from Yoruba Perspectives”

South Asian Philosophies of Religion

Marie-Hélène Gorisse, “‘The Self is my right conduct’: A Jain approach to philosophy of religion”

Parimal Patil, “Indian Buddhist Philosophy of Religion?”

Agnieszka Rostalska, “Contextualising ‘Self’ and ‘God in Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika Tradition”

Nikky Singh, “Sikh Philosophy of Religion: Truth, Beauty, Perpetual Joy”

Abrahamic and Neoplatonic Philosophies of Religion

Eric Dickman, “The Two Textbooks in Medieval Cordoba”

Cody Dolinsek, “St. Augustine’s Ambivalent Relationship to Global-Critical Philosophy of Religion: Exclusivity, Love, and Possible Augustinian Integration”

Timothy Knepper, “Neglected Topics amidst the Platonic Curricula of Late-ancient Neoplatonists”

Oludamini Ogunnaike, “God is Greater: Islamic ‘Philosophies of Religion’ in Theology, Philosophy, and Sufism”

Contemporary Philosophies of Religion

Purushottama Bilimoria, “‘Postcolonial’ is just another elitist flatulence in Philosophy of Religion”

Jeremy Hustwit, “Decentered Philosophy of Religion and the Problems of Process Metaphysics”

Nathan Loewen, “Whose Textbook? What Methods? Femininist PoR.”

Aaron Simmons, “Livin on a Prayer: Existentialism, Phenomenology, and The Practice of Philosophy of Religion”

Kevin Schilbrack, “The Conceptual Limit of a Global Philosophy of Religion”

Laura Weed, “Embodied Neuroscience of Religion”

Wesley Wildman, “Cognitive Science of Religion and the Philosophy of Religion”

On Thursday, November 17, we welcome Ron Cole-Turner, the former H. Parker Sharp Professor of Theology and Ethics at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, to Drake to give the third Fall 2022 lecture in our “Transhumanism, Immortality, and Religion” series. The lecture, entitled “Seeking Immortality: Technology, Theology, and Endless Life,” will be held in the second-floor Reading Room of Cowles Library at 7:00 pm. 

Ron Cole-Turner taught at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary until his retirement in 2021. His research focuses on the theological implications of technological modification and enhancement of humanity, and he is the author of numerous articles on transhumanism and its significance for religion. Among his books are The End of Adam and Eve: Theology and the Science of Human Origins (2016) and Transhumanism and Transcendence: Christian Hope in an Age of Technological Enhancement (edited, 2011). He has served as co-chair of the American Academy of Religion Unit on Human Enhancement and Transhumanism and on the Executive Committee of the International Society for Science and Religion. 

Once confined to myth and religion, the quest for immortality has now become a technological goal. What if we really could eliminate biological aging or upload the subjectively conscious human mind? Feasible or not, the fact that a technological quest for immortality is underway raises intriguing questions for Christian theology. Does technological immortality challenge or threaten Christian ideas of eternal life in the resurrection? Core features of the Christian view, such as resurrection as transformation and glorification, participation in the divine community, and endless advance into infinite mystery, will be described in order to contrast Christianity’s vision from technology’s hopes.

Here is a video recording of Ron Cole-Turner’s lecture:

And here is a recording of Seth Villegas’s response:

On April 20 at 7:00 pm, in the Reading Room of Cowles Library, Zhange Ni, Associate Professor of Religion and Literature at Virginia Tech University, will lecture on “Gender, Sexuality, and Digital Immortality: What Would Women’s Fantasy Novels from Contemporary China Contribute to Transhumanism?”

Zhange Ni received her Ph.D. in Religion and Literature at University of Chicago Divinity School (2009). She is currently an associate professor in the Department of Religion and Culture, Virginia Tech. She was a research associate of the Women’s Studies in Religion Program at Harvard Divinity School (2010-2011) and a research fellow at theNantes Institute for Advanced Study in France(2021-2022). She has published The Pagan Writes Back: When World Religion Meets World Literature (2015), Religion and the Arts in The Hunger Games (2020),  and articles in journals such as Journal of Religion, Journal of American Academy of Religion, Literature and Theology, and Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science. She is working on a new book manuscript, tentatively entitled The Cult of Fiction in the Age of the Internet: Chinese Religions, Digital Capitalism, and the Fantasy Boom in Contemporary China. One particular popular genre she has been studying is “immortality cultivation” (xiuzhen, 修真), which encapsulates transhumanist imaginaries with Chinese characteristics.

“Female Alchemy in an Informatic Cosmos: Religion, Gender, and Transhumanism in Chinese Women’s “Immortality Cultivation” Novels. ”Contemporary China, a major player in the global game of digital capitalism, is witnessing a boom of genre fiction produced and consumed in an interactive online environment. One of the most popular genres is “immortality cultivation” (xiuzhen, 修真), a term borrowed from the Daoist tradition of “inner alchemy” (neidan 內丹) and originally referring to the purge of the human body of its imperfection through medicinal, meditative, and moral practices to make it immortal. Immortality cultivation novels today have radically reimagined Daoist alchemy, fusing it with established and emerging bio-digital technologies to enact transhumanist visions of Chinese characteristics. The main difference between American transhumanism—a social and intellectual movement striving to transcend the limitations of the human body, or even any physical form altogether, through technological means—and the Chinese quest for immortality, currently a thought experiment conducted in the realm of popular fiction, is that the latter does not endeavor to abandon the body. Instead, the body is valued as a microcosm resonating with larger environments such as the state and the cosmos. As the body is to be preserved, sexual and other intersectional differences that mark the body are not to be transcended. A separate tradition of “female alchemy” (nvdan, 女丹) aimed at enhancing the female body emerged in the seventeenth century. In the twenty-first century, a particular sub-type of cultivation novels, written and read primarily by women, are grouped under the title “immortality cultivation of the female frequency” (nvpin xiuzhen, 女频修真). These novels conscientiously wrestle with issues of gender, sexuality, and reproduction in their transhumanist imaginaries. They are worthy of our critical attention because they are directly indebted to the efforts made by Chinese alchemists and scientists to merge traditional Chinese cosmology and information sciences. Even more interestingly, these novels may help us to reconcile transhumanism and material feminism that is critical of the mainstream transhumanist rejection of body, nature, and matter. If we adopt an informatic cosmology that truly disrupts the divides between body and mind, nature and culture, matter and spirit, the achievement of immortality does not have to take the “mind deeper than matter” route. Materiality consists of dynamic and indeterminate processes and promises an alternative type of immortality. 

Here is the PPT and audo of Dr. Ni’s lecture:

And here is a video recording of Seth Villegas’s response to Dr. Ni’s lecture:

On Sunday, April 16, we will celebrate the annual holiday of Vaisakhi from roughly 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm with the Sikh gurdwara in West Des Moines, the Iowa Sikh Association (1115 Walnut St.).

The service will include many of the elements of a typical Sunday worship service: the signing of hymns (kirtan), reading from sacred scripture (Guru Granth Sahib), community prayers (aardas), and the sharing of the sacred sacrament (karah prashad, the so-called “holy pudding”), after which a free vegetarian meal will be served (langar). Dress modestly, remove shoes at door, and don a head scarf (available at the door for both women and men). Also, refrain from pointing outstretched legs toward the holy book/altar.

On Thursday, February 23, from 7:00–8:30 pm, in the Reading Room of Cowles Library, we host our first scholar lecture of the semester in our “Transhumanism, Religion, and Immortality Series.” Gereon Kopf, Professor of Religion at Luther College, will speak about “Trans-humanism, AI, and Memory: Zen Buddhist Ruminations on Digital Immortalities.”

Transhumanism is not a controversial topic in Japanese Buddhism. To the contrary, one could say that many Buddhist texts advance a transhumanistic, or as Masao Abe would say, “de-anthropocentric” worldview. The idea of the six realms of saṃsāra imply that human existence is not separate from but continuous with many life forms. Many forms of Mahāyāna Buddhism believe that the divine, whether it is Kannon Bodhisattva or the Buddha Mahāvairocana, can take one any form, and Japanese Buddhists celebrate memorial service not only for departed human beings but also for animals and objects. Subsequently, it is of no surprise that, in general, Japanese Buddhists are quite open to the idea of digital immortality and trans-humanism. 

In this presentation, I will explore, first, the practice of digital immortality in the context of Buddhist beliefs and practice concerning death and the afterlife in Japan and, second, introduce an innovative heuristic schema based on Japanese Buddhist philosophy to understand digital immortalities and trans-humanism in general. Concretely, my presentation will consist of four sections introducing 1) the context: beliefs and practices concerning death and the beyond in Japan, 2) the new landscape: the role of AI and digital immortality in Japanese religion, 3) the conception of digital memory as 3rd, 1st, 2nd, and 4th person memories, and, finally, 4) the attempt to conceptualize the relationship between AI and human beings. It is my hope that this heuristic schema will contribute to the general discussion on digital immortality in particular and trans-humanism in general. 

Here is a video of the lecture:

https://vimeo.com/815054622

On Sunday, February 19, from 3:00–5:00 pm, we kick off our Spring 2023 programming with “Roads to Religion,” a two-hour open house at which visitors can meet members of 30 local religious communities collectively representing 10 religious traditions. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held on the upper floor (Parents Hall) of the Olmsted Center on Drake’s campus. The room will be set up like a map of the metro area, with the participating communities located accordingly. Visitors will receive a map and guide to the communities in the hall. Food and beverages will be served by Drake’s food service. Parking is available in the Olmsted Lot, which is located on the north side of University Ave. in between 28^th and 29^th Streets.

Thanks to Jim Zeller for all the pics below (except the first one, which is Catalina’s):

On May 11, from 7:00–8:30pm in the Reading Room of Cowles Library, we host the third lecture of the semester, “Sexbots Playing the Imitation Game: Mormonism, Transhumanism, and the Turing Test as Trolley Prize,” by Jon Bialecki, Lecturer in Anthropology, University of California-San Diego. 

Jon Bialecki, J.D., 1997, Ph.D., is a continuing lecturer in the UCSD department of anthropology. His first monograph, A Diagram for Fire: Miracles and Variation in an American Charismatic Movement, is a study of the miraculous and differentiation in American religion, with a focus on ethics, politics, language, and economic practices; it was awarded the 2017 Sharon Stephens Prize by the American Ethnological Society and Honorable Mention in the 2018 Clifford Geertz Prize by the Society for the Anthropology of Religion. A second book, Machines for Making Gods: Mormonism, Transhumanism, and Worlds Without End, addresses religious transhumanism, and was published 2022 by Fordham University Press.

With recent public attention to advancements in generative text programs such as Chat-GPT and Bing/Sydney, the ‘Turing Test’ has returned as an object of discussion. What these discussions, mostly centered around anxieties concerning whether these artificial intelligences are sentient, obscure is the fact that the Turing Test is not just an answer to the question as to whether “machines can really think.” The Turing Test is also implicitly a test of what moral obligation we may owe an artificial intelligence. This talk lays bare this aspect of the Turing Test through a presentation of Mormon transhumanists’ debates regarding (admittedly hypothetical) sexbots and similar artificial life forms; Mormon Transhumanists tend to be sharply opposed to the creation of such entities — but not for the reasons that one might expect.

Here is a recording of Prof. Bialecki’s lecture:

And here is a video recording of Seth Villegas’s response to Dr. Bialecki:

On Sunday, March 19 from 11:00 am–1:00 pm (roughly), we will join the Hindu Temple and Cultural Center (33916 155th Lane, Madrid) in the annual celebration of Holi. Guests will be able to tour the temple, observe the Holi fire ritual (Holika Dahan), throw colored powered at one another, and dance. (Please dress accordingly if you are going to participate in the throwing of colors.) Lunch is available for purchase from the temple. (This event is part of the “Meet My Religious Neighbor” series, which is co-programmed with CultureALL, the Des Moines Area Religious Council, and Interfaith Alliance of Iowa.)