On Thursday, October 20, members of the local Jain community will visit Drake University to speak about Jainism and conduct Jain practices. The event, which will take place on the lower floor of the Olmstead building, inside of Sussman Theater. We will start at 5:30 pm, and will feature several presentations, darshan (sacred viewing of a Jain Tirthankara), aarti (sacred waving of flame), and Jain vegetarian “snacks.” This is the second “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.)
The lecture, titled “The Desire to Upload: Digital Immortality and the Transhumanist Push for Radical Life-Extension,” will be given by Seth Villegas on September 29 at 7:00 pm in Sussman Theater (Olmsted Center, Drake University).
Seth Villegas is a PhD candidate at Boston University, specializing in the dialogue between religion and science. His research focuses on a movement called transhumanism, which seeks to radically change the human condition through technology. Seth’s dissertation examines the ethics of transhumanist life-extension projects, such as cryonics and mind uploading. He serves as a consultant for the ethics requirements for Boston University’s new Computing and Data Sciences Unit and as a research fellow for the non-profit organization, Center for Mind and Culture. Seth hosts a podcast on technology and ethics, called DigEthix.
Seth Villegas’ lecture will discuss life-extension as one of the core advocacies of transhumanism. Transhumanist life-extension projects fall into three categories of immortality: biological immortality, cybernetic immortality, and digital immortality. This talk will argue that digital immortality is the real endpoint of transhumanist thinking because it represents the best way for transhumanists to satisfy their values. In addition, it appears to be one of the only ways that present day transhumanists may be able to transform into the immortal posthumans that they believe technology will make possible.
Below you will find both a recording of Seth’s lecture from October and a video Response to Ron Cole Turner’s lecture.
This year’s “Iowa Interfaith Conference” will be hosted by Drake University on April 8-10. Participants will learn about interfaith leadership and religious literacy, visit places of worship throughout greater Des Moines, and meet student interfaith leaders from other universities and colleges.
SCHEDULE
Friday, April 8, 7:00—9:00pm: reception, poster session, and Hindu bhajan at the Mercy Holiday Inn
Saturday, April 9, 9:00am–12:00pm: interactive sessions on interfaith leadership and religious literacy at Drake University (Meredith Hall)
Saturday, April 9, 4:30–9:00pm: site visits to Wat Phothisophan, Hindu Temple and Cultural Center, Islamic and Cultural Center “Bosniak” and es-Selam Mosque (see the Meet My Religious Neighbor tab for more info about each)
Sunday, April 10, 9:00am–12:00pm: interactive sessions on interfaith leadership and religious literacy at Drake University (Meredith Hall)
At this conference, you will have an opportunity to share a personally meaningful faith experience, practice, or belief. Ideally, by identifying a moment in your life in which you discovered some insight about your religious tradition, community, or life. This narrative will be around 200-300 words. To share your initial ideas about your story, please go to the conference registration site.
For more information or to attend, please contact Timothy Knepper at tim.knepper@drake.edu, Professor of Philosophy and Director of The Comparison Project at Drake University.
IS GOD THE MAKER OF THE WORLD? HINDU PROOFS AND JAIN AND BUDDHIST DISPROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF ‘GOD'” (ISHARVA)”
Tuesday, March 22, 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Drake University, Olmsted Center, Sussman Theater
MEET THE SPEAKERS
Marie-Hélène Gorisse
Marie-Hélène Gorisse is a Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Birmingham in the project “Global Philosophy of Religion” supported by the John Templeton Foundation. She specializes in Jainism and in the way its epistemology and hermeneutics developed in dialogue with other South Asian philosophico-religious traditions. She also works on the contemporary relevance of Jainism as a contributor to global philosophy.
Agnieszka Rostalska
Agnieszka Rostalska is Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Ghent University, Belgium, where she pursues a project Cross-cultural Conceptions of the Self: South Asia, Africa, and East Asia (awarded by University of Birmingham’s “Global Philosophy of Religion” project, supported by the John Templeton Foundation). She specializes in Indian and Cross-Cultural Philosophy with a focus on the debates over authority and social justice by philosophers in India and contemporary philosophers in the field of social epistemology.
For more information or to attend, please contact Timothy Knepper at tim.knepper@drake.edu, Professor of Philosophy and Director of The Comparison Project at Drake University.
