Global Philosophy of Religion in the Local Des Moines Community
On Saturday, September 9, from 2:00 – 4:30 pm, the Muslim Community Organization (aka Masjid an-Noor) at 1117 42nd Street, Des Moines will be hosting an open-house that includes tours of the mosque and ethnic food and booths.
Below please find a flyer for the event.
On Thursday, September 14 at 7:00 pm in Sussman Theater (Olmsted Center), Robert Geraci, Professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College and author of Temples of Modernity: Nationalism, Hinduism, and Transhumanism in South Indian Science (Lexington, 2018) and Apocalyptic AI: Visions of Heaven in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality (Oxford, 2012), will speak on “Saffron Singularity: The Global Circulation of Transhumanist Narratives.”
“Saffron Singularity: The Global Circulation of Transhumanist Narratives”: The importance of how we talk about science is often overshadowed by the outcomes of scientific research. Technologies loom in the environment and, it would appear, speak for themselves. But technological development is the result of human intentions, and the stories that we tell ourselves are an important part of scientific and technological progress: the stories help shape our worldviews, our priorities, and our politics. What we hear about AI, presently fueled by advances like generative AI and predictive texts like Dall-E and ChatGPT, is about employment, profit, and global power. It is also, perhaps surprisingly, religious. The religious promises of AI are part of a transhumanist project over a century old, in which AI has become a central technology for the development of immortal human-machine hybrids and for the next stage in cosmic evolution (often called the Singularity). These narratives draw on western religious ideas, but are now circulating across different cultural spaces, where they can be altered and reimagined, creating a global set of AI narratives. In India, the rapid proliferation of AI narratives has sparked new ways of thinking about traditional myths and gods, and these new religious ideas could well impact the development of transhumanist philosophy and even technological progress in the future.
Robert M Geraci is professor of religious studies and faculty director for veteran success at Manhattan College. He is the author of Apocalyptic AI: Visions of Heaven in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality (Oxford 2010), Virtually Sacred: Myths and Meaning in World of Warcraft and Second Life (Oxford 2014), Temples of Modernity: Nationalism, Hinduism, and Transhumanism in South Indian Science(Lexington 2018), and Futures of Artificial Intelligence: Perspectives from India and the U.S. (Oxford 2022). He has been a visiting researcher at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute, the Indian Institute of Science, and the National Institute for Advanced Studies in Bangalore, India. His research has been supported by the US National Science Foundation, the Republic of Korea National Research Foundation, the American Academy of Religion, and two Fulbright-Nehru research awards, and he is a Fellow of the International Society for Science and Religion. He enjoys hiking, kayaking, and Dungeons & Dragons.
Please see below for an audio recording of the lecture along with a video recording of its powerpoint.
And here you can view Dr. Seth Villegas’s response to Dr. Geraci’s lecture:
On Saturday April 1 at 7:30 pm, Ezan Islamic and Education Center (6206 Douglas Ave, Des Moines) is hosting an iftar dinner for the public.
This Bosnian Muslim community will first break the fast (with dates and water) and pray, after which we will all enjoy a sumptuous feast.
For this mosque, women and men pray in the same room, with women behind men. Female guests can sit behind the women, male, along the side of the room in the men’s section. (You may be asked if you want to join in the prayer; you can if you like, though certainly need not.)
No shorts or short sleeves. Women should cover hair with a scarf. Shoes should be removed upon entering the mosque.
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.
