Lincoln Cannon

The scriptures say a lot about God. God is the greatest intelligence (Abraham 3:19). God has a tangible body (D&C 130:22). God works within a community of Gods (Abraham 4:1). And God is present in and through the world itself (D&C 88:6). God is courageous (Moses 7:28). God is compassionate (1 John 4:16). And God is creative (Moses 1:33). Crucially, God is not (or at least particular Gods a...

Dr. R. Michael (Mike) Perry was a gentle, principled, and thoughtful man who devoted decades of his life to Alcor and the cryonics movement. He also engaged broadly in the religious Transhumanist movement, including membership in the Christian Transhumanist Association, Terasem, Church of Perpetual Life, Society for Venturism, and Society for Universal Immortality. I first met him when he joined t...

Yesterday and today, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints met for our worldwide general conference. The Saturday morning session was a solemn assembly in which we sustained our new Church president, Dallin H. Oaks. Oaks succeeded former Church president Russell M. Nelson upon the latter’s death, as is our custom. The act of sustaining a new Church president is an expression o...

At Easter, Christians celebrate the Atonement and resurrection of Jesus Christ – the culminating expressions of the compassionate and creative power of God in the exemplary life of Jesus. Arguably, at least from a theological perspective, Easter is more important than Christmas. Easter ultimately realizes that which Christmas originally envisions. But too many of us, too often, celebrate the reali...

A Comment Magazine article, “ Which Future Do We Want? ”, presents its perspective on three competing visions of humanity’s future: anti-humanism, Transhumanism, and Posthumanism. It then positions “Christian humanism” as the corrective to all three. But it mistakes a conservative pit stop for the destination. And it mischaracterizes the tradition most capable of bridging the tensions it identifie...

The single most under-appreciated idea in Mormon Transhumanism is that theosis is communal, not individual – and that this distinction is not a theological nicety but an existential imperative. When Lorenzo Snow distilled our theological tradition into his famous couplet, most hearers fixated on the individual trajectory: I become like God. But the deeper claim is that communities become like God....

My friend Carl Youngblood has finally published his long-promised blog, From the Depths. The title comes from Psalm 130: De profundis clamavi ad te Domine – “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.” It’s a fitting name for what Carl has been working out over the past two decades. Carl is a founder and current president of the Mormon Transhumanist Association. He and I have been thinking together s...

In his poignant personal essay, “ Hope, Fear, & Creation: Living in Response to Prophecy,” my friend Don Bradley shatters the brittle glass of fatalism that often encases religious futurism. Weaving the heartbreak of losing his son, Donnie, with the historical rigor of his research into Joseph Smith, Don crafts a conclusion that is central to the practical faith advocated by Mormon Transhumani...