Secular Transhumanism as Scientism?

Abstract

What I want to consider in this chapter is whether or not questions that arise from the transhumanist debate are to be kept firmly within a secular, empirical, scientific arena and, if this were the case, is science sufficient in answering those kinds of questions that do arise? If it is not sufficient, then where else might we look for guidance? How far can the boundaries be stretched before they begin to tear? Whilst many transhumanists, our secular transhumanists, are quite prepared to be ‘interdisciplinary’ in their methodology, hence allowing such disciplines as philosophy and, indeed, the ‘arts’, within these boundaries, there is still, alas, some robust resistance to religion which, I believe, is understandable, but also misplaced. The methodology adopted for this book is phenomenological in the sense that an understanding of what it means to be human (and, by implication, transhuman) requires an understanding of human experience that, in itself, cannot be limited to the acquisition of empirical data. Religion, and in this case Islam, offers important insights into this understanding of the human.