New Religions, Science, and Secularization. By William Sims Bainbridge Religion and the Social Order, 1993, Volume 3A, pages 277-292.
Contents: Introduction Science and Secularization Chance, Necessity, and Chaos Pseusoscientific Cults Transcendental Meditation Scientology The Committee for the Future Experimentalism: Faith in the Future Conclusion References Introduction Although the literature on new religions is quite extensive, very little of it bears on either secularization or science, and thus this paper cannot be a straightforward review of previous work. I think the most important questions are three.
Our society is quite ambivalent toward science, and the actual influence of scientific findings of this century on our culture appears to be slight. Science and Secularization Few civilizations across the sweep of human history have possessed organized science. Religion of certain kinds may encourage science. Science must proceed from the assumption that phenomena are lawful and regular. Chance, Necessity, and Chaos Pseudoscientific Cults.
THE EMERGING GALACTIC RELIGION: SCIENCE FICTION AND THE RISE OF TECHNOCRATIC POSTHUMANISM. Bainbridge conducted a five-year ethnographic study of The Process Church.
His scientific study was later published under the title of Satan’s Power. A Deviant Psychotherapy Cult.[16] The Process Church originated as a therapy service business called “Compulsions Analysis”, after it had split off from Scientology. It aimed at expanding self-awareness for what Bainbridge stresses were normal, intelligent individuals desirous of moving beyond what their polite middle-class society offered them or would tolerate. The author believes that their particular therapeutic system fostered especially intense relations among individuals, leading to a “social implosion” turning the group in on itself and away from the larger society.
Such profound intimacy stimulated mystical feelings[17], thus setting the stage for the gradual transformation of the fledgling psychotherapy group into a full-blown satanic cult. Apparently, the notion of a “New Christianity” did not die with Saint-Simon in 1825. C. Transhumanism. Transhumanism (abbreviated as H+ or h+) is an international cultural and intellectual movement with an eventual goal of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities.[1] Transhumanist thinkers study the potential benefits and dangers of emerging technologies that could overcome fundamental human limitations, as well as the ethics of developing and using such technologies.
They speculate that human beings may eventually be able to transform themselves into beings with such greatly expanded abilities as to merit the label "posthuman".[1] History[edit] According to Nick Bostrom,[1] transcendentalist impulses have been expressed at least as far back as in the quest for immortality in the Epic of Gilgamesh, as well as historical quests for the Fountain of Youth, Elixir of Life, and other efforts to stave off aging and death. First transhumanist proposals[edit] Technological convergence. This article is about technology convergence including convergence of media technology.
For consolidation of media ownership, see Concentration of media ownership. Technological convergence is the tendency for different technological systems to evolve toward performing similar tasks. Digital convergence refers to the convergence of four industries into one conglomerate, ITTCE (Information Technologies, Telecommunication, Consumer Electronics, and Entertainment).Previously separate technologies such as voice (and telephony features), data (and productivity applications), and video can now share resources and interact with each other synergistically. The rise of digital communication in the late 20th century has made it possible for media organizations (or individuals) to deliver text, audio, and video material over the same wired, wireless, or fiber-optic connections. At the same time, it inspired some media organizations to explore multimedia delivery of information.
Definitions[edit]