This week, I take a break from my recent blog series to report on my road trip to Nashville last week. This was a unique experience as I traveled in the middle of the work week to meet new friends and engage in meaningful conversations in the evening all while working from different offices in the day. One of the perks of working remotely for a company that is present in 40 states is that I can always find an office in most large and mid-size cities. So, while my work week started in Acworth, GA (Monday), it took me to Chattanooga, TN (Tuesday), Nashville (Wednesday and Thursday), returning home on Friday. I logged over 600 miles of driving, listened to hours of podcasts and attended three different events in my stay in Nashville.
Leaving the family behind for three days was a challenge that took some preparation. I am very grateful for my wife that held the fort with our three kids so I could go. She continues to be my rock and my safe refuge that I can return to. I am also grateful for my adopted grandma Carolyn who warmly received me in Nashville so I could be there for three days. Finally, I am thankful to both Scott Hawley and Micah Redding for re-arranging their schedule to accommodate my visit and greeting me with open arms. Though we had not met in person, I felt like I was visiting old friends.
Reflections on the Road
I hit the road on Tuesday at 7:30 am. The way to Tennessee is visually stunning. Early in the morning, I can still see the mist in the air as I drive through large open prairies. The sun is just starting to rise, the open road and inviting scenery can only be enhanced by listening to inspiring podcasts. My list includes an eclectic mixture of Economics (Freaknomics), Theology (Homebrewed Christianity), Data Science (Linear Digressions) to futuristic journalism (The Future of Everything) , Christian Transhumanism (CTA Podcast) and sermons from Trinity Anglican in Atlanta. For this trip, I added Richard Rohr’s “Another Name for Everything,” which is a series of interviews where he introduces chapters of his new book, The Universal Christ.
I am an auditory learner who can easily get lost into rich conversations and stories. Listening to podcasts in the road makes time pass faster allowing me to forget that I am driving. I will often go through a full podcast and then have 20 minutes of silence so I can react mentally to what I just heard. This is often the time where ideas, deep thoughts and life-giving insights come to me.
Recently, I have learned that the process is not just limited to thoughts but also includes feelings. At times, I will hear something that will cause an emotional reaction which I can’t immediately identify the cause of it. In this trip, this happened after listening to a sermon from Trinity, an evangelical Anglican church I attend on occasion. I could not pinpoint what triggered it but I noticed an acute discomfort while listening. When I started probing it, I realized this was a recurring feeling that emerged when I went there.
I have grown increasingly bothered by the evangelical tendency to reduce the gospel to individual piety. Everything becomes a moral lesson on how to become a better person, a plea to read my Bible more or to tell others about God. While those are all good things, they no longer captivate my imagination. I yearn for a bigger vision of God’s activity on earth, one that encompasses not just my individual life but also my community and the world.
Later in the trip, I heard Richard Rohr’s reflections on the Universal Christ and found hope that he may be onto something. Is this the cosmic vision I am yearning? Above all, is this the next station God is leading in my spiritual journey? The jury is still out but the traveling must continue.
Visiting Belmont University
My time in Belmont started with a lovely dinner with a group that included a physicist, a mathematician, a theologian (the visiting lecturer) and an engineering student. Our conversation touched on many topics, most notably, how deep specialization in academia has hindered the integration between humanities, science and technology. This is even more problematic in the US where PhD curriculums tend to be more narrow than in Europe. Thankfully, our dinner felt like a step in the right direction. If we could get more Mathematicians to talk to Theologians, maybe integration can start.
After dinner, we all headed to campus for the talk entitled “Remaining Human in a Technological Age.” Dr. Waters’ lecture was in essence a critical Christian response to Transhumanism (H+). In his view, H+ offers an attractive but flawed vision for the future of humanity. In its search for perfection, it threatens to erase the very traits that make us humans, namely, our imperfections. Instead, he believes Christianity offers a counter-message in encouraging us to find God in the mundane and by accepting rather than fighting the limitation brought on by death. All creatures have a beginning and an end, and therefore humans must accept that their lives on earth will eventually come to a conclusion.
In the next day, I sat beside Dr. Waters in Dr. Hawley’s class where we took turns answering pre-submitted questions from students. Interacting with the student’s questions was one of the highlights of the trip. The questions ranged from the impact of AI on humanity to what it means to be human. Dr. Waters offered insights majorly hinging upon the view he expressed in the night earlier. He called students to continue to attend to the mundane in a fast-changing world intoxicated by novelty.
Hoping to provide an alternative, though not necessarily opposing perspective, I challenged students to re-think about how they see technology. At times, I questioned the notion of artificial and natural, affirming that technology was part of nature. That is why, when asked whether one could be a cyborg and Christian, I answered with an unwavering yes.
Finally, one of them asked whether the development of AI would turn out to be good or bad for humanity. Instead on speculating on an answer, I turned to them and said: “I turn this question on you. You will decide how AI impact our future.” It is my hope they , and all of us, heed to this call to engage in the debates that are shaping the use of AI technologies in our times. We neglect this reality to our peril.
Christian Transhumanist Association Meetup
The meetup, the following evening, closed the trip in grand style. There I met fellow Christians seeking to engage Transhumanism from a more receptive stance. I shared a bit about my journey from feeling a call to the ministry to discovering it in Data Science. Sometimes, when you re-tell your story, you gain new insights. As I shared in the meetup, I realized that my journey was really about integration. Seeking to bring together profession with faith, technology with meaning, piety with concrete action, and hopefully people from different upbringing with each other.
While the initial topic was around AI, we ended up having a deeper discussion around what is means to be a Christian in our time. One issue was the role of Scripture in a world where knowledge is becoming more democratized. I confessed that the fundamentalist view of Scripture handed over to me by my upbringing was simply inadequate to navigate reality today. This perspective tried to build a virtual fortress around Scripture to protect from all questioning, fearing that any perceived error would collapse the whole edifice of faith. In doing so, it not only failed to address reality but also kept us from experiencing the true power of Scripture, namely its ability to point us to God in new situation. Change must be in order.
Micah shared how Christianity has undergone major upheavals every 500 years where the primary question was the source of authority. At first, the question settled on the creeds, then on the figure of the Pope and finally on Scripture itself. Our 500 years is up, is it time for a new reformation? What would that look like? I would suggest that the path to that answer must pass through science and technology, even if it does not end there.
Coming Home
I often wonder how community can happen online. So far, my answer would be: only if accompanies, supports or facilitates actual encounters. This trip was an example of the online world paving the way to real world connections . It would not have happened have I not started blogging and met Dr. Hawley and Micah through the Christian Transhumanist Association Facebook group. Is this how a connected world work? Virtual friendships that culminate on dialogue over good burgers and beer? My trip to Nashville suggests that may be so.
Writing this blog was a journey of its own. I wasn’t sure what I would say but wanted to allow the writing to take me there. My intent here was to pull back the curtain on my internal musings so the reader may relate with aspects of my own personal experience. While I don’t think mine or anyone’s experience is normative, sharing them can open doors of meaning in others. That is my hope with this blog
Thanks for joining me on this ride and see you next week!
