The Christian Transhumanist Podcast

Kahlil Corazo and Max Schultz explore the unlikely intersection of René Girard and David Deutsch, explain why ritual human sacrifice was ended by a story, and ask whether the beginning of infinity can survive without the religion that started it.

Kahlil Corazo writes from the Philippines: his historical novel Rajah Versus Conquistador rebuilds Magellan's 1521 encounter with Rajah Humabon of Cebu on Girardian foundations, he writes the Substack Explorations, and he recently published in Contagion, the René Girard journal. Max Schultz writes the Substack Mimesis and Infinity — "a search for moral and epistemic explanations, through Girard and Deutsch" — where he argues that Christian culture is the essential, unacknowledged component of Deutsch's "beginning of infinity." Together they may constitute the world's smallest school of thought — and this conversation is an attempt to launch it as a field.

Jordan Daniel Wood explains why creation itself is incarnation, points out that there has only ever been one true human—Jesus—and shows us why deification might be exactly what the transhumanists are reaching toward without knowing it.

Jordan Daniel Wood is assistant professor of theology at Belmont University and author of The Whole Mystery of Christ: Creation as Incarnation in Maximus Confessor (Notre Dame, 2022), a study of the seventh-century church father Maximus the Confessor and his startling claim that "the Word of God wills always and in all things to actualize the mystery of his incarnation." A Stone-Campbell preacher's kid turned Catholic, Wood has become one of the most provocative voices for cosmic Christology and universal salvation — and he's nearing completion of the first full English translation of Maximus's letters.

Lincoln Cannon explains why Nick Bostrom has "found God," why it's getting harder to be an atheist, argues that Christ is inviting all of us to be Christ, and why you can't be genuine friends with someone who's incapable of being your enemy.

Lincoln Cannon is a technologist and philosopher, co-founder of the Mormon Transhumanist Association, and a leading voice of Mormon Transhumanism — author of the New God Argument, a logical argument for faith in God grounded in humanity's compassionate, superintelligent potential. An atheist for almost a decade after his father's death, he was brought back to belief by a philosophical reading of the apostle Paul, William James, Nietzsche — and transhumanism.

Noland Arbaugh — the world's first Neuralink implant recipient — walks us through moving a cursor by imagination alone, explains why the next space race is the brain, and tells us how drowning in a summer-camp lake brought him back to God.

Noland Arbaugh is the first human to receive a Neuralink brain-computer implant. A 2016 swimming accident at the summer camp where he worked dislocated his C4–C5 vertebrae and left him quadriplegic; in January 2024 he became Participant 1 in Neuralink's first-in-human trial, controlling a computer — and the occasional Mario Kart race — by thought alone. Now a youth leader at his church, he sees the whole story, from the accident to the operating room, as God's doing.

Bruce Nielson and Peter Johansen of the Theory of Anything podcast explain why atheists reading David Deutsch are having their first spiritual experience, defend Frank Tipler's Omega Point, and show us the leap of faith at the bottom of science itself.

Bruce Nielson and Peter Johansen host The Theory of Anything, a podcast hunting the connections between everything through the "four strands" of David Deutsch's worldview — quantum physics, evolution, Popperian epistemology, and computation. Bruce is a lifelong Latter-day Saint and former Mormon blogger who went back for a machine-learning master's at Georgia Tech to chase the problem of AGI; Peter is a former Sam Harris–forum atheist who founded the Many Worlds of David Deutsch Facebook group — and, after Deutsch, isn't sure what he is anymore.

George Goldman walks us through Matthew Bates' audacious plan to reunite Protestants and Catholics, explains why the gospel is "Jesus is king"—not a ticket to heaven—and asks what God actually does when somebody gets baptized.

George Goldman is a professor in the College of Bible and Ministry at Lipscomb University, where he teaches New Testament, Greek, and Faith & Culture. He joins Micah — a fellow product of the Churches of Christ — to work through Matthew Bates' "Beyond the Salvation Wars," the boldest statement yet of Bates' "gospel allegiance" model: the gospel is the announcement that Jesus is king, faith is allegiance to him, and the reunion of a church 500 years divided is not a pipe dream but a promise.

What is a miracle? How did the Reformation launch skepticism and rewrite the rules of historical Jesus study? Can a historian remain open to Marian apparitions, Tibetan “rainbow-body” stories, and the Gospels at the same time?

Micah Redding sits down with Dr Dale C. Allison Jr.—Professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary and author of the new book "Interpreting Jesus"—to explore a third way between apologetic certainty and blanket dismissal.

Micah Redding interviews Jonathan Rauch on Christianity, the role of religion in liberalism, and why Christians should embrace Jesus to save democracy.

Jonathan Rauch is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington; a contributing writer of the Atlantic; and the author of numerous books on public policy, culture, and government. His latest book is "Cross Purposes: Christianity's broken bargain with democracy".

Talking points:

Watch on Youtube

How can we love religion when so many are hurt?

Moritz Bierling & Micah Redding discuss the self, the second brain, and the process of individual and group transformation.