- The Cult of Kurzweil
- The Singularity as Religion
- Rapture of the Nerds, Not
4.) Belief in Immortality. Transhumanists believe in life extension to the point that eventually their bodies will be able to live indefinitely long.
Hypothetically, if someone were to invent an immortality pill which was scientifically proven to work (I am not asserting that this is possible) then would you describe anybody who believed this pill worked as having converted to a new religion? Assuming here that the claim that this pill offers immortality is no more controversial than the claim that paracetamol relieves headaches.
Immortality that is proven to work entails a contradiction due to the 2nd law of Thermodynamics, as well as being able to know the pill works only to the age of the oldest person that has taken the pill with no deaths that are not suicide or accident. Therefore, given the impossibility of proving the pill works to provide immortality, I would consider the belief that the pill has conferred immortality to be a religious belief but not necessarily a religion in itself.
If it has been shown that the pill does increase the life expectancy dramatically with near certainty then I would take the pill under the expectation of living longer but not being immortal.