Authors

Brigham Henry Roberts (1857–1933) was an English-born Latter-day Saint leader, historian, theologian, and politician who became one of Mormonism’s foremost intellectuals. He served as a member of the First Council of the Seventy for nearly five decades and produced foundational works of Church history and theology that shaped Latter-day Saint scholarship throughout the twentieth century. Born into poverty in Warrington, Lancashire, England, Roberts’s childhood was marked by hardship. His father struggled with alcoholism and gambling, leading Roberts to later describe his early years as “a nightmare” and “a tragedy.” After both parents converted to the Church in 1857, his mother emigrated to Utah in 1862, leaving young Roberts in England. In 1866, at age nine, he walked much of the way across the plains—often barefoot—to reach Salt Lake City and reunite with his family. Roberts graduated first in his class from the University of Deseret (now the University of Utah) in 1878. He served multiple missions, including as president of the Southern States Mission beginning in 1883. During this assignment, he faced the tragedy of the Cane Creek Massacre in 1884, personally recovering the bodies of two murdered missionaries while disguised to protect his identity. Like many Latter-day Saint men of his era, he served prison time for practicing plural marriage. In 1888, Roberts became one of the seven presidents of the First Council of the Seventy, the Church’s third-highest governing body, a position he held until his death. He also served as Assistant Church Historian from 1902 to 1933. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1898, Congress denied him his seat due to national concerns about polygamy—a pivotal moment in early twentieth-century political history. Roberts’s scholarly output was prodigious. He edited the seven-volume History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and independently authored the six-volume Comprehensive History of the Church . His theological masterwork, The Truth, the Way, and the Life , remained unpublished during his lifetime due to debates with Church leadership over his assertions regarding earth’s age and organic evolution. A “defender of the faith,” he argued that religious truth could withstand rigorous academic examination, contributing to the development of Mormon apologetics while maintaining intellectual honesty about challenges to faith.

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844–1900) was a German philosopher, cultural critic, and philologist whose provocative ideas about morality, religion, and human potential have profoundly influenced modern thought. His concept of the ‘Übermensch’ (often translated as ‘overman’ or ‘superman’) and his call for humanity to transcend conventional values have made him a touchstone for transhumanist philosophy, even as his ideas remain subject to intense debate and varying interpretations. Born in Röcken, Prussia, Nietzsche was the son of a Lutheran pastor who died when Friedrich was four years old. He showed exceptional academic ability and became a professor of classical philology at the University of Basel at the remarkably young age of twenty-four. However, chronic illness forced his retirement from teaching in 1879, after which he spent the next decade as an independent philosopher, living modestly in boarding houses across Switzerland, Italy, and France while producing his most important works. Nietzsche’s major works—including Thus Spoke Zarathustra , Beyond Good and Evil , On the Genealogy of Morality , and The Gay Science —challenged the foundations of Western morality and religion. He famously proclaimed that ‘God is dead,’ not as a celebration but as a diagnosis of modern culture’s loss of transcendent meaning. His response was to call for a ‘revaluation of all values’ and the emergence of individuals who could create new meaning through the exercise of will. The concept of the Übermensch represents Nietzsche’s vision of human potential. Rather than a biological superman, Nietzsche envisioned a human being who had overcome the limitations of conventional morality to create new values and embrace life fully. This figure would say ‘yes’ to existence, including its suffering, through what Nietzsche called amor fati —love of fate. The Übermensch was to be the meaning of the earth, replacing otherworldly hopes with earthly creativity and self-overcoming. In 1889, Nietzsche suffered a mental collapse from which he never recovered, spending his final years in the care of his mother and sister. Despite the tragic end of his productive life, his influence only grew after his death. Transhumanists have drawn on his vision of human self-transcendence, though they typically emphasize technological means of enhancement that Nietzsche himself never contemplated. His insistence that humanity is ‘something to be overcome’ and his rejection of static human nature resonate with contemporary projects aimed at expanding human capabilities.

Karl Raimund Popper (1902–1994) was an Austrian-British philosopher widely regarded as one of the most influential philosophers of science of the twentieth century. His work on the demarcation problem, epistemology, and the philosophy of the open society left a lasting mark on intellectual life across multiple disciplines. Popper is best known for his principle of falsifiability , which holds that for a theory to be genuinely scientific, it must be capable of being tested and potentially refuted. This criterion, articulated in his landmark work The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1934), fundamentally reshaped the philosophy of science and challenged the prevailing inductivist tradition. He spent much of his academic career at the London School of Economics, where he served as professor of logic and scientific method. His political philosophy, most notably developed in The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945), offered a vigorous defense of liberal democracy and a critique of totalitarian ideologies rooted in historicism. Popper's epistemology carries deep resonance with transhumanist and theological themes. His vision of knowledge as an unending, self-correcting pursuit—forever open to revision and growth—aligns with the transhumanist commitment to ongoing human improvement. His concept of critical rationalism suggests that humanity progresses not by claiming certainty but by humbly identifying and correcting errors, a posture that echoes religious traditions emphasizing humility, faith in future understanding, and the aspiration toward greater light and knowledge. For the Mormon Transhumanist Association, Popper's insistence that an open society fosters human flourishing, and that our reach should always exceed our grasp, resonates with the vision of theosis—the idea that humanity is called to grow toward the divine through both reason and faith.

Michael Brant Shermer (born 1954) is an American science writer, historian of science, and founder of The Skeptics Society. His work explores the intersection of science, skepticism, and belief. Shermer earned his PhD in the history of science from Claremont Graduate University and has written extensively on evolution, pseudoscience, and the psychology of belief. He founded Skeptic Magazine and has been a columnist for Scientific American . While generally skeptical of supernatural claims, Shermer has engaged thoughtfully with questions about the future of intelligence and technology, including what he calls “Shermer’s Last Law”—that any sufficiently advanced extraterrestrial intelligence would be indistinguishable from God.

Nick Bostrom (born 1973) is a Swedish-born philosopher known for his work on existential risk, the simulation argument, and superintelligence. He is a professor at Oxford University and director of the Future of Humanity Institute. Bostrom earned his PhD from the London School of Economics and has published influential papers on the anthropic principle, human enhancement ethics, and the future of intelligence. His book Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies examines the potential risks and opportunities of artificial general intelligence. His simulation argument—that we might be living in a computer simulation—has generated significant philosophical discussion about the nature of reality and has been compared to religious cosmologies that see the physical world as embedded within a larger spiritual reality.

Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957) was a Greek writer, philosopher, and one of the most celebrated authors of the 20th century. Born in Heraklion, Crete, during Ottoman rule, he studied law at the University of Athens before pursuing philosophy in Paris under Henri Bergson. His dissertation explored Nietzsche’s philosophy of right and state. Kazantzakis is best known for Zorba the Greek , inspired by his friendship with a worker named Georgios Zorbas. The novel became world-famous after the 1964 film adaptation. His other major works include The Last Temptation of Christ , Christ Recrucified , and his epic poem The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel , which he considered his greatest achievement. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature nine times, losing to Albert Camus in 1957 by a single vote. Camus later said Kazantzakis deserved the honor “a hundred times more” than himself. His epitaph, inscribed on his tomb overlooking the mountains and sea of Crete, reads: “I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.”

Origen of Alexandria (c. 184–253 AD) was an early Christian scholar, ascetic, and theologian. He was one of the most influential figures in early Christian theology and philosophy, known for his allegorical interpretation of Scripture. Born to Christian parents in Alexandria, Origen became head of the catechetical school there at age eighteen. He was extraordinarily prolific, producing biblical commentaries, theological treatises, and apologetic works. His Contra Celsum is a major defense of Christianity against pagan criticism. Origen taught that through communion with the divine, humans may rise to become divine—not only in Jesus but in all who believe and enter upon the life that Jesus taught. While some of his speculative ideas were later condemned, his influence on Christian thought, particularly on human potential for transformation and union with God, remains profound.

Parley Parker Pratt was among the most talented and influential figures in the formative period of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: Apostle, missionary, theologian, poet, polemicist, prisoner, explorer, polygamist, and finally, in the view of many, martyr. Pratt was born in central New York State to Jared Pratt—a weaver thrown out of employment in his trade by the Industrial Revolution—and his wife, Charity. Like the Prophet Joseph Smith, who was two years his senior, Parley P. Pratt grew up in a family on the margins of the rural economy. Jared Pratt moved from place to place as a landless itinerant laborer whose “means to educate his children were very limited,” although they did have access to what Parley later termed an “excellent system of common school education.” Notwithstanding their limited opportunities, two of Jared and Charity Pratt’s five sons, Parley and his younger brother Orson, would become distinguished among the first generation of Latter-day Saints for their intellectual and rhetorical powers. Parley compensated for the deficiencies in his formal education through an early and avid appetite for reading: “I always loved a book; . . . a book at every leisure moment of my life.” Prominent among these readings was the Bible, which Pratt began to study at the age of seven under the direction of his mother. From this literary self-education, Pratt derived a broad and ready general knowledge and an uncommon facility in writing and public speaking. Following his 1830 conversion to the Latter-day Saint faith (characteristically, through reading the Book of Mormon ), Pratt devoted the remainder of his life to Church service. Although he was frequently absent from Church headquarters on numerous missions in the United States, Canada, Britain, and Chile, he still managed to play a prominent role in many of the key events of early Latter-day Saint history: the establishment of a body of Church members in the neighborhood of Kirtland, Ohio, in 1830; the settlement of Jackson County, Missouri, in 1832, and the forced expulsion the following year; the Zion’s Camp relief expedition; the crisis attending the collapse of the Kirtland realestate bubble and the failure of the Kirtland Safety Society in 1837; the Missouri troubles of 1838–39 (as a consequence of which Pratt was imprisoned for eight months, a longer period than any other Church leader); the leadership crisis following the assassination of Joseph Smith in 1844; the expulsion from Nauvoo in 1846; and the westward migration to the Great Salt Lake Valley in 1847. Most importantly, Pratt’s active pen generated a series of books and pamphlets that included the first and most influential systematic statement of Latter-day Saint beliefs ( A Voice of Warning , 1837), the defining Mormon persecution narrative ( History of the Late Persecution Inflicted by the State of Missouri upon the Mormons , 1839), and the foremost nineteenthcentury theological treatise ( Key to the Science of Theology , 1855). (Grow, Matthew J.; Armstrong, Gregory K.; Siler, Dennis J.; Geary, Edward A.; and Givens, Terryl L. (2012) “ Parley P. Pratt: The Apostle Paul of Mormonism and Parley P. Pratt and the Making of Mormonism ,” BYU Studies : Vol. 51: Iss. 2, Article 13.)

Peter Wicks is an atheist transhumanist who presented a critique of religious transhumanism at the MTAConf 2013. He holds a PhD in Mathematics from Cambridge, England, earned in 1991. Since receiving his doctorate, Wicks has worked primarily at the European Commission. His responsibilities there have encompassed a range of policy areas, from environmental policy to research on industrial accidents. In 2011, he took unpaid leave from the Commission to explore alternative career opportunities. In recent years, Wicks has developed a strong interest in the philosophical implications of emerging technologies. He broadly supports the goals of the transhumanist movement. Although raised as an Anglican Christian, he now identifies as an atheist.

Richard Dawkins (born 1941) is a British evolutionary biologist and author. His books on evolution and the philosophy of science have had significant influence on public understanding of biology and the relationship between science and religion. Born in Nairobi, Kenya, Dawkins studied at Oxford and became its first Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science. His book The Selfish Gene popularized the genecentered view of evolution and introduced the concept of memes. While known for his criticism of religion, Dawkins has acknowledged that the universe reveals “something stunningly close to the God of the physicists”—a deep structure and beauty that evokes awe. His engagement with questions of cosmic meaning continues to be relevant to discussions of science and transcendence.