What if you found out you could live a healthy life lasting for a thousand years or longer? Advances in biomedical technology raise the theoretical possibility that people could dramatically prolong or even indefinitely extend healthy human life. If the science of 'radical life extension' is realized and the technology becomes widely available, it would arguably have a more radical impact on humanity than any other development in history. This book is the first concerted effort to explore implications of radical life extension from the perspective of the world's major religious traditions. Introductory chapters outline the state of the science.
Introduction: Living For 1,000 Years—Or Longer; Co-Editors D.F.Maher & C.Mercer
Radical Life Extension: Technological Aspects; A.de Grey
The Evidence-based Pursuit of Radical Life Extension; P.Estep
Be Careful What You Wish For? Radical Life Extension Coram Deo: A Reformed Protestant Perspective; N.M.de S.Cameron & A.DeBaets
Extreme Longevity Research: A Progressive Protestant Perspective; R.Cole-Turner
Becoming Yet More Like God: A Jewish Perspective on Radical Life Extension; Rabbi E.N.Dorff
Karma, Austerity, and Time-Cycles: Jainism and Radical Life Extension; S.Fohr
Told You So: Extreme Longevity and Daoist Realization; L.Kohn
Churning the Ocean of Milk: Imaging the Hindu Tantric Response to Radical Life Technologies; Jeffrey Lidke in collaboration with J.W.Dirnberger
Two Wings of a Bird: Radical Life Extension from a Buddhist Perspective; D.F.Maher
...A Thousand Years, Less Fifty: Toward a Quranic View of Extreme Longevity; A.Y.Musa
Radical Life Extension: Implications for Roman Catholicism; T.L.Nichols
'May You Live Long': Religious Implications of Extreme Longevity in Hinduism; A.Sharma
Afterword: Theological, Spiritual, and Ethical Reflections on Radical Life Extension; T.Peters
DR. DEREK F. MAHER is Co-Director of the Religious Studies Program at East Carolina University, USA.
DR. CAVLIN MERCER is Professor of Religious Studies at East Carolina University, USA.