Heavens on Earth

Descriere

A scientific exploration into humanity's obsession with the afterlife and the quest for immortality from the bestselling author and sceptic Michael ShermerIn his most ambitious work yet, Shermer sets out to discover what drives humans' belief in life after death. For millennia, the awareness of our own mortality and failings has led to religions concocting comforting notions of an afterlife, of heaven and hell, utopias and dystopias, and of the perfectibility of human nature.Heavens on Earth explores the numerous manifestations of the afterlife - a place where souls might go after the death of the physical body. Religious leaders have toiled to make sense of this place that a surprisingly high percentage of people believe exists, but from which no one has ever returned to report what it is really like.This is one of the most profound questions of the human condition and has long driven philosophers and theologians to try to understand the meaning and purpose of life for mortal beings, and how we can transcend mortality.

Shermer details recent scientific attempts to achieve immortality by radical life extentionists, extropians, transhumanists, cryonicists and mind-uploaders, along with utopians who have attempted to create heaven on earth. Heavens on Earth concludes with an uplifting paean to purpose and progress and what we can do in the here-and-now, whether or not there is a hereafter.

Despre autor

Michael Shermer

scriitor american de știință · n. 1954

Michael Brant Shermer este un scriitor american și specialist în istoria științei și fondator al The Skeptics Society. Este cunoscut pentru critica adusă pseudoștiinței și existenței fenomenelor supranaturale. Un prim exemplu îl constituie cartea sa Why People Believe Weird Things, apărută în 1997 și tradusă în română sub titlul De ce cred oamenii în bazaconii.