Incarnating the Unknown: Planetary Technologies for a Planetary Community

Journal Title: Religions - Year 2017, Vol 8, Issue 4

Abstract

This article suggests that current technological development is based upon outdated ways of understanding human beings as “exceptional” to the rest of the natural world. As such, these technologies help serve to reify certain human lives at the expense of others. I argue that such exceptionalism depends upon an understanding of transcendence that is totally other. Using examples such as “Earthrise” and the UN’s International Treaty on Outer Space, I argue that an immanent understanding of “the other” renegotiates how we understand our embeddedness within the rest of the evolving planetary community. As part of renegotiating a planetary anthropology, we must also begin rethinking technologies as for the planet (not just for humans).

Authors and Affiliations

Whitney A. Bauman

Keywords

Related Articles

The Racialization of Islam in the United States: Islamophobia, Hate Crimes, and “Flying while Brown”

This paper explores the intersectionality of race and Islamophobia by using a set of empirical data relating to the experiences of American Muslims and non-Muslims in the United States. Through a multi-tiered methodolo...

An Islamic Perspective in Managing Religious Diversity

This paper examines the concept of “diversity” as mentioned in the Qur’an and how commonalities in diverse religions may be used as a model for civilizational dialogue towards achieving harmony. This study reveals that...

On Not Understanding Extraordinary Language in the Buddhist Tantra of Japan

The question motivating this essay is how tantric Buddhist practitioners in Japan understood language such as to believe that mantra, dhara ¯ n. ¯ı, and related forms are efficacious. “Extraordinary language” is introd...

The Confessions of Montaigne

Montaigne rarely repented and he viewed confession—both juridical and ecclesiastical—with skepticism. Confession, Montaigne believed, forced a mode of self-representation onto the speaker that was inevitably distorting...

Prayer and Religion—Irish Nurses Caring for an Intellectually Disabled Child Who Has Died

This research paper was presented at the Second International Spirituality in Healthcare Conference 2016—Nurturing the Spirit held at Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin. 23rd June 2016. Historically, nurs...

Download PDF file
  • EP ID EP25703
  • DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/rel8040065
  • Views 295
  • Downloads 10

How To Cite

Whitney A. Bauman (2017). Incarnating the Unknown: Planetary Technologies for a Planetary Community. Religions, 8(4), -. https://europub.co.uk/articles/-A-25703