20. Dr. Michael Shermer — Heavens on Earth: The Scientific Search for the Afterlife, Immortality, and Utopia

The Michael Shermer Show

Michael Shermer

Dialogue, Science, Reason, Michaelshermer, Natural Sciences, Skeptic

4.4 • 921 Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2018

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In his most ambitious work yet—a scientific exploration into humanity’s obsession with the afterlife and quest for immortality—bestselling author and skeptic, Michael Shermer, sets out to discover what drives humans’ belief in life after death, focusing on recent scientific attempts to achieve immortality along with utopian attempts to create heaven on earth.

For millennia, religions have concocted numerous manifestations of heaven and the afterlife, and though no one has ever returned from such a place to report what it is really like—or that it even exists—today science and technology are being used to try to make it happen in our lifetime. From radical life extension to cryonic suspension to mind uploading, Shermer considers how realistic these attempts are from a proper skeptical perspective.

Heavens on Earth concludes with an uplifting paean to purpose and progress and how we can live well in the here-and-now, whether or not there is a hereafter.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Alexa, tell Science Salon to play the new episode.
0:04.0	Alexa Skills are voice-driven capabilities that enhance and personalize your Alexa devices.
0:11.0	Simply say, Alexa, enable science salon skill.
0:15.0	Or go to Skeptic.com forward slash Alexa to enable it.
0:20.0	This is your host, Michael Sherman, and you're listening to Science A Lot, a series of conversations
0:30.6	with leading scientists, scholars, and thinkers about the most important issues of our time.
0:37.0	Thank you and you should know how this came about.
0:43.0	How is it that I am in this chair and he is in that chair?
0:46.0	And the answer is that he sent me Heavens on Earth and I read this book and I thought
0:51.0	this is one of Michael's best books because not only is it Ariadite and
0:56.8	brilliant in his usual way with topics in areas that I never knew existed.
1:03.2	I mean, I had no idea what tardigrades are.
1:07.8	And anybody who does not know what a tardigrade is,
1:10.6	you will find it on page 225,
1:12.5	a quite wonderful little creature actually.
1:14.2	Anyway, so I ride to Michael and I say,
1:17.7	this is a great book.
1:18.9	And you know what, Michael?
1:19.7	It's really time for somebody to be interviewing you, crying out loud and he said okay how's
1:25.5	March 25th for you. Yeah I felt kind of funny about doing it until you wrote all my
1:31.2	praise I couldn't very well say me.
1:34.8	But I do welcome the chance to turn the tables on him
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Michael Shermer, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Michael Shermer and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.