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Are artificial intelligences subjects of redemption in God's plan?

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Much has been said about recent LDS policy changes with regards to the parents and children in same-sex families. While I won't profess to have final answers (that's not what I'm offering here), I feel there's a need for more charitable dialogue and Christ-like discipleship to find ways forward. And I hope this can be a tool others can use to better understand each other.

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Shefa Tal: Raising of the Hands during the Priestly Blessing of Judaism. #LLAP

Like many of the readers here, I was raised Mormon. That means I come from pioneer stock, and among my ancestors were personal friends of the seer Joseph Smith, colonizers, polygamists, members of the Mormon Battalion and the murderous Mountain Meadows militia. I advanced through the orders of the male-only Mormon priesthood, met my high school sweetheart in seminary, wrote to her every week during my two year mission, married and was sealed to her in the temple six months after my return and witnessed the birth of our first child two months after our first anniversary. But part of me doesn’t fit the Mo-mold and never did: my father is a Jew, and my parents were never married.

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In response to recent LDS Church policy changes related to children of LGBT parents, a kind and well-meaning friend commented on the outpouring of reactions.

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All publicity is good publicity.

That maxim couldn’t be truer when it comes to transhumanism’s crossover with the presidential campaign cycle.

So thank you, Zoltan Istvan, wrong as you are.

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The Mormon Transhumanist Association is pleased to announce that next year's annual conference will take place on Saturday, 9 April 2016, at the Provo City Library.

Our transhumanist keynote speaker will be Eric Steinhart, author of Your Digital Afterlives: Computational Theories of Life after Death and professor in the Department of Philosophy at William Paterson University. Eric holds degrees in computer science and philosophy and has previously worked as a software engineer. He has written extensively on Nietzsche, metaphor, computing, technology, and religion. Our Mormon keynote speaker will be announced later.

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I would like to share a new perspective on priesthood: that of a Mormon Feminist Transhumanist. Although some may criticize me and my minority position in our vulnerability, I feel it is important to offer this perspective with authenticity and honesty.

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We are admonished in the scriptures to let our will be swallowed up in the will of God, suggesting that our desires can only be inferior to God's, whose desires for us far surpass our own. There is certainly something right about this; if our concept of God does not acknowledge the superiority of divinity to humanity, we are merely worshipping ourselves.

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Carl Youngblood, VP and COO of the MTA, was recently interviewed by James Patterson of A Thoughtful Faith podcast. The interview touches on transhumanism and Carl's involvement in the Mormon Transhumanist Association, as well as his research on how Mormon narratives can be demythologized in our post-secular era to revitalize faith.

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If theism is simply belief in God or Gods, then I am clearly a theist. What flavor of theism is more complex, and I don't know the closest words, but I believe in a very Mormon structure of families of Gods going back in time perhaps longer than we can imagine. But look for a moment at this definition of atheism from Michael Shermer: