Raëlism: An Unconventional Religious Pathway to Transhumanism

Yıl 2024, Cilt: 15 Sayı: 1, 31 - 59, 08.07.2024

Büşra Yeşilyurt , Muhammet Yeşilyurt

https://doi.org/10.12730/is.1442273

Öz

Raëlism is a controversial new religious movement that originated in France in the 1970s and has since spread around the world. The movement’s core tenets are rooted in science, technology, and freedom and can be summarized as a blend of science and spirituality, millenarianism, revelation, story, pseudoscience, and reinterpretation. Raëlians believe in the extraterrestrial origin of humanity and promote the pursuit of higher consciousness, inner peace, individual empowerment, and peace-building. To this end, the movement offers a series of seminars that aim to provide a transformative experience for participants and leads various social initiatives and projects at a global level. Although Raëlism has gained popularity among some individuals, it has also been the subject of substantial criticism and controversy, particularly because of its unconventional views on sexuality and its alleged support for human cloning and genetic engineering. Nonetheless, the movement continues to be a subject of interest and scrutiny for scholars, journalists, and the curious. This article provides an overview of the history, ideology, and practices of the Raëlian Movement and its relationship with transhumanism.

Anahtar Kelimeler

History of religions, new religious movements, Raëlism, transhumanism, extraterrestrial creation

Kaynakça

• Alcíbar, Miguel. “Human Cloning and the Raelians”. Science Communication 30/2 (2008), 236-265. https://doi.org/10.1177/1075547008324429
• Aupers, Stef - Houtman, Dick (ed.). Religions of Modernity: Relocating the Sacred to the Self and the Digital. Leiden: Brill, 2010. Battal, Emine. “Yeni Dini Hareketler ve Transhümanizm”. Dinler ve Transhümanizm. Edited by Muhammet Yeşilyurt. 187-226. Ankara: Sonçağ Yayıncılık, 2023. Bauduin, Francois Xavier. “Using the Notion of Trauma to Enhance Religious Belief and Domination. The Example of the Raelian Movement and the Happiness Academy”. Социолошка Ревија/The Sociological Review (2015), 21-31. https://doi.org/10.47054/sr152021xb
• Bauduin, Francois Xavier. “The ‘Happiness Academy’: Relaxing Holiday, Religious Pilgrimage and Development Strategy of a New Religious Movement in a Mediterranean Country”. Mediterranean Review 6/2 (2013), 189-205. Bigliardi, Stefano. “New Religious Movements and Science: Rael’s Progressive Patronizing Parasitism”. Zygon 50/1 (2015), 64-83. https://doi.org/10.1111/zygo.12162
• Bigliardi, Stefano. New Religious Movements and Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023. Bostrom, Nick. “In Defense of Posthuman Dignity”. Bioethics 19/3 (2005), 202-214. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8519.2005.00437.x
• Botz-Bornstein, T. “How Would You Dress in Utopia? Raëlism and the Aesthetics of Genes”. Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review 8/1 (2017), 37-61. https://doi.org/10.5840/asrr201751134
• Campbell, Courtney S. et al. “The Machine in the Body: Ethical and Religious Issues in the Bodily Incorporation of Mechanical Devices”. Altering Nature. Edited by B. Andrew Lustig et al. 199-257. Dordrecht: Springer, 2008. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6923-9_6 Chryssides, George D. “Is God a Space Alien? The Cosmology of the Raëlian Church”. Culture and Cosmos: A Journal of the History of Astrology and Cultural Astronomy 4/1 (2000), 36-53. https://doi.org/10.46472/cc.0104.0207
• Clonaid.com. “History”. Accessed 13 November 2023. https://www.clonaid.com/page.php?7
• Eriksen, Annelin. “The Human Version 2.0: AI, Humonoids, and Immortality”. Social Analysis 65/1 (2021), 70-88. https://doi.org/10.3167/sa.2021.650104
• Flaherty, Robert Pearson. “International Raëlian Movement”. Critical Dictionary of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements. Edited by James Crossley - Alastair Lockhart, 2021. Access 01 October 2021. http://www.cdamm.org/articles/international-raelian-movement. Foith, Michael. “Virtually Witness Augmentation Now: Video Games and the Future of Human Enhancement”. M/C Journal 16/6 (2013). https://doi.org/10.5204/mcj.729
• Gallagher, Eugene V. “Extraterrestrial Exegesis: The Raëlian Movement as a Biblical Religion”. Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 14/2 (2010), 14-33. https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2010.14.2.14 Gregg, Stephen E. “Queer Jesus, Straight Angels: Complicating ‘Sexuality’ and ‘Religion’ in the International Raëlian Movement”. Sexualities 17/5-6 (2014), 565-582. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460714526129
• Gregg, Stephen E. “Poking Fun at the Pope: Anti-Catholic Dialogue, Performance and the ‘Symbolic Construction’ of Identity in the International Raelian Movement”. International Journal for the Study of New Religions 3/1 (2012), 71-91. https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.v3i1.71
• Grünschloß, Andreas. “Waiting for the “Big Beam”: UFO Religions and “Ufological” Themes in New Religious Movements”. The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements. Edited by James R. Lewis - Inga Tøllefsen. 419-444. Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press, 2016. Hanson, Tayah L. The “Rael” World: Narratives of the Raelian Movement. Saskatoon: University of Saskatchewan, Master’s Thesis, 2005.
• Heyking, John von. “‘Groovy Cloned-Baby—Yah!’ - Susan J. Palmer: Aliens Adored: Raël’s UFO Religion. (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2004. Pp. Ix, 226. $17.95.)”. The Review of Politics 67/3 (2005), 565-567. https://doi.org/10.1017/s003467050003477x
• Hippert, Anna Kira. “Factsheet: the Raëlian Movement”. Religion Media Center. Accessed 16 November 2023. https://religionmediacentre.org.uk/factsheets/factsheet-the-raelian-movement/
• Houtman, Dick - Aupers, Stef. “Religions of Modernity: Relocating The Sacred to the Self and the Digital”. Religions of Modernity: Relocating the Sacred to the Self and the Digital. Edited by Stef Aupers - Dick Houtman. 1-29. Leiden: Brill, 2010. Kiran, Asle H. et al. “Beyond Checklists: Toward an Ethical-constructive Technology Assessment”. Journal of Responsible Innovation 2/1 (2015), 5-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/23299460.2014.992769
• Lewis, James R. - Tøllefsen, Inga (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements. Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press, 2016. Lima, Vitor - Belk, Russell W. “Human Enhancement Technologies and the Future of Consumer Well-Being”. Journal of Services Marketing 36/7 (2022), 885-894. https://doi.org/10.1108/jsm-09-2021-0363
• Machado, Carly. “Science, Fiction and Religion: About Real and Raelian Possible Worlds”. Religions of Modernity: Relocating the Sacred to the Self and the Digital. Edited by Stef Aupers - Dick Houtman. 187-204. Leiden: Brill, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004184510.i-273.72 Marinescu, Angelica. “What’s in a Dance? Dalkhai: From a Religious Community Ritual, to a Pro-scenium Performance”. International Review of Social Research 11/1 (2021), 298-313. https://doi.org/10.48154/irsr.2021.0028
• Palmer, Susan. “Women in the Raëlian Movement: New Religious Experiments in Gender and Authority”. The Gods Have Landed: New Religions from Other Worlds. Edited by James R. Lewis. 105-136. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995. Palmer, Susan. “The Rael Deal”. Religion in the News 4/2 (2001) (Access 13 January 2024). https://www3.trincoll.edu/csrpl/RINVol4No2/Rael.htm
• Palmer, Susan J. Aliens Adored: Raël’s UFO Religion. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2004. Palmer, Susan J. - Sentes, Bryan. “The International Raëlian Movement”. The Cambridge Companion to New Religious Movements. Edited by Olav Hammer - Mikael Rothstein. 167-183. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL9780521196505.012 Parkyn, Joel L. “Cosmology, Astrobiology, and Modern Astronomical Technologies”. Exotheology: Theological Explorations of Intelligent Extraterrestrial Life. Edited by Joel L. Parkyn. 13-51. Cambridge: The Lutterworth Press, 2023. Pérez, Elizabeth. “Portable Portals: Transnational Rituals for the Head across Globalizing Orisha Traditions”. Nova Religio 16/4 (2013), 35-62. https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2013.16.4.35
• Rael. Manga of a True Story. Nova Distribution. 2005a. Accessed 13 January 2024. https://www.rael.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Manga_EN.pdf
• Rael. Intelligent Design. Nova Distribution. 2005b. Access 30 November 2023. https://www.rael.org/wpcontent/uploads/2022/04/Intelligent_Design_ENGLISH.pdf
• Rael. Space Aliens Took Me to Their Planet: The Most Important Revelation in the History of Mankind. Canadian Raelian Movement, 1978. Rael. Sensual Meditation. Nova Diffusion. 2002. Accessed 13 January 2024. https://www.rael.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/SensualMeditation_en.pdf
• Sakellariou, Alexandros. “Philosophical Explorations of New and Alternative Religious Movements, Edited by Morgan Luck. Ashgate, 2012, 177 Pp., Hb., £50. ISBN-13: 9781409406532”. International Journal for the Study of New Religions 4/1 (2013), 154-156. https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.v4i1.154
• Sentes, Bryan - Palmer, Susan. “Presumed Immanent: The Raëlians, UFO Religions, and the Postmodern Condition”. Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 4/1 (2000), 86-105. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/nr.2000.4.1.86 Shamir, Yoav. The Prophet and the Space Aliens (Movie, 2020). https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11958790/
• Simon, Zoltán Boldizsár. “The Story of Humanity and the Challenge of Posthumanity”. History of the Human Sciences 32/2 (2018), 101-120. https://doi.org/10.1177/0952695118779519
• Sinani, Danijel. “Salvation and Eternal Life in an Alternative Religious Movement – The Raëlian Book of the Cloned”. Etnoantropološki problemi / Issues in Ethnology and Anthropology 8/1 (2013), 173–198. https://doi.org/10.21301/eap.v8i1.8
• Sorgner, Stefan Lorenz. We Have Always Been Cyborgs: Digital Data, Gen Technologies, and an Ethics of Transhumanism. Bristol: Policy Press, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1332/policypress/9781529219203.001.0001
• Szabados, Krisztián. Transhumanism as a Thin-Centred Ideology. Budapest: Corvinus University of Budapest, Doctoral School of Political Science, PhD. Dissertation, 2020. https://doi.org/10.14267/phd.2021020
• Urban, Hugh B. New Age, Neopagan, and New Religious Movements: Alternative Spirituality in Contemporary America. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2015. Urgan, Suzan. “Transhumanism and Positive Psychological Capital in Organizational Behavior”. Handbook of Research on Learning in the Age of Transhumanism. Ed. Serap Sisman-Ugur - Gulsun Kurubacak. 328-345. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference, 2019. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-8431-5.ch020 Vorilhon, Claude. Le Livre qui dit la vérité: Le message donné par les extra-terrestres. Clermont-Ferrand: Édition du Message, 1974. The Washington Post. “Raelians Believe Cloning Holds Key to Immortality”. Accessed 16 November 2023. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2002/12/28/raelians-believe-cloning-holds-key-to-immortality/635c6b5a-09e9-4a57-9add-cd8e1853ee48/
• Wells, Ken. “The Triangle”. Proceedings. Ed. Tony Pope. 51-55. Williamstown: Australian & New Zealand Masonic Research Council, 2006. Yeşilyurt, Büşra - Yeşilyurt, Muhammet. “Dini Transhümanizmin Bir Örneği Olarak ‘Terasem Trans-Dini’”. Mizanü’l-Hak: İslami İlimler Dergisi 15 (2022), 555-574. https://doi.org/10.47502/mizan.1184892 Zeller, Benjamin E. “At the Nexus of Science and Religion: UFO Religions”. Religion Compass 5/11 (2011), 666-674. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-8171.2011.00313.x