There was a dark horse in the 2015 presidential race—a real political outsider named Zoltan Istyan. He was the presidential candidate for the Transhumanist Party, a party whose purpose is to, "become god-like and overcome death." Zoltan spent his months before the election driving around the country in an RV camper shaped like a coffin, called the "Immortality Bus," proffering the gospel of science and technology, and its ability to overcome death in our lifetime.

"I'm hoping," he wrote, "my Immortality Bus will become an important symbol in the growing longevity movement around the world. It will be my way of challenging the public's apathetic stance on whether dying is good or not. By engaging people with a provocative, drivable giant coffin, debate is sure to occur across the United States and hopefully around the world. I'm a firm believer that the next great civil rights debate will be on transhumanism…"

He's right in line with Google's "human longevity" program. It is called the California Life Company (Calico for short), and their expressed interest is in "tackling aging, one of life's greatest mysteries."

Possible Preaching Angles: Ethan Richardson adds: "Of course no one really likes death—which is one reason why Ash Wednesday is one of those holidays that's never going to be coopted by our culture at-large. Easter may go the way of chocolate bunnies and Peeps, we're still trying to hold on to Christmas, but Ash Wednesday is safe. The message of Ash Wednesday—'ashes to ashes, dust to dust'; or 'You are going to die'—is one day the church will get to keep all ourselves."