BECOMING ANGELS IN PARADISE

Religion and science mix in Freeman’s nonfiction exploration of the nature of angels.

A near-ubiquitous trope found in religions from around the world and throughout history involves a “class of supermen and superwomen who have watched over us and the larger biosphere for hundreds of millions of years.” Distinct from their infallible, omnipresent, omniscient creator, “even the tallest, strongest, smartest and longest living angels,” such as Lucifer, have been susceptible to their own egos and foibles. Well versed in world religions, the author begins this work by considering the relationship between angels and humanity, from the perspectives of multiple religions. Central to the book is Freeman’s speculation that “divine spirit entities could have carried the raw information contained on a human genome,” and that the men and women who lived on Earth before the global flood of the Noah’s ark story were, in fact, angels. This idea, per the author, explains the otherwise impossibly long lifespans of Biblical figures like Methuselah and fits into a scientific narrative of an angelic role in “managing evolution on earth.” Blending eclectic religious ideas with science, Freeman speculates that future scientific advancements, such as artificial intelligence, may be used by “spirit collectives” to prepare humanity for our next evolutionary step to a more peaceful future. While not all readers, ranging from those who adhere to religious orthodoxies to atheists, will be convinced by the author’s religious interpretations (which came to him, in part, in a dream he had as a teenager), the book nevertheless poses compelling questions about the intersection of religious and scientific ideas, from computer simulations to multiverse theories. While critical of traditional Christianity—arguing, for instance, that Christians since the fourth century have stripped Jesus of his core socialist message—Freeman is generally inclusive of multiple religions, blending Abrahamic doctrines with Hinduism, Buddhism, and even Greek mythology.

An idiosyncratic, frequently intriguing study of angels and humanity’s future.