Sheldon Cooper and the Immortality and Eternal Life of Man

I was recently watching a re-run of the television show ‘Big Bang Theory’.  In this episode, Sheldon Cooper (the genius theoretical physicist who likely has something like Asperger Syndrome), regrets that he will likely die before scientists figure out how to transfer his consciousness into a robot so that he can live forever.

Sheldon, among other things, is something of an atheist who frequently ridicules his mother’s devout Christian faith.  And while he has legitimate questions about some aspects of her fundamentalist (likely Southern Baptist) beliefs, he seems oblivious to his own version of faith in man’s science.

His hope is not significantly different from the Christian hope of immortality and eternal life.  He acknowledges that there is something real yet mysterious about our conscious self.  He assumes that this consciousness is eternal in its ‘ nature.  And he hopes that if this consciousness can be transferred to a permanent body, then immortality will be his to enjoy.

This hope is not unlike the Christian hope in a resurrection, where our spirits can be transferred to a permanent body.  And while Sheldon has faith that someday mankind will figure out how to pull this feat off, his mother, and Christians everywhere, has faith that there already is something of a master scientist who already has it figured out.