Westworld -- a sci-fi Western thriller on HBO -- has taken the television world by storm. It features a cast of characters navigating a theme park where guests can pay to indulge any adventure with the android population in the park, including sexual encounters or fights to the death. As you could imagine, things get weird.
One of the weirdest things is that there is the question of whether or not these androids have souls. Or, if doing whatever humans want to these beings is ethical or sinful.
To talk about these quandaries, Kimberly Winston of Religion News Service interviewed me for a piece entitled, "HBO'S Westworld: Robot Sex and the Nature of the Soul."
She opens with:
...as unsettling as some of the scenes in “Westworld” are, the show raises theological questions about what it means to be human and what it costs us to sacrifice our humanity for momentary pleasure.
Continue reading to explore more about android souls and affect theory, robot sex and sin.