"Computers will match us in emotional intelligence, which includes our whole moral system," says inventor and computer scientist Ray Kurzweil.

Biological and technological evolution "is a spiritual process," says this famous futurist. "Entities become more godlike, never reaching that ideal but moving in that direction exponentially."

Purposefulness and self-sacrifice in human life "can never be reduced to a machine," according to this bioethicist.

In the brave new world of social media, says communication professor Stephen O'Leary, church authorities from pastors to the heads of denominations "no longer have the kind of control they once did."

"Patients require that one-on-one encounter, the Samaritan function of being a physician," says writer and Stanford Medical School professor Abraham Verghese. "When the physician examines the patient, this is an incredibly important ritual."

Author and consultant Rushworth Kidder says there can be unintended ethical consequences when people use powerful new social media without "a moral compass."

"Patients require that one-on-one encounter, the Samaritan function of being a physician," says writer and Stanford Medical School professor Abraham Verghese. "I'm convinced that when the physician examines the patient, this is an incredibly important ritual."

The natural world teaches birth, death, glory, and transformation, but are students so wired to technology that they have become oblivious to nature's lessons?

"Spirituality has always had a virtual aspect to it," says anthropology professor Tom Boellsdorff. "People in Second Life can pray and do all kinds of things and find it completely spiritually fulfilling."

"You can’t say that religious opinions made over 1, 000 years ago are valid for all times," says Gamal al-Banna, a reformist Muslim cleric in Egypt. "We must have a revolution in the understanding of Islam, a revolution almost like Martin Luther’s."