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For example, think of our species. We have members that embrace trans-humanism and tribes that appease their great-grands with offerings. The two are different and very unlikely to be related, thus where I draw the line for my question.

In a futuristic scenario, when our species have evolved by merging with our AI's and nanotechnology, there's a teenager, whose great-great-great grandfather has just been promoted as a godling.

They are related by blood. The teenager struggling with her college and scholarship entrance exams, praying to her great-great-great grandfather, now a moon-sized mega construct efficiently managing his own business that has grown to an entire polity composing his entire body.

Is there such a race, from any relevant text, practicing such a religion?

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  • $\begingroup$ Hi Kyle. Welcome to world building. I get ancestor worship but what is transcendence / transhumanism? That you become something more than you were when you die? $\endgroup$ – Willk May 27 '18 at 17:24
  • $\begingroup$ It looks like you are looking for a literature reference, not for worldbuilding $\endgroup$ – L.Dutch - Reinstate Monica♦ May 27 '18 at 17:25
  • $\begingroup$ Are you looking for a work of fiction where this occurs? I think SciFi Exchange might be more appropriate: scifi.stackexchange.com/questions $\endgroup$ – Daron May 27 '18 at 17:27
  • $\begingroup$ I also think a more appropriate title is something like "Is there a novel where people can evolve into sentient planets?". $\endgroup$ – Daron May 27 '18 at 17:28
  • $\begingroup$ There are many works where people transcend their bodies into technology (Greg Bear's They Way) and many others with sentient planets (Solaris). I can't think of one where they combine. $\endgroup$ – Daron May 27 '18 at 17:36
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In Ian McDonald's Scissors cut Paper wrap Stone Shintoism has evolved from the mere devotion toward the ancestors to a high tech religion, where people can backup their mind and, after their death, the backup is logged into a system allowing direct contact with the descendants.

One of them, killed by a cancer, gains consciousness and from its avatar takes control of ToSec, ruling good part of Japan under its company.

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    $\begingroup$ I was going to suggest Shintoism too - in that religion there exist transcendent deities and also ancestral spirits which persist and are capable of influencing events on our plane. $\endgroup$ – Willk May 27 '18 at 17:33
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I was also going to suggest an evolution of Shinto since it contains elements of ancestor worship but is not, in it's current form, transcendent but is rather an immanent religion. The reason I'm writing an answer at all is to point you at the work of Jack Campbell, his Lost Fleet series contains just the sort of religion you seem to be asking about. People worship their ancestors as departed, transcendent beings who can still guide them in life if they have the wisdom to listen to them.

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