I Overheard: Technology is Killing off God and Religion
Why are so many young thinkers in Silicon Valley’s Tech industry insisting that belief in God and Religion are the equivalent of believing in Santa Klaus? Will Artificial Intelligence and other forms of technology automatically weaponize future generations against the concepts of God and Religion?
*A recent spate of national polls from the Pew Research Center and Gallup certainly make it look that way.
(Stephanie Simonovitch for HERZ)
“I believe A.I. will eventually eradicate not only most diseases but death itself,” a seventeen year old girl told me as I interviewed several young Tic-Toc creators between 16–30 about recent polls by Gallup and Pew Research Center that indicate technology and the new digital world is “killing off God and religion” among many younger Americans. She added, “And we have to look beyond just A.I. It’s about the coming of Super Intelligence and Bio-Intelligence. Humans will soon become immortal due to technological advances, so…who will need God anymore?”
Pretty heady words coming from a seventeen year old. But I found myself enthralled by her conviction in what she was saying. I’ve chosen not to name her due to her age. But she continued telling me, “All of this religion stuff is just superstition that we’ve passed down from male dominated ancient church societies that needed a social construct to control the herd so to speak. We needed God and religion as institutions for creating strict rules about moral behavior. Without morality, humans couldn’t have achieved civilization. So men created holy books and religion to control the herds. But how long will these cave-man superstitions created by very insecure men who basically describe God as a jealous male who oppresses women and hates gay people among many other human-like insecurities and prejudices — how long will these superstitions be able to compete with tangible outcomes and far superior advancements that Super Intelligence and Bio-Intelligence are bound to bring us? We can’t see or hear God. But we can see material advancements, we can see ourselves flying — if technology makes us able to fly — and we can see being immortal on our own human terms if that happens, which I believe it will. It’s going to be a whole new world in a minute. The old world, the world as we knew it, is pretty much on its death bed right now. And both God and religion will perish with it.”
Muslim writer Saddish Umprah, a student in Toronto, held a different view. He states, “In the Islamic faith, it’s okay to start off your life doubting the existence of Allah. It’s even sacred to hold such doubt because many Mullahs see it as the prerequisite to moving towards enlightenment. But it’s ludicrous to think that Artificial Intelligence or any man-made thing will ever replace the need for Allah or religion. That’s like saying love won’t be necessary anymore. And the one thing we definitely know is that human beings need love. We can’t live without it.”
Gallup research indicates that only 79% of Americans say they believe in God, which is an all-time low in the United States. The nation’s previous low was 81% as reported by Gallup in their 2022 poll. The loss of 2% of believers in just two years — is staggering. But when you factor in recent data from a Pew Research Center Poll targeting Americans aged 30 and younger, it truly puts some weight behind the comments of the seventeen year old Tic-Toc inflencer. Only 51% of younger Americans told the Pew Research Poll that they ‘believe absolutely’ in God.
Kelvin Dodd, a nineteen year old African-American male who is studying to become an ordained Christian/Baptist minister told me: “Most religious leaders and institutions made a horrible mistake in the past. Historically they didn’t allow anyone to talk about how the church, the religion itself, has harmed and oppressed people. Battered wives were told to cling to their husbands even if he was molesting the children in the house. You couldn’t criticize the fact that imperfect humans donning long gowns with crosses on their chests were running everything. People were being damned and destroyed by judgmental clergy, sometimes fanatics. So it caused a lot of spiritual harm and ill will over the centuries. People who are hurting inside no longer believe that they deserve to be suffering and hurting. Masses of Self-Help books have assassinated the whole martyr mystique. Psychological conceptualizing makes people ask a lot more questions now. Not only are people ignoring religious doctrine and going inward to answer questions — they’re also dumping the big mainstream religions like Christianity, Islam and Judaism. I notice a lot of Black girls, for instance, are turning to traditional African religions like Voodoo, Santeria and Heka. As a future Baptist Minister I originally found that really disturbing and jarring for me to take in. I come from generations of God-fearing, God-loving Black people in America. People who always depended on ‘The Good Lord’ to make a way out of no way. But now in 2024, I’m seeing also with White and Latin teenagers and twenty-somethings…there is a great deal of angst and bitterness regarding religious observance. Something is happening out there. In all races of human beings. I’m only nineteen myself, so I can totally feel the changing dynamics all around me. A lot of young people feel they will be much freer and happier if they drop this huge obligation called religion. The guilt and mental stress around religion takes a big toll on people’s ability to enjoy their lives. They aren’t getting stimuli from the concept of God and religion like our parents and other elders felt they did in previous generations.”
But why is Technology necessarily the replacement?
“Science answers our questions and fears with real facts that we can see and experience in the same way that we can see and experience a person standing in front of us and talking to us”, says Brian Nelson Simpson, a lab researcher in Silicon Valley. “I was raised Catholic. I think we were all raised with some sort of religious teachings as Americans. But as Technology continues to have a much bigger influence and becomes the central activator of virtually all events in daily human life, even surpassing man as Artificial Intelligence and the digital world become more intelligent than human beings and eventually sentient which will make it dominant — I definitely expect there to be a drastic change in how many people actually continue to believe that God exists and is listening to them — or that religion holds real understanding as a prescriptive value to life’s problems and situations. It’s just the natural order of change. Technology will train humans to look to it for the answers. I would even venture to say that the various technologies themselves will become a new form of Gods as we had in the old tribal days…little pockets and groups of people will come to have their own favorite Tech entities that they believe in due to the fact that those entities will be far more intelligent than humankind…and those entities, not a God they’re unable to see, will converse with them and give them whatever they ask for. Like a lot of Scientists here in Silicon Valley I do see that day coming. ”
Stephanie Simonovitch is a regular contributor and member of the new platform HERZ.