The great sociologist Emile Durkheim makes clear why religion is an essential part of every human society: it is because we have a primal need to believe in something bigger than ourselves — and that something we call “The Sacred. “
In his masterpiece, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1912), Durkheim untangled the myriad ways that our religious impulse can manifest in society. One of those ways was recently highlighted by Joseph Bernstein in the New York Times: he details how, in ancient Greece, the Oracle of Delphi became the voice of God.
“The Delphic oracle was a woman who was thought to be in direct contact with the god Apollo — the word of a deity given human form. Just as chatbots seem to mediate between a greater intelligence via a human voice, so was the oracle a literal medium.” In this modern version, he argues, Artificial Intelligence is playing that same role.
But you may say that doesn’t make any sense because MAGA is focused on making traditional religion the centerpiece of American society. Not so, according to critics, including James Talarico, a rising star U.S. Senate candidate who happens to be both a democrat and a devout Christian. He agrees that all the great religions are pursuing the “same truth.”
But unfortunately, throughout history, religions have often been hijacked by politicians to further their naked political ends. That’s what people like Talarico contend is happening today: They argue the Christian Nationalist movement within MAGA is not a religion but a political juggernaut currying favor with the rich and powerful, like Trump and his billionaire cabinet. Unconscionably, while greedily enriching themselves, they are slashing medical and essential social services for the average citizen.
They are blatantly ignoring the Biblical commandment to be a good neighbor and to welcome the stranger in need. They ignore the scripture that states, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
I guess that’s why Kingsnorth, best-selling author of “Against the Machine,” has become an orthodox Christian. He believes Western society has abandoned its 1,500-year-old sacred order in favor of a “machine” culture defined by technology, consumerism and rationalism.
Sorry for the digression. Let’s cut to the chase and listen to a few of the critics who are making the connection between AI and God.
The linguist Adam Aleksic wrote in his popular Substack, “You’re Literally Worshiping Your Phone.” He argues in an interview with the New York Times that interacting with an algorithm on your phone has come to resemble a religious ritual: “You assume it knows a piece of you. You are offering your attention and in exchange you get something.”
Not to be outdone, Joe Rogan, the prominent podcaster, who endorsed Trump in 2024 but who is now more critical — and, interestingly enough, recently started to worship in a Christian church — suggests that when Jesus returns, it could be as an algorithm:
“Jesus was born out of a virgin mother; what’s more virgin than a computer?” he said on the “American Alchemy” podcast. “If Jesus does return — even if Jesus was a physical person in the past — you don’t think that he could return as artificial intelligence?”
But, in the final analysis, we shouldn’t be surprised by all this talk because nothing has really changed: “What unites the gods of every spiritual tradition is that they are capable of communicating with us,” As Meghan O’Gieblyn makes clear in her book “God, Human, Animal, Machine.” According to her, this is merely another form of nonhuman intelligence communicating with us.
While this may be true, our new AI God is not grounded in any underlying moral authority but in the greed of the titans of Silicon Valley. What could possibly go wrong?