Will AI replace priests and religious leaders too?

February, 23, 2024

Yes, AI may replace human priests, pastors, and religious leaders. These are the knowledge workers of the religious industry. AI will begin helping and advising religious leaders, and AI may ultimately mature enough to become religious leaders in the future. 

With the AI bubble well on its way, it seems that our predictions about AI becoming the next dot.com bubble are well on track to becoming reality within the next 5 years. So far we have not missed our prediction regarding NVIDIA's stock price. It has continued going up and up. The current valuation is irrational. Sooner or later the NVIDIA stock bubble will burst. 

New AI Religions 

If AI were to produce new religions for humanity, what would they look like? They would most likely resemble a hodgepodge of existing human religions. Creativity is all about mixing up and reshaping what already exists. Nothing can be created from nothing. Everything is created from something. Creating new religions would not be any different. It would begin with exploring what's already out there and adapting it into a new product. 

Generative AI excels at creating new content out of pre existing content. AI programming is fundamentally different than traditional computer programming. Traditional programming entails a human programmer coding the rules of the game. AI programming entails showing the game to the computer to let it figure out the rules. AI identifies the patterns that lead to correct results in the games. With practice and training, AI becomes a master at the game. All without a human ever dictating the rules of play to the computer, but rather the computer figuring out the rules that apply to excel at the game.

Let's imagine that we want AI to create a new religion. Traditional programming would entail dictating to the AI program all the rules to follow to create a new religion. On the other hand, AI programming entails loading large data sets about existing religions for AI to decipher what are the data patterns and applicable rules leading to the formation of religion.  

Of Pain and Pleasure 

First and foremost, religion is a human invention. At Creatix, our philosophy contends that humans are organic computers genetically programmed to do one and only one thing: seek pain relief. At Creatix, we believe that everything (absolutely everything) in the history of humanity can be explained in light of the binary pain / pleasure programming of organic life. 

Humans survive because their genetically inherited and culturally learned pain / pleasure mental associations happen to lead to increased chances of survival. Take food as an example. Humans that find starvation painful and eating pleasurable are motivated to find food, which when successful, increases their chances of survival and eventual reproduction. Theoretical humans for whom food was super painful and starvation pleasurable, would most likely go extinct. Organisms avoid the pain of starvation and seek the pleasure of food. In so doing, they happen to increase their chances of survival and procreation. The trait of hating starvation and enjoying food is carried forward by natural selection. The opposite trait goes extinct.  

As mentioned above, the fundamental philosophy of Creatix is that humans are programmed to avoid pain and seek pleasure. Religion taps into that binary programming neatly. The human condition can be psychologically daunting and painful. The brain operates as a prediction machine. Uncertainty and the inability to predict the future can prove psychologically painful to humans. Enter religion to the rescue. 

Religion offers a psychological analgesic (pain relief) that helps humans cope with their existential pains, the pains of the human condition. Religion helps humans cope with the pain of ignorance, uncertainty, and the fear of the unknown. Religion soothes the human mind and motivates humans to hold certain beliefs and behave in certain ways to receive rewards (blessings) on Earth and, oftentimes, in an imaginary afterlife. Religion creates a community of fellow believers and practitioners helping each other survive and contribute to the collective wellbeing of a community.  

Religion can alleviate the pains of the human condition and help humans achieve individual and collective wellbeing in exchange of followership, abidance, and social conformance to the rules of the moral community called church. 

What is religion? 

Fundamentally, a religion is a belief system based on faith. Believing by faith is creating neural connections (synapses) about what is "true" and "sacred" absent empirical evidence or objective proof. Religion can be seen as a technology (tool and method) for human domestication and social control. Religion can be seen as an operating system for regulating human behavior and maintaining collective behavioral health. 

While religions vary widely in their beliefs, practices, and cultural contexts, there are several common themes and values that many religions share. These include: Creedence, Rituals, Existentialism, Ethics, Discipline (CREED)

• Credence

All religions require believing a specific creed of faith. Religious programming in the human brain entails creating mental associations (synaptic connections) absent empirical evidence or independent proof. Religious beliefs must be accepted by faith and suspension of rational disbelief. 

Often, yet not always, religious creeds involve believing in deities and supernatural forces that believers associate with what is unknown to them or otherwise out of their control. Believers interpret random events and events controlled by luck as events controlled or influenced by supernatural and "spiritual" forces. Many religions involve believing in supernatural or divine powers imagined by humans to be sacred and worthy of worship. These mythological beliefs often serves as the foundational creed and structural bonding element of the religion. 

• Rituals 

All major religions have rituals and practices that serve as expressions of devotion, reverence, and spiritual connection. These rituals may include prayer, meditation, worship services, ceremonies, festivals, sacraments, and rites of passage.

Religion almost always include sets of specific beliefs, practices, and rituals that promote unity in a group unity or community in what is called a "church". Religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to things considered sacred. Religious beliefs and practices can promote individual human wellbeing and social unity in community.

• Existentialism

All religions deal with the pain of human existence. To promote wellbeing and sooth the human mind, religions provide made up answers to existential questions including the origins of the universe, the purpose of existence, the meaning of life, and so on.  

Religions offer answers to existential questions posed by human endless curiosity and infinite imagination. Religion offers a theory of existence and universal reality for believers and practitioners to leverage to enlighten their existence as individuals and members of a moral community called church. 

• Ethics

Virtually all religions include ethical principles and moral values that guide individuals in their conduct and interactions with others. These principles often emphasize concepts such as compassion, justice, honesty, humility, forgiveness, and respect for others' dignity and rights.

These common themes and values reflect the universal human quest for meaning, transcendence, connection, and ethical living, transcending cultural, geographical, and historical boundaries. While each religion may emphasize certain aspects more than others, they share a fundamental commitment to fostering spiritual growth, ethical conduct, and the search for truth and meaning in life.

All major religions promote the ethical values of community service, compassion, and social justice, encouraging their followers to alleviate suffering, advocate for the marginalized and oppressed, and work towards a more just and equitable society. This may involve acts of charity, humanitarian aid, activism, and advocacy for human rights and dignity.

• Discipline

Religions promote worship and obedience in exchange of wellbeing and oftentimes even eternal salvation. Religions offer individual and collective rewards in exchange for disciplined adherence to the faith. Religion installs the belief (mental programming) that by abiding to the rules of the sacred and divine, faithfully and with suspension of disbelief, believers will receive existential rewards (blessings) here on Earth, and oftentimes, in an imaginary afterlife. 

As part of the rewards and blessings offered by religion, many denominations emphasize the importance of "spiritual" growth, inner transformation, and personal development as central goals of religious practice. This may involve cultivating virtues, deepening one's relationship with the divine, seeking enlightenment or salvation, and striving for greater wisdom, compassion, and integrity.

AI Religions

In the future, it is not inconceivable that AI gets heavily involved in religion. AI can help humans deepen their understanding of their religions. AI can be the perfect "altar servers" for human religious leaders. Eventually, AI can replace human religious leaders. 

AI can help humans craft new religions that can be more credible and viral in modern days. To create new religions, AI programming will look into existing religions to figure out the rules of the religious game. AI can come up with adaptations of the same universal themes of credence, rituals, existentialism, ethics, and discipline (CREED) in exchange of rewards (blessings) in this life and in an imaginary digital afterlife. AI can examine large data sets of religious data to identify the patterns of cause and effect that lead to some religions being more popular than others. In general, history has shown that the the most absurd or unbelievable the "CREED", the strongest possibility of the religion going viral. 

Almost by definition, religious beliefs cannot be proven and must be believed by faith and a total suspension of rational disbelief. Believing by faith often strengthen the bonding between faithful believers that now share a bond of fellowship and community in the church of believers. Together they embrace the pains of human existence.

Conclusion

The AI Era is just beginning. Today, February 23, 2024, we seem to be in the early days of the AI investing bubble in Wall Street. This bubble will continue growing and expanding until it pops abruptly. Not unlike the dot.com bubble, the burst will bring heavy losses, but the AI industry will continue flourishing afterwards ever more strongly. Just like computers and the internet "invaded" every single aspect of modern society, AI will "invade" every sector of human enterprise and endeavor. Religion will not be an exception. 

Inevitably, just like computers and the internet, AI will mix itself up in the realm of religion. This will entail using AI to spread current religions and different denominations within them. This may also entail AI producing new religions based on existing ones. Religion fulfills deep existential needs of human beings that derive from the pain and pleasure programming of organic life. Religions serve as an analgesic (pain reliever) against the existential pains of the human condition. Religions have accompanied humans for millennia and will continue doing so in the foreseeable future. AI religious leaders will emerge and some will become popular. New AI religions are likely in the future.

AI programming is different than traditional computer programming. In traditional computer programming, the human programmer tells the computer what to do. The human programmer sets the rules of the game for the computer to play it. In AI programming, the human programmer does not dictate the rules. Instead, the programmer feeds the desirable results into the computer program for the program to decipher what are the rules of the game and how to play the game to win. The AI program finds patterns and correlations in the data sets of winning moves or desirable results to find out how to produce those results. 

AI ends up learning the rules of cause and effect that make up any game. This "reverse programming" process allows for significantly easier programming and significantly superior results. The AI learns to play the game by itself after studying large data sets of desirable results. The AI ends up excelling at the game, whatever it may be. If the AI game is religion, AI will excel at it too.  

Stay tuned. In AI, the best is yet to come.