Paper short abstract:

In the age of social media and AI, a new techno-scientific socially constructed narrative about the future and our physical universe emerged which is both redefining traditional religions but also becoming a “religion for atheists”: the simulation hypothesis.

Paper long abstract:

The simulation hypothesis, an idea that has emerged in the past decade as one taken seriously in techno-scientific circles, has been called “religion for atheists” by religious scholars, and “science for believers” by scientists. In showing how technoscientific narratives emerge within societies shaped by modern technology, it has also been referred to as the first “meme religion” for virtual natives ( millenials and GenZ), emerging after decades of both atheism and “spiritual but not religious” growing to a significant part of the religious landscape in the west This paper looks at parallels between different religious traditions and narratives and shows how they now have parallels within this new techno-scientific narrative, which has been promulgated by a new techno-optimistic disposition of innovators, techno-philosophers, scientists and other academics (including religious scholars) in the age of social media, video games, transhumanism and artificial intelligence. British transhumanist philosopher David Pearce has, for examples, Bostrom’s simulation paper “…the most interesting argument for the existence of a creator in 2000 years”. This has created a new kind of “technoscientific spirituality” that is a hybrid of traditional religions, technological progress, and scientific epistemologies of the world. This paper hopes to understand how the social construction of science and religion play together, how scientific epistemologies and techno-deterministic views about the future make scientists and technologists views about the future fit into new western, colonialist narratives which may already have started displacing traditional religious narratives, via one of the most prominent technoscientific narratives, simulation hypothesis.