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The algorithm and the almighty: rethinking omniscience, suffering, and salvation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2025

Kimberly A. Madero Open the ORCID record for Kimberly A. Madero [Opens in a new window]
Kimberly A. Madero*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
*
Email: kimberly.madero@colorado.edu
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Abstract

This article examines the philosophical and theological implications of artificial intelligence (AI) and the technological singularity for core religious concepts. The predictive capacities of AI challenge traditional accounts of divine omniscience, raising critical questions about the distinction between algorithmic foreknowledge and theological models of perfect knowledge. The increasing determinacy of human behaviour through data-driven systems complicates classical formulations of human freedom and moral responsibility. Additionally, the potential for artificial suffering demands an expansion of theodicy and a reassessment of the creator-creature relationship in light of human technological agency. Finally, emerging technological eschatologies, promising digital immortality and transcendence, confront religious soteriology with novel anthropocentric models of salvation.

This study argues that the philosophy of religion must critically rearticulate its categories of knowledge, suffering, and eschatological hope to remain conceptually viable in a world mediated by intelligent systems.

Keywords

artificial intelligenceomnisciencetechnological singularitysoteriologytechnological transcendence
Type
The Big Question
Information
Religious Studies , First View , pp. 1 - 3
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press.

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References

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