19.08.2026, Moscow.
Science, when it becomes a religion, undergoes a very dangerous mutation, political scientist, philosopher, and leader of the Essence of Time movement Sergey Kurginyan said on August 7 during the program Conversation with a Sage on the Zvezda radio.
The political scientist noted that human is the only creature on Earth that is aware of their own mortality. People live with this knowledge, and it is incredibly burdensome for them. At the same time, as Kurginyan emphasized, hope is inherent in human nature; people strive to somehow overcome the burden of their awareness of mortality by entrusting their hope to someone else.
“You can delegate hope to higher powers. Or you can delegate hope to a machine, a deus ex machina (the 18th century when the Enlightenment begins). Or you can delegate it to a computer. Why not? Someone has to do it,” the leader of Essence of Time clarified, citing lyrics from a song by Bulat Okudzhava as an explanation, “I need someone to pray to.”
“This faith permeates all the leadership, Baptist and other teachings. It encompasses Silicon Valley; there are dozens of things there, if not churches, then something similar,” the political scientist explained.
At the same time, he emphasized that people will always strive to avoid death; they cannot be prevented from doing so. According to him, growing rationalism is redirecting this desire toward a belief in one’s own abilities or a belief in science, after all, people need to believe in something.
“Science, when it becomes a religion, undergoes a very dangerous mutation. But it will inevitably undergo it,” the political scientist added.
In 2015, former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski founded a religious organization in Silicon Valley called Way of the Future, whose deity was artificial intelligence (AI).
The church officially closed at the end of 2020, and all of its assets were donated to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). However, in 2023, Levandowski announced that he was reviving his church because he believed AI could bring heaven on Earth.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
