Artificial Intelligence and the Religious Imagination of the Future: A Comparative Study of Eschatology, Soteriology, and Technological Utopianism

Abstract

Contemporary discourses surrounding artificial intelligence are increasingly framed in terms of radical futures: superintelligence, existential risk, human transcendence, and civilizational rupture. These narratives often present themselves as secular and scientific, yet they display striking structural similarities to classical religious doctrines of eschatology and soteriology. This article offers a philosophical and comparative analysis of artificial intelligence futures through the lens of religious studies, arguing that contemporary AI imaginaries reproduce key elements of religious end-time and salvation narratives in a secularized form. By comparing AI discourse with traditions of eschatology, soteriology, and apocalyptic expectation, the study reveals the implicit religious dimensions embedded within technological utopianism and catastrophe narratives. The paper further argues that these AI-driven future visions reshape contemporary understandings of hope, redemption, and responsibility, often displacing ethical agency from communal and moral practices to technical systems. Rather than dismissing AI futures as mere ideology, the article contends that recognizing their quasi-religious structure is essential for critically assessing their cultural power and normative implications.