RELIGION, TECHNOLOGY AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE POSTMODERN WORLD: ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Main Article Content
Abstract
Postmodernity has fundamentally reshaped the relationship between religion and technology, generating unprecedented ethical challenges that permeate every dimension of human experience. Postmodernism’s critique of grand narratives destabilizes both traditional religious authority and techno-scientifi c certainty, thereby creating novel pathways for collaborative ethical approaches. This study examines four critical technological domains that pose signifi cant ethical dilemmas: biotechnology,
artifi cial intelligence, digital surveillance, and environmental technologies. The analysis reveals that despite theological diff erences, diverse religious traditions
converge on shared ethical principles. The article proposes an innovative framework for interreligious technological ethics that harnesses religious pluralism as a source
of wisdom for addressing contemporary technological challenges. This approach transcends secular-religious dichotomies and promotes a more humanistic and
spiritually enriched technological future. The study demonstrates how postmodern conditions, rather than undermining religious authority, facilitate more humble and
dialogical approaches to technological ethics by drawing upon multiple wisdom traditions while preserving each tradition’s theological integrity. Thus, this research
establishes theoretical foundations for practical interreligious collaboration in addressing the moral complexities of emerging technologies.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
References
Alkhouri, Khader I. „The Role of Artificial Intelligence in the Study of the Psychology of Religion.” Religions 15, no. 3 (2024): 290. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15030290
Ammerman, Nancy T. „Finding Religion in Everyday Life.” Sociology of Religion 75, no. 2 (2014): 189–207. https://doi.org/10.1093/sorel/sru013
Beaman, Lori G. „Deep Equality as an Alternative to Accommodation and Tolerance.”
Nordic Journal of Religion and Society 27, no. 2 (2014): 89-111. https://doi.org/10.18261/ISSN1890-7008-2014-02-01
Beraldo, Sergio. „From Libertarian Paternalism to AI-Powered Nudging: New Challenges for Freedom.” Lecture presented at SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Warsaw, Poland, April 16, 2025.
Brey, Philip A. E. „Ethics of Emerging Technologies.” In The Ethics of Technology: Methods and Approaches, edited by Sven Ove Hansson, 175–92. Philosophy, Technology and Society. Lanham, MD: Rowman&Littlefield International, 2017.
Caidi, Nadia, Puneet Nangia, Heidi Samson, Ceren Ekmekcioglu, and Michael Olsson. „Spiritual and Religious Information Experiences: An Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST) Paper.” Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 2025, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24983
Campbell, Heidi A. „Understanding the Relationship Between Religion Online and Offline in a Networked Society.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 80, no. 1 (2012): 64-93.
Campbell, Heidi A., and Stephen Garner. Networked Theology: Negotiating Faith in Digital Culture. Engaging Culture series. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2016.
Engelhardt, H. Tristram, Jr. „Why Ecumenism Fails: Taking Theological Differences Seriously.” Christian Bioethics 13, no. 1 (2007): 25–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/13803600701282997
Farahany, Nita A. The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2023.
Feroze, Kanwal. „Earth-Man Relationship in Islam and Hinduism.” Al-Basirah 11, no. 1 (2024): 17–34. https://doi.org/10.52015/albasirah.v11i01.25
Francis. Laudato si’. Encyclical letter. Vatican website. 2015. https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html
Gao, Quan, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong, and Siew Ying Shee. „Lived Religion in a Digital Age: Technology, Affect and the Pervasive Space-Times of ‘New’ Religious Praxis.” Social & Cultural Geography 25, no. 1 (2022): 29–48.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2022.2121979
Gare, Arran. „The Postmodernism of Deep Ecology, the Deep Ecology of Postmodernism, and Grand Narratives.” Swinburne, 2000. https://doi.org/10.25916/sut.26255285.v1
Guardini, Romano. The End of the Modern World: A Search for Orientation.
New Edition. Chicago: SkyhorsePublishing, 2001.
Illich, Ivan. Deschooling Society. New York: Harper & Row, 1971.
Ishida, Shu, and Tsutomu Sawai. „From CRISPR to Conscience: Ethical Dilemmas in Gene Editing and Genetic Selection.” The American Journal of Bioethics 24, no. 8 (August 2024): 67–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2024.23
Jones, Joseph. „Don’t Fear Artificial Intelligence, Question the Business Model: How Surveillance Capitalists Use Media to Invade Privacy, Disrupt Moral Autonomy, and Harm Democracy.” Journal of Communication Inquiry 49, no. 1 (2024): 6–26. https://doi.org/10.1177/01968599241235209
Kong, Lily. „Religion and Technology: Refiguring Place, Space, Identity and Community.” Area 33, no. 4 (2001): 404–13. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20004181
Krigner, Henrique. „The Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant Definitions of Justice and the Liberation Theology.” Paper presented at Upholding Liberty & Justice, Promise of the Declaration conference, Liberty University, 2023.
Ladas, Ioannis. „Interreligious Bioethics: Challenges and Perspectives.” Arhe 21, no. 42 (2024): 203-220. https://doi.org/10.19090/arhe.2024.42.203-220
Ladas, Ioannis. „Interreligious Perspectives on Surrogate Motherhood.” Bioethika 10, no. 2 (2024): 39–54. https://doi.org/10.12681/bioeth.39043
Ladas, Ioannis. „Life after COVID-19: Understanding the Environment for Humanity’s Survival and Sustenance.” Epistēmēs Metron Logos, no. 4 (2020): 62–81. https://doi.org/10.12681/eml.23779
Ladas, Ioannis. „Safeguarding Privacy in Educational Data: Ethical Challenges and Implications of Artificial Intelligence.” In Η Τεχνητή Νοημοσύνη στην Εκπαίδευση: Πρακτικά 1ου Επιστημονικού Συνεδρίου, editedby Ζωή Βαζούρα and Νικόλαος Σαμαράς, 457–65. Athens: Conference Proceedings, 2024. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15566259
Lyotard, Jean-François. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge.
Translated by Geoff Bennington and Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984.
Mehrdad, Qorbani. Humanity in the Age of AI: How to Thrive in a Post-Human World. Bloomsbury, 2020.
Mercer, Calvin, and Tracy J. Trothen. Religion and the Technological Future: An Introduction to Biohacking, Artificial Intelligence, and Transhumanism.
Cham: Springer Nature, 2021.
Morgan, David. The Embodied Eye: Religious Visual Culture and the Social Life of Feeling. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012.
Păvăloaia, Vasile-Daniel, and Sabina-Cristiana Necula. „Artificial Intelligence as a Disruptive Technology—A Systematic Literature Review.” Electronics 12, no. 5 (2023): 1102. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12051102.
Pieniążek, Paweł. „Postmodernism and Postmodernity (In the Light of the Development of Digital Technologies and the Processes of Individualization).” Hybris 61, no. 2 (2023): 51–88. https://doi.org/10.18778/1689-4286.61.03.
Raphaël Mathevet, François Bousquet, Catherine Larrère, and Raphaël Larrère, „Environmental Stewardship and Ecological Solidarity: Rethinking Social-Ecological Interdependency and Responsibility,” Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 31 (2018): 605–23, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-018-9749-0.
Sassower, Raphael. „Postmodern Relativism as Enlightened Pluralism.” In Relativism and Post-Truth in Contemporary Society, edited by Mikael Stenmark, Steve Fuller, and Ulf Zackariasson. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96559-8_3
Schenker, Joseph G. „Assisted Reproductive Practice: Religious Perspectives.”
Reproductive Biomedicine Online 10, no. 3 (March 2005): 310–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1472-6483(10)61789-0
Scherz, Paul. „The Challenge of Technology to Moral Theology.” Journal of Moral Theology 10, no. 2 (2021): 239–68.
Sharma, Swati, James B. Ang, and Per G. Fredriksson. „Religiosity and Climate Change Policies.” Energy Economics 101 (2021): 105414. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2021.105414
Stahl, Bernd Carsten, and Damian Eke. „The Ethics of ChatGPT – Exploring the Ethical Issues of an Emerging Technology.” International Journal of Information Management 74 (2024): 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2023.102700
Tai, Michael Cheng-Tek. „The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Human Society and Bioethics.” Tzu Chi Medical Journal 32, no. 4 (October–December 2020): 339–43. https://doi.org/10.4103/tcmj.tcmj_71_20
Tampubolon, Manotar, and BernadethaNadeak. „Artificial Intelligence and Understanding of Religion: A Moral Perspective.” International Journal of Multicultural and Multireligious Understanding 11, no. 8 (2024). https://doi.org/10.18415/ijmmu.v11i8.6104
Vogel, Yannick Alexander. Neo-Commodification of Persons: Exploitation of Personal Data and Impact on the Sharing Economy. PhD diss., Università di Bologna (in cotutela con Universität Wien), 2023. DOI: 10.48676/unibo/amsdottorato/10669
Waters, Brent. „Is Technology the New Religion?” Word & World 35, no. 2 (Spring 2015): 143–150.
Wheatley, Mary Christine. „Ethics of Surveillance Technologies: Balancing Privacy and Security in a Digital Age.” Premier Journal of Data Science
(2024): 100001. Published November 4 2024. https://doi.org/10.70389/PJDS.100001
Winner, Langdon. The Whale and the Reactor: A Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986.
Yerbury, Hilary, Michael Olsson, and Pethigamage Perera. „Capital as the Outcome of Information Practices: A Study of Devotees and Monks of a Theravada Buddhist Temple.” Journal of Documentation 80, no. 1 (January 2, 2024): 101–115. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-01-2023-0008
Zuboff, Shoshana. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. NewYork: PublicAffairs, 2019.