Question
Does computer science have a hidden agenda to kill religion?
Answer
I suspect the truth is exactly the opposite. The Internet has accelerated the digitization of religiosity. Religious groups are usually far better organized and able to take advantage of the Web than those who oppose them. A lot of modern radicalization is driven by the Web.
As for CS types themselves, I'd actually suspect that they are probably the most susceptible to getting religious themselves in abstract forms.
Ideas like Godel's theorems, Incomputability, NP-completeness... given a few drinks, they are the perfect raw material for fevered religious imaginings. I fully expect the next nutjob cult-leader to be a computer scientist who decides to start a "Church of Incompleteness" or something after failing to get tenure.
By contrast, fields like mine, mech/aero engineering, offer few such spirituality-friendly ideas. Entropy is the only one I can think of, and there are people out there who secretly (and literally, non-ironically) believe things like "God is a black hole" based on entropy/thermodynamic ideas.
As for CS types themselves, I'd actually suspect that they are probably the most susceptible to getting religious themselves in abstract forms.
Ideas like Godel's theorems, Incomputability, NP-completeness... given a few drinks, they are the perfect raw material for fevered religious imaginings. I fully expect the next nutjob cult-leader to be a computer scientist who decides to start a "Church of Incompleteness" or something after failing to get tenure.
By contrast, fields like mine, mech/aero engineering, offer few such spirituality-friendly ideas. Entropy is the only one I can think of, and there are people out there who secretly (and literally, non-ironically) believe things like "God is a black hole" based on entropy/thermodynamic ideas.