Tech Agnostic: How Technology Became the World’s Most Powerful Religion — And Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation 

Greg M. Epstein
The MIT Press, 368 pages
Published October 29, 2024

“No part of this book may be used to train artificial intelligence systems … ” This disclaimer from the copyright page of Tech Agnostic: How Technology Became the World’s Most Powerful Religion — And Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation, illustrates that times are changin’. As the humanist chaplain at Harvard and MIT, likely no one is better positioned than Greg Epstein to navigate them. He writes at the intersection of tech and religion, bringing a theological lens, historical insight, superhero comic analogies, and technological fluency to show us the religion of tech that is the water in which we swim.

Those who hope Tech Agnostic will shame or inspire us to put down our phones or call us back to the pre-Zoom “good old days” will be disappointed. Rather, Epstein writes for those who think technology is useful one minute, and in the
next are challenged by its potential for harm, even evil. He focuses on the unseen effects of tech worship and the systemic injustices it perpetuates, explaining, “(t)echnology is currently playing a role in the daily lives of average citizens of our world that is eerily like the role religions played in the lives of ancient and early modern people. Like traditional religions once did, technology is shaping our thoughts, feelings, hopes, fears, relationships, and future.” Power, then, lies in the hands of the tech providers who are “doing the shaping,” and is ripe for abuse.

Tech Agnostic is a scholarly work whose primary audience is academics in religion and technology. However, Epstein explores the theology and doctrines of tech religion in a way that is of particular interest to church leaders. Technology is so ubiquitous that we may only think about it 144 characters at a time, and Epstein patches together the tweets and Silicon Valley screeds to question the implied neutrality of technology. This is Epstein’s most substantial section — for all the promises technology makes about human progress, potential and possibilities, it has adopted a religious veneer that gives it permission to exploit already marginalized people, increase inequality and frequently adopt the worst of religion (hierarchies, theological rationalization, exclusion, etc.).

He then explores the practices and rituals of tech, sharing his personal story (he has an internet addiction) to outline the myth-making tech uses to justify hierarchies, exclusionary practices, and to explain good tech gone bad (like Uber’s treatment of its drivers and police state surveillance). Finally, Epstein describes a possible tech “reformation.” Adopting the language of “heresy” and “apostasy,” he identifies modern-day reformers who work from within and beyond the tech industry, applying a kind of “righteous skepticism” as they put tech agnosticism into practice. Here, he makes a passionate case for a humanist point of view, where individuals shape practices and policies that lift people up and address harm.

Epstein ends with a “tech agnostic manifesto.” While this may seem insufficient to some, if the alternative is the culture’s current resignation and indifference, Epstein may well be our 21st-century Luther pounding on the digital Wittenberg door.

Presbyterian Outlook supports local bookstores. Join us! Click on the link below to purchase Tech Agnostic: How Technology Became the World’s Most Powerful Religion — And Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation from BookShop, an online bookstore with a mission to financially support local, independent bookstores. As an affiliate, Outlook will also earn a commission from your purchase.