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AI May Have Made Me an Atheist

Rafe Brena, Ph.D.
RE-Thinker
Published in
12 min readOct 28, 2024

Would you take the red pill, too?

Image by the author with Meta AI

I won’t discuss in this post the philosophical arguments for or against religious beliefs; there are plenty of treaties backing each side, and I’m not an expert on the matter.

In this article, I want to share with you how my personal experience, some of it related to my work as an Artificial Intelligence researcher for over 30 years, could have influenced the non-religious way I truly see things.

Starting from Faith

I was raised in a Catholic family in a Catholic country (Mexico).

When we were little, my mom took us to church every Sunday. My brothers and I checked all the boxes for sacraments, including Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation, and so on. I even have three aunts who are nuns. If this is not a Catholic family, you tell me what it is.

My mother used to say that I was so good as a child that I’d become a Bishop later on, and she even called me affectionally “my little bishop.”

At a point during my teen years, I briefly considered the idea of becoming a Catholic priest — which is a tough call because you cannot get married.

Later, while studying for my bachelor’s degree, I found out that two of my brothers became Atheists — very radically so. It was painful to…

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RE-Thinker
RE-Thinker

Published in RE-Thinker

Publication for thought-provoking writers to share essays, stories, and articles that benefit culture in ways that are nuanced, empathetic and winsome. Want to write for RE-Thinker, send me an email at david@purefusionmedia.com

Rafe Brena, Ph.D.
Rafe Brena, Ph.D.

Written by Rafe Brena, Ph.D.

AI expert, writepreneur, and futurologist. I was in AI way before it became cool.

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