Paul Kingsnorth on the Dark Powers Behind AI

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Oct 1, 2025

In a thought-provoking dialogue, Paul Kingsnorth, a novelist and essayist known for his journey from neo-paganism to Orthodox Christianity, explores the unsettling implications of AI. He argues that technology isn't simply a tool but may serve darker spiritual forces. Kingsnorth discusses how our obsession with screens and selfhood can trap humanity, likening the internet to a giant Ouija board. He urges listeners to reconsider technology's role and warns against the spiritual risks it poses, advocating for a more cautious, community-oriented approach.

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ANECDOTE

Long Reluctant Conversion Journey

Paul Kingsnorth describes a long spiritual journey from nonreligious upbringing through Buddhism and Wicca to Eastern Orthodox baptism.
He recounts dreams, strange encounters, and gradual resistance-turned-surrender to Christianity.

ANECDOTE

Monastery Visit That Felt Like Home

Kingsnorth recounts visiting a small Orthodox monastery and experiencing a profound sense of Christ's presence during liturgy.
A priest advised him to 'keep coming' rather than rush baptism, which led him to belong.

INSIGHT

The Machine Is A Mindset

Kingsnorth defines the 'machine' as a mechanistic mindset that treats the world as a resource to control.
He links this mindset to the Enlightenment drive to dominate nature and create superhuman intelligences.

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What if the world’s brightest engineers aren’t just building smarter tools—but opening a door to something older, darker, and more sinister?

In this episode of The Russell Moore Show, RDM sits down with Paul Kingsnorth—novelist, essayist, and former pagan turned Orthodox Christian—to talk about his searing new book Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity. Kingsnorth argues that the technologies we treat as neutral conveniences may, in fact, be spiritual weapons. The internet as a giant Ouija board. AI not as invention, but as invocation.

It sounds insane—until you realize the people creating these systems admit they don’t fully understand them either.

In this conversation, Kingsnorth tells the unlikely story of his journey from Wiccan witchcraft to baptism in the Orthodox Church, why he believes our cultural obsession with screens, sex, and selfhood is a trap, and why Christians in particular must stop treating technology as just another tool. What if it’s more than that? What if, in chasing progress, we’ve been summoning something we cannot control?

This isn’t your average hand-wringing about iPhones or social media. It’s a bracing, unsettling, and oddly hopeful dialogue about how to remain human in an age increasingly hostile to humanity itself.

Listen in if you’ve ever wondered:

Why AI feels less like a tool and more like a presence
How paganism and environmentalism can point toward, but never satisfy, the longing for God
What the “four pillars of the machine” are—and how they’re shaping us without our consent
Whether resistance to the machine is possible, and how communities of faith might embody it

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity by Paul Kingsnorth
Savage Gods by Paul Kingsnorth
Buccmaster Trilogy by Paul Kingsnorth

Paul’s Essay, “The Cross and the Machine”

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