Beyond Secularization: Cognitive Acceleration and the Structural Incompatibility of Traditional Theology

Abstract

Over the past three centuries, the relationship between theology and knowledge has undergone profound structural transformation. While secularization theory has traditionally interpreted rising non-religiosity as institutional decline or ideological atheism, this paper proposes an alternative diagnostic framework. It argues that the contemporary moment is characterized not merely by disbelief but by an epistemic recalibration driven by cognitive acceleration. Tracing the historical differentiation of theology from empirical explanation since the Scientific Revolution, the study situates the present era within a longer trajectory of rationalization and disenchantment. However, unlike earlier phases of modernization, the twenty-first century introduces unprecedented acceleration through advances in neuroscience, molecular genetics, and artificial intelligence. These developments reshape explanatory expectations by privileging mechanistic coherence, algorithmic modeling, and biological intervention. The paper advances the concept of a “relatability crisis” to describe the increasing friction between inherited theological metaphysics and dominant scientific paradigms. It suggests that what is often interpreted as the spread of atheism may instead reflect structural incompatibility between metaphysical grammar and accelerated epistemic regimes. The study remains diagnostic rather than prescriptive, contributing to debates in secularization theory, philosophy of religion, and intellectual history by reframing non-religiosity as a question of epistemic compatibility rather than ideological rejection.

Keywords: Secularization; Epistemic Acceleration; Theology; Artificial Intelligence; Neuroscience; Metaphysical Plausibility; Modernity