Without an omniscient being watching your every move & listening to your thoughts, people have no supreme power over them; there’s no “Because God said so” refrain to keep them under control. Due to envy & resentment, no person can take the place of God, even if they were always right. It’s possible an A.I. can eventually serve in that role but it would have to be a monotheism, otherwise humanity would descend into wars arguing which A.I. was the true god. The only way this god thing works out is if everybody generally accepts there is some kind of god, even if it’s not their particular God. However, that’s no longer the case with increasing secularism.
The problem with of a godless society is that something needs to serve that purpose. Governments are too provincial, even if there is only one superpower. Concepts & ideologies try to substitute for godliness but it’s the same problem that polytheism has. The question of what god comes down to: What does everybody in the world share? They share the world, of course. The god of everybody is called “Climate Change.” You can’t do this because of Climate Change; you’ve got to do that because of Climate Change. Climate Change has been the god for a few decades now, but that hobgoblin is wearing down due to endless missed predictions and evidence to the contrary such that even the NPCs are noticing. We need a new god or go back to the old one.
