Christianity making inroads into Silicon Valley

By Lilah Hosni —

Once upon a time, Silicon Valley, where geeks become billionaires, was a stronghold for atheism where techies prefered biohacking to Bible, psychedelics to Psalms, Burning Man to to the Body of Christ.

The ACTS 17 Collective is changing the zeitgeist of the California community that gave rise to Apple, Google, Meta, Tesla, Intel and Oracle.

“I’ve worked in Silicon Valley since 2005, and my initial impression was that it was anti-Valley to talk about religion and belief systems,” says Nate Williams, an entrepreneur. “But now it’s becoming more normalized to wear it on your sleeve.”

In March, the ACTS 17 collective held an event attended by scores of Tech titans with the goal of redefining success. Instead of sending emails between sips of a margherita aboard a yacht in semi-retirement at age 35, the kings of coding should instead define success as “loving God, self and others,” said event organizer Michelle Stephens, a health care startup exec.

ACTS stands for Acknowledging Christ in Technology and Society.” Speakers, the likes of Peter Thiel, discussed miracles, forgiveness and end times prophecy. Defense contractor Anduril confounder Trae Stephens says the best minds of Silicon Valley are lost in a “crisis of nonsense.” Instead of solving humanity’s complex problems, they are designing photo-­sharing apps and chat interfaces for the modern consumer.

Related content: The smartest man in the world with an IQ of 276 believes in Jesus, NASA scientist Michael Houts rejects sophomoric evolution, how Big Insurance is ruining health care. Reporting from Wired was used in this report.