Entirely separate from the truth value or consequences of religious belief: I think this paper makes sense. If you think of the God concept as a kind of externalized decision-making system that enables “cognitive work” that is beyond human capabilities - or the perception of human capabilities- then acceptance of AI is a similar phenomenon. On a similar note, I haven’t done the research myself, but I have a solid fee…
Can you eloborate your last hypothesis about religion and math?
An abstract God concept that is infinite, endless, etc. encourages humans to understand and justify/argue against such an entity, in the process forcing them to think in more abstract ways, which in a basic sense is what mathematics is. This is more-or-less the history of intellectual thought in the Western world since Christianity until fairly recently. (Dominated by God-adjacent topics.)
A question I might ask in researching this would be: why does it seem like mathematical development really accelerated in Europe after Europe had been thoroughly christianized? Throroughly here not meaning recent, but “sunk into the psyche over centuries.”