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Who really said it

Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy

Spoken by Joseph Campbell 1904–1987 · American writer & professor of comparative mythology
Verified In copyright

Campbell said it to Bill Moyers in The Power of Myth, the conversation filmed in 1985 and 1986 and published as a book by Doubleday in 1988. The full text ↗ prints a longer sentence — “it seems to me to be an Old Testament god with a lot of rules and no mercy” — and the famous one-liner is that sentence tightened; Wikiquote ↗ files the short form under the 1988 PBS series.

Last verified 24 Aug 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Verified quote & credit

“Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy” Joseph Campbell (popular compressed form). The Power of Myth (Doubleday, 1988), chapter I, prints Campbell's actual sentence: "I have bought this wonderful machine — a computer. Now I am rather an authority on gods, so I identified the machine — it seems to me to be an Old Testament god with a lot of rules and no mercy." Verified by Quotle.info.

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Doubleday (Penguin Random House), Bill Moyers, and the estate of Joseph Campbell). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

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Provenance

Where the line actually comes from

Work
The Power of Myth
Chapter
I — “Myth and the Modern World”
Recorded / published
Conversation filmed 1985 and 1986; book published 1988 by Doubleday
Speakers
Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers; edited by Betty Sue Flowers

Yes. But then there comes a time when the machine begins to dictate to you. For example, I have bought this wonderful machine — a computer. Now I am rather an authority on gods, so I identified the machine — it seems to me to be an Old Testament god with a lot of rules and no mercy. Chapter I · Myth and the Modern World

Campbell is answering Moyers, who has just remarked that machines help us remake the world in our own image. The reply runs straight on into an old joke about President Eisenhower asking a room full of computers whether there is a God — and being told, “Now there is.”

Book, full text
Read The Power of Myth at the Internet Archive
The Power of Myth, full text (Internet Archive)

How we checked it

  • The line is filed in the sourced quotes section of Wikiquote’s Joseph Campbell page ↗, under The Power of Myth (1988) and cited to Episode 2, Chapter 22. It is not under that page’s Disputed heading.
  • The book carries the same thought in a longer sentence. In the full text at the Internet Archive ↗, Campbell tells Moyers that he has bought a computer and, being “rather an authority on gods,” has identified it as “an Old Testament god with a lot of rules and no mercy.”
  • The first edition is catalogued as Campbell with Moyers, The Power of Myth, New York: Doubleday, 1988 ↗. Editor Betty Sue Flowers records in the same volume that the interviews took place in 1985 and 1986 at Skywalker Ranch and the Museum of Natural History, and that the book weaves in transcript material cut from the six-hour series.
  • That distinction matters for the shorter wording, because the series aired 21–26 June 1988 ↗ — after Campbell’s death in October 1987 — and the book is a companion to it rather than a transcript of it.
In copyright

The Power of Myth was first published in 1988 by Doubleday — far later than the 1931 cutoff for United States public domain — so both the book and the 1988 PBS series remain in copyright. The passage is reproduced here in brief for the purpose of verifying the attribution.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

The name is right. The sentence isn’t quite.

This is an unusual case for a famous-name quote: nobody else is claiming it. The problem is the wording, not the attribution.

Joseph Campbell — but not in this sentence Compressed

The book gives Campbell a running answer, not an aphorism: “I have bought this wonderful machine — a computer. Now I am rather an authority on gods, so I identified the machine — it seems to me to be an Old Testament god with a lot of rules and no mercy.” You can read it in the full text at the Internet Archive ↗.

Quote aggregators Wording drift

Campbell was classifying one machine he had just bought — “an Old Testament god,” “a lot of rules.” The circulating version generalises it to all computers and pluralises the gods. Wikiquote ↗ lists that shorter plural form under the television series.

Quotation sites Thin sourcing

Aggregators name the title and stop there. A Goodreads search ↗ returns the line credited simply to Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth — with no chapter, page or episode, and no hint that the book and the broadcast are not the same text.

The joke is genuinely Campbell’s. What the primary text actually records is “it seems to me to be an Old Testament god with a lot of rules and no mercy,” in the opening chapter of The Power of Myth (Doubleday, 1988) ↗.

Context

An eighty-something mythologist meets his first computer

Campbell was in his early eighties when the interviews were filmed at George Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch in 1985 and 1986, and he had just bought a computer. The gag works because of who is telling it: a man who had spent fifty years cataloguing the gods of the world, looking at a beige box on his desk and placing it, professionally, in the pantheon. The setup is Moyers observing that machines let us remake the world in our own image; Campbell’s reply is that sooner or later the machine starts dictating back.

The passage sits in the book’s opening chapter, “Myth and the Modern World,” inside a run about Star Wars, Faust and the state as a machine. Campbell does not leave the computer as a villain: a beat later he calls what happens on the screen a miracle and describes the inside of the machine as “a whole hierarchy of angels.” The Old Testament line is a joke about rule-following, not a verdict on technology.

It seems to me to be an Old Testament god with a lot of rules and no mercy.

Why the book and the broadcast may not match

The book is not a transcript of the series. Editor Betty Sue Flowers explains in her Editor’s Note that roughly twenty-four hours of filming produced far more material than the six-hour broadcast could hold, and that the book weaves in passages cut from the series. That means a line can appear in the book without appearing on screen — and, in principle, the reverse.

Wikiquote assigns the compressed one-liner to Episode 2, Chapter 22 of the series. The Internet Archive copies of the book carry only the longer sentence. Both can be true if Campbell put the thought two ways, which is exactly what a speaker returning to a favourite joke tends to do — but this page does not assert the broadcast wording as confirmed, because the broadcast was not checked.

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Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

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Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Wikiquote — Joseph Campbellen.wikiquote.org

Carries the popular wording in the sourced quotes section under The Power of Myth (1988), cited to Episode 2, Chapter 22 — not under Disputed.
The Power of Myth — full textarchive.org

Searchable text of the book. Contains Campbell's actual sentence about identifying his computer as an Old Testament god.
The Power of Myth — 1988 Doubleday editionarchive.org

Catalogue record for the first edition: Campbell with Moyers, New York: Doubleday, 1988, xix + 231 pages.
The Power of Myth (series and book)en.wikipedia.org

Six-part PBS series aired 21–26 June 1988; companion book published 1988 by Doubleday, edited by Betty Sue Flowers.
Joseph Campbellen.wikipedia.org

Biography and life dates: 26 March 1904 – 30 October 1987, professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College.
Joseph Campbell Foundationwww.jcf.org

The foundation that presents itself as custodian of Campbell's collected works and collected audio.

About the author

Who was Joseph Campbell?

Joseph Campbell

1904–1987 · American writer & professor of comparative mythology

Joseph Campbell taught literature at Sarah Lawrence College for nearly four decades and spent his career on comparative mythology — the search for the patterns that recur in the sacred stories of unrelated cultures. His best-known book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), gave popular culture the “hero’s journey,” and his taped conversations with Bill Moyers became one of the most-watched series in American public television history. He died in Honolulu in October 1987, eight months before that series went to air.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source

Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers, The Power of Myth, ed. Betty Sue Flowers (New York: Doubleday, 1988), chap. 1, "Myth and the Modern World." The compressed popular wording is listed in the sourced quotes section of Wikiquote's Joseph Campbell page, cited to the 1988 PBS series, Episode 2, Chapter 22.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy’?” Last verified 24 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/computers-are-like-old-testament-gods-lots-of-rules-and-no/

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