From "A Rapture for the Rest of Us" by Glenn Harlan Reynolds:
Jihadists are strapping on suicide bombs today, in the hope of attaining the kind of environment that virtual reality will deliver in 20 years.
The promises of religion, of paradise etc could become real through sweeping technological changes of our world (aka Singularity). As the people obviously are looking to these promises (proven by the followers of the religions), they will strive for that goal in reality if at all possible!