AI and the Soul

 We have a longing in our hearts for perfection.  If everything were clean, neat, organized- if people treat each other absolutely fairly, with kindness and love things would be so much better.  We get frustrated when we or someone we love is treated "unfairly."  In some cultures, unfairness can lead to or mean violence or even the death of someone.   But what we eventually realize, "life is not fair."  Nor is it "perfect."  People mess up in the words they say, the deeds they do, even the thoughts they think.  To say so an so is unfair or imperfect actually points out our own imperfections.  Jesus points out we see the speck in someone else's eye but are blind to the plank (or board) in our own eye.  We are often blind to our own faults, and the second we begin to judge others, we judge ourselves.  The parable of the tax collector and pharisee- where the pharisee brags about how good he is (and he generally is) and that he is ...

 Artificial Intelligence is very powerful because it is very popular.  It is a great tool when it is used to enhance human intelligence.  90% of high school students in America admit to using AI (like Chat GPT) to help them write papers.  From the 1700s philosophers began to forecast mechanical reckoning as equaling human reasoning.  Rene' Descartes, Leibnitz, and Thomas Hobbes were proponents of this, basically saying that the brain was just neurons with no room for personality or an innate soul.   Ancient religions speak of the human as an organic soul.  The monotheistic religions of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity believe that we are made in the image of God differentiated from both animals and inorganic or mechanistic matter.  This difference is not just in complexity but in substance- much like a plant is different from a rock.   In an effort of questioning, defiance of this belief, and curiosity, we have been trying to downgr...