Will Artificial Intelligence Replace God? (The Big Question 100)

Apr 29, 2022 1321

Will Artificial Intelligence Replace God?

My son is studying to be a software engineer, and he is interested in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Recently, we discussed whether artificial intelligence would ever replace the need for God.

The Artificial Intelligence Church

I’ve since found out that a former Google engineer named Anthony Lewandowski in Silicon Valley founded an AI church (founded in 2015 and closed in 2021). It was called the “Way of the Future”. The core “teaching” of the church was that human minds would soon be uploaded to a computer and that this would be the path to humanity’s immortality.

This computer would include super-intelligent AI software ever developed, with machine learning that would allow it to learn faster than any human brain.

AI vs Superintelligence

There’s nothing much that’s new in this for Christians. We already know that superintelligence exists. That’s God. And we already know the way to immortality. It’s by accepting God’s gift of eternal life through what his Son did on the Cross.

Science doesn’t take God out of the equation. One of the most powerful pieces of evidence for the existence of Creator God is that the universe is based on mathematics and can be understood through scientific inquiry.

Understanding Science Doesn’t Rule God Out

Just because you believe that artificial intelligence exists doesn’t rule out God’s existence. That would be, as Professor John Lennox says, like saying you don’t believe Henry Ford was real because you cannot find him inside the engine:

“Consider a Ford motor car. It is conceivable that someone who was seeing one for the first time and who knew no science might imagine that there is a god (Mr. Ford) inside the engine, making it go.

Of course, if he were subsequently to study engineering and take apart the engine, he would discover that there is no Mr. Ford inside it. He would also see that he did not need to introduce Mr. Ford as an explanation for its working; his grasp of the impersonal principles of internal combustion would be enough to do that.

However, if he then decided that his understanding of the principles of how the engine worked made it impossible to believe in the existence of a Mr. Ford who designed the engine in the first place, this would be patently false.

Had there never been a Mr. Ford to design the mechanisms, none would exist for him to understand.”
Professor John Lennox

Artificial Intelligence Proves Conscious Intelligence

You see, to worship artificial intelligence is a rather odd thing. It’s worshipping your creation. Humanity’s ability to develop artificial intelligence, and to do science, is powerful evidence for the existence of God because it tells us that there is conscious intelligence in the universe.

You see, that’s another thing: consciousness. Self-awareness is part of it. So is free will, to a certain extent. But science can’t even define consciousness, let alone create a conscious entity.

No matter how many algorithms a computer can run in a second, or how much it can learn, it still isn’t conscious. It will follow the rules of its creator. No matter how complex they might be, they will always be rules written by the programmers.

Artificial Intelligence Always Has A Creator

I do not doubt that computers will get smarter and smarter and that artificial intelligence will become increasingly intelligent. But you get the clue in the very name “artificial intelligence.” It’s artificial, which means someone made it.

The question is, “Can anything made ever ultimately be better than its maker?” I don’t think so. It’s quite illogical to me.

I think that artificial intelligence may be able to simulate some human capabilities, and probably impressively so. But replacing God, the one who made the maker of artificial intelligence? I think not.

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