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The peril of AI and the path to transcendent hope

The peril of AI and the path to transcendent hope

Last updated on: December 30, 2024 at 6:20 am by Jim Denison

The peril of AI and the path to transcendent hope 2024-12-30T06:20:11-06:00 Jim Denison

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

NOTE: Jimmy Carter, the 39th US president and Nobel Prize recipient, died yesterday at his home in Plains, Georgia, at the age of one hundred. We will be publishing a Daily Article Special Edition this morning in response.

I am focusing today on hope that transcends every challenge we face. But to get to the good news, we need to set the stage.

Today’s headlines illustrate the fragility of life: from the passenger plane that skidded off a South Korean airport runway yesterday, killing all but two of the 181 people on board; to the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash for which Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized; to a weekend storm system that killed at least four people across the South; to the death of longtime sports announcer Greg Gumbel at the age of seventy-eight.

And there’s this: Nobel Prize-winning physicist Geoffrey Hinton, often called the “godfather of artificial intelligence,” is warning that AI could wipe out the human race within the next decade. He said the technology is developing “much faster” than he expected and could make humans the equivalents of “three-year-olds” and AI “the grown-ups.”

In his view, “We’ve never had to deal with things more intelligent than ourselves before.”

Is that so?

“Dark matter” and “dark energy”

Scientists tell us that the universe began around 13.8 billion years ago with an event called the Big Bang that suffused space with light. In that moment, they say, the universe was a septillion (one followed by twenty-four zeroes) times hotter than the center of our sun today. However, they still do not know what caused the Big Bang. Nor do they know how the universe will end.

They also note that the galaxies of our universe are “rotating with such speed that the gravity generated by their observable matter could not possibly hold them together; they should have torn themselves apart long ago.” They theorize that unknown matter is giving them the mass and thus the gravity they need to stay intact, calling it “dark matter.” They calculate that it outweighs visible matter roughly six to one.

Since “dark matter” by definition does not absorb, reflect, or emit light, physicists can only infer its existence from the gravitational effect it seems to have on visible matter.

Then there’s “dark energy,” comprising approximately 68 percent of the universe, which they credit for causing the universe to expand at an accelerated rate. Once again, they do not know what it is or exactly how it works. A new paper claims that dark energy doesn’t even exist, proposing other explanations for our expanding universe.

From the macro to the micro: scientists tell us that the strongest force in the universe, aptly called the “strong force,” binds together the nuclei in the atoms that comprise the physical universe. It is one hundred trillion trillion trillion times stronger than the force of gravity and accounts for around 99 percent of the mass in the visible universe. Without it, nothing we can see would exist.

“Greeted by a band of theologians”

The event science theorizes as a Big Bang is described in Scripture this way: “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). The New Testament adds the trinitarian note, “All things were made through [Christ], and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). It adds, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (v. 5).

So we have a biblical explanation for the light that began the universe. What about the rotational forces that should tear the universe apart, the energy that theoretically causes it to expand, and the “strong force” that binds mass together?

Consider this statement: “By [Christ] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:16–17, my emphasis).

I am reminded of the NASA physicist Robert Jastrow, who famously wrote in God and the Astronomers:

For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance, he is about to conquer the highest peak; and as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.

“Is anything too hard for the Lᴏʀᴅ?”

It is obviously very bad news if an intelligence greater than ourselves wishes us harm. If, however, such an intelligence wishes us well, that is outstanding news. It means that this entity has the knowledge and ability to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

Now, suppose that this power can work not only on us but also in us, transforming both our external universe and our internal lives in ways we cannot even imagine.

This is just what the Bible proclaims:

To him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever (Ephesians 3:20–21, my emphasis).

Here’s the catch: Unlike the forces that hold our physical universe together or an artificial intelligence that could one day surpass us, “the power at work within us” requires our cooperation to experience his best. For example:

“He himself is our peace” (Ephesians 2:14), but we must admit that we are at war with God, others, and ourselves, and seek what he alone can give.
He assures all who know him personally, “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:34), but we must admit our sin and seek his forgiving grace.
“He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6), but we must settle for nothing less than his perfect will for our lives (Romans 12:2).

Here’s the bottom line: We experienced God’s best in 2024 to the degree that we sought his provision and submitted to his Spirit. The same will be true in 2025.

Our omniscient, omnipotent Father still asks,

“Is anything too hard for the Lᴏʀᴅ?” (Genesis 18:14)

The answer depends not on him but on us.

Monday news to know:

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“Prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscle of omnipotence.” —Charles Spurgeon

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