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Scripture and Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is both a powerful technology and an influential metaphor. Its technology is a scientific invention, whereas its metaphor is semantic confusion.

From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

Editor's Note: The 83rd Annual Convention of the American Council of Christian Churches met in Youngstown, Pennsylvania from October 22-24, 2024. The convention approved several resolutions on critical issues confronting Christians and the church in our time. We present this resolution for the edification and encouragement of God's people. - Dr. Paul Elliott [1]

  

American Council of Christian Churches
83rd Annual Convention, October 22-24, 2024
Hope Evangelical Methodist Church, Youngstown, PA
Resolution on Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is both a powerful technology and an influential metaphor. Its technology is a scientific invention, whereas its metaphor is semantic confusion. As a technological invention, artificial intelligence promises to multiply factors of production, which will alter our lives both for good and for ill in ways yet to be imagined.[2] All technological breakthroughs have done so in ever increasing ways throughout human history. As a confusing metaphor, however, artificial intelligence threatens sinful man's understanding of the immutable differences between his God, himself, and his machines.

Prior to the Fall of man, the Creator encouraged man's pursuit of technological achievement without metaphorical confusion. His plan for man's sinless world included a clear charge to subdue its resources through scientific discovery for good: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth" (Genesis 1:27-28).

Man still bears the image and likeness of God, with its accompanying charge to use God's creation for good. Due to the Fall, however, human advances in technology cannot escape the corruption of man's sinful condition. As new tools of technology appear, each good use seems matched by a use for evil. Better technology merely makes both good and evil more executable; it does not ensure one use over another. In his pursuit of greater technologies, sinful man often exchanges obedience to God's holy charge to advance good and to subdue evil for faith in Satan's ancient lie, "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:5). Rather than exercising dominion over nature for what God intends for the good of mankind and the rest of His creatures, demigods push irreversibly forward in a quest for technological omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence, seeking the wealth and tyrannical power this push can bring.

Therefore, the American Council of Christian Churches at its 83rd annual convention, October 22-24, 2024, at Hope Evangelical Methodist Church, Youngstown, PA, resolves to declare the ancient truth of Genesis to a modern world poised to embrace both the technology and the metaphor of artificial intelligence. We will teach the biblical distinction between God, man, and machine. We will warn that powerful technology can never ensure the victory of good over evil, a victory won only by Christ on the cross for repentant sinners (John 19:30). We shall welcome and employ the greater good brought to the world by the tool of artificial intelligence, and we shall trust the Lord for protection from the greater evil it will also inevitably bring. In addition, our declaration of the truth of Genesis will expose the falsehood of the metaphor artificial intelligence. The Bible never speaks of intelligence. It tells us that God and man, who is made in God's image, are conscious mind, person, soul, and life, not mere intelligence. Machines that calculate, no matter how quickly or powerfully, may be artificial intelligence, but they shall never be what God made man - conscious mind, person, soul, and life. Man is indelibly the image and likeness of God, whatever his powers to calculate may be. No technology or metaphor shall ever erase this image from his brow to make a human a mere machine. Nor can science or linguistic labels make any mere machine a human. No intelligence of any machine will ever change the fact that God's Son became a man, the Second Adam, to save the sons of Adam who believe on Him. Jesus died for man's sin and rose again for his salvation. In Christ alone shall man advance eternally, free at last from the curse of his Fall. In that day, man's technological achievements and lofty metaphors, like artificial intelligence, shall be remembered as ancient artifacts of a fallen and less intelligent world.

References:

1. TTW president Dr. Paul M. Elliott is a member of the ACCC's Executive Committee.

2. John Lennox lists the following examples of benefits: digital assistants, medical research, autonomous vehicles, language translators, advertising, and industry productivity, research, and development. He also lists the following examples of concerns: job losses, surveillance capability, and autonomous weapons [John C. Lennox, 2084: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2020), 53-82].

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