Is AI a Threat to

Christianity?

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In his relatively short tenure, Pope Francis has been hard at work welcoming spiritual
seekers into the Catholic Church. He’s refused to judge LGBT people, sought to
integrate divorced couples, and extended priests’ ability to forgive abortion. But
Francis’s wide arms have arguably never stretched further than a mass in 2014 when
he suggested the church would baptize Martians.
“If—for example—tomorrow an expedition of Martians came … and one says, ‘But I
want to be baptized!’ What would happen?” Pope Francis asked. “When the Lord
shows us the way, who are we to say, ‘No, Lord, it is not prudent! No, let’s do it this
way.’”

While playful, this odd scenario got at a serious question about just how far the
church’s welcome can go. Should Christianity, the world’s largest religion, embrace
all intelligent life? Even aliens? Granted, the arrival of green space creatures seeking
salvation isn’t very likely. But the Pope’s lesson opens the door to the acceptance of
another science-fiction stalwart, too—one that’s not so easily dismissed. Namely,
hyper-intelligent machines.

While most theologians aren’t paying it much attention, some technologists are
convinced that artificial intelligence is on an inevitable path toward autonomy. How
far away this may be depends on whom you ask, but the trajectory raises some
fundamental questions for Christianity—as well as religion broadly conceived,
though for this article I’m going to stick to the faith tradition I know best. In fact, AI
may be the greatest threat to Christian theology since Charles Darwin’s On the Origin
of Species.

For decades, artificial intelligence has been advancing at breakneck speed. Today,
computers can fly planes, interpret X-rays, and sift through forensic evidence;
algorithms can paint masterpiece artworks and compose symphonies in the style of
Bach. Google is developing “artificial moral reasoning” so that its driverless cars can
make decisions about potential accidents.

“AI is already here, it’s real, it’s quickening,” says Kevin Kelly, a co-founder of Wired
magazine and the author of The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces
That Will Shape Our Future. “I think the formula for the next 10,000 start-ups is to
take something that already exists and add AI to it.”

“If AI is autonomous, then we should

encourage it to participate in Christ’s
redemptive purposes in the world.”
Despite AI’s promise, certain thinkers are deeply concerned about a time when
machines might become fully sentient, rational agents—beings with emotions,
consciousness, and self-awareness. “The development of full artificial intelligence
could spell the end of the human race,” Stephen Hawking told the BBC in 2014.
“Once humans develop artificial intelligence, it would take off on its own, and
redesign itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological
evolution, couldn't compete and would be superseded."

This explosion of artificial intelligence—often referred to as the singularity—is one of

many futures technologists have envisioned for robots, not all so apocalyptic. But the
possibility of any threat to humans, even if small, is real enough that some are
advocating for precautionary measures. More than 8,000 people, including
Hawking, Noam Chomsky, and Elon Musk, have signed an open letter warning
against potential “pitfalls” of AI development. Ryan Calo, a Washington University
law professor, argues for the development of a Federal Robotics Commission to
monitor and regulate developments so that we don’t innovate irresponsibly.

While concerns mostly center on economics, government, and ethics, there’s also “a
spiritual dimension to what we’re making,” Kelly argues. “If you create other things
that think for themselves, a serious theological disruption will occur.”

History lends credibility to this prediction, given that many major scientific advances
have had religious impacts. When Galileo promoted heliocentrism in the 1600s, it
famously challenged traditional Christian interpretations of certain Bible passages,
which seemed to teach that the earth was the center of the universe. When Charles
Darwin popularized the theory of natural selection in the 1800s, it challenged
traditional Christian beliefs about the origins of life. The trend has continued with
modern genetics and climatology.

The creation of non-human autonomous robots would disrupt religion, like

everything else, on an entirely new scale. "If humans were to create free-willed
beings,” says Kelly, who was raised Catholic and identifies as a Christian,
“absolutely every single aspect of traditional theology would be challenged and have
to be reinterpreted in some capacity.”

Take the soul, for instance. Christians have mostly understood the soul to be a
uniquely human element, an internal and eternal component that animates our
spiritual sides. The notion originates from the creation narrative in the biblical book
of Genesis, where God “created human beings in God’s own image.” In the story,
God forms Adam, the first human, out of dust and breathes life into his nostrils to
make him, literally, “a living soul.” Christians believe that all humans since that time
similarly possess God’s image and a soul.

But what exactly is a soul? St. Augustine, the early Christian philosopher, once
observed that “I have therefore found nothing certain about the origin of the soul in
the canonical scriptures.” And Mike McHargue, a self-described Christian mystic
and author of Finding God in the Waves: How I Lost my Faith and Found it Again
Through Science, believes that the rise of AI would draw out the ambiguities in the
ways that many Christians have defined terms like “consciousness” and “soul.”

“Those in religious contexts don’t know precisely what a soul is,” McHargue says.
“We’ve understood it to be some non-physical essence of an individual that’s not
dependent upon or tied to their body. Would AI have a soul by that definition?”

If this seems like an absurd question, consider technologies such as in vitro

fertilization and genetic cloning. Intelligent life is created by humans in each case,
but presumably many Christians would agree that those beings have a soul. “If you
have a soul and you create a physical copy of yourself, you assume your physical copy
also has a soul,” says McHargue. “But if we learn to digitally encode a human brain,
then AI would be a digital version of ourselves. If you create a digital copy, does your
digital copy also have a soul?”

If you’re willing to follow this line of reasoning, theological challenges amass. If

artificially intelligent machines have a soul, would they be able to establish a
relationship with God? The Bible teaches that Jesus’s death redeemed “all things” in
creation—from ants to accountants—and made reconciliation with God possible. So
did Jesus die for artificial intelligence, too? Can AI be “saved?”

“I don’t see Christ’s redemption limited to human beings,” Christopher Benek, an

associate pastor at Providence Presbyterian Church in Florida with degrees from
Princeton Theological Seminary, told Gizmodo in 2015. “It’s redemption of all of
creation, even AI. If AI is autonomous, then we should encourage it to participate in
Christ’s redemptive purposes in the world.”

And what about sin? Christians have traditionally taught that sin prevents divine
relationship by somehow creating a barrier between fallible humans and a holy God.
Say in the robot future, instead of eradicating humans, the machines decide—or have
it hardwired somewhere deep inside them—that never committing evil acts is the
ultimate good. Would artificially intelligent beings be better Christians than humans
are? And how would this impact the Christian view of human depravity?

These questions so far concern religious belief, but there is also the many matters
related to religious practice. If Christians accept that all creation is intended to
glorify God, how would AI do such a thing? Would AI attend church, sing hymns,
care for the poor? Would it pray?

James McGrath, a professor of religion at Butler University and the author of

Theology and Science Fiction, recently toyed with the prayer question using a strange
classroom assignment. He told his religion students to ask Siri, the personal assistant
in Apple devices, to pray for them and observe what happened. The students quickly
learned that Siri was more comfortable with questions like “What is prayer?” than
commands like “Pray for me.” When directed to pray, Siri basically responded, “I’m
not programmed to do that.” But if a more advanced version Siri were programmed to
pray, would such an action be valuable? Does God receive prayers from any
intelligent being—or just human intelligence?

“There will be a point in the future

when these free-willed beings … say to
us, ‘I believe in God. What do I do?’”

There are no easy answers for Christians willing to entertain these questions. And,
certainly, there’s a case to be made that Christians shouldn’t bother in the first place.
The Christian Bible never anticipates non-human intelligence, much less addresses
the questions and concern it creates. It does, however, teach that God has
established a special relationship with humans that is unique among all creatures.
Russell Bjork, a professor at the evangelical Gordon College who is cautious about
broadening the Christian understanding of personhood to include AI, argues in the
journal Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, “What makes humans special is
not what humanity is, but rather it is God’s relationship to us based on his purpose for
making us.”

In addition to the Bible, many Christians look to their ancient creeds for guidance.
One of the most popular, the Nicene Creed, speaks of Jesus as “the only son of God,
begotten, not made.” The implicit corollary is that humans are God’s children who
are made, not begotten. Christians believe that God makes humans, but humans
make machines. By this logic, one might conclude that AI could not be considered
God’s children or possess soul.

But this hasn’t stopped Kevin Kelly from beginning to advocate for the development
of “a catechism for robots.” A catechism is a statement of faith usually framed in a
question-and-answer format that outlines orthodox belief and is typically taught to
children in some religious traditions. Kelly says he takes the idea “very seriously”
and even suggested it in a keynote talk at Q conference, an annual gathering of more
than 1,000 prominent Christian leaders.

“There will be a point in the future when these free-willed beings that we’ve made
will say to us, ‘I believe in God. What do I do?’ At that point, we should have a
response,” Kelly says.

Kelly, McHargue, and McGrath all are convinced that most traditional theologians
today aren’t engaged enough in conversations like this because they’re stuck
rehashing old questions instead of focusing on the coming ones. McHargue notes
that questions about AI and theology are some of the most common that he receives
from listeners of his popular “Ask Science Mike” and “The Liturgist” podcasts. “Any
non-biological, non-human intelligence will present a greater challenge to religion
and human philosophy than anything else in our entire history combine,” he claims.
“Nothing else will raise that level of upheaval, and collective trauma as the moment
we first encounter it.”

Despite these pitfalls, McGrath raises one last mischievous point: AI actually could
bolster a person’s faith. “For some people, religion is precisely about recognizing that
I, as a human being, am not God and so I don't have all the answers and will
inevitably be wrong about things,” he says. “If that is one’s outlook, then finding out
you were wrong is a good thing. It simply confirms what you already knew: that life is
about trusting God and not trusting in my own understanding.”

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