The Imperfect Man
Formed by Exploring God's Universe
You still out there? I appreciate those who have stuck with me and hope to get back to including my short fiction stories soon. I’m still plugging through an update to my novel. I’m a husband, a father of four (three are under twelve), blessed with a full time job and a dog as my office mate that watches my every move. He’s tossing a toy at me right now.
The only thing harder than finding time to write is writing itself. Once I get going, hours go by. When I stop, it takes over my mind, spinning out scenes and plots to fill a need or a hole that I have to jot down so I don’t forget. I fall asleep with a solution and wake up trying to remember it (but almost never do).
Why do I bother putting myself through this endless process? Never getting it right. Failing over and over again. Is this what God wants me to do? Why did God even create me? Why am I even here?
Why We Are Here
The best answer to the question, “why are we here” came from Ray Bradbury (thanks to Thomas Salerno for encouraging me to explore him further). First, it’s important to take a step back and ask a bigger question: how was anything created?
Life on Earth, planets, stars and the entire universe were all meticulously created in such a way to coexist. Earth spins on its axis just right to allow for gravity while not throwing us into space. We orbit the sun with other planets at just the right distance and angles to maintain just the right temperature. All just right to maintain life for humans and all the miracles of the biology and chemistry in our bodies. With our minds, we looked at our surroundings and wondered and wanted to see more. We determined how to navigate Earth and fly into space to explore the wonders of the great beyond. Science is the process of determining how to do things.
Could all this have happened accidentally? Nonsense. The chances for such precision are laughable to any scientist. The “how” was no accident. God the Creator made it all.
So why did God place us here? Are we here to be perfect? Impossible. We will fail every time. Is it for some game that God plays, watching us fail over and over? That would get boring fast, wouldn’t it?
It all is so very simple. We’re here, according to Ray Bradbury, to be God’s audience for his creations! Here’s a video of Ray Bradbury discussing this:
Remember the Creator
Our amazing brains allow us to observe God’s creations intelligently and use that knowledge to Glorify the Holy Trinity that oversees and moves throughout the universe.
Through this observation and studying, we are able to create wonders ourselves. We create paintings, books, movies and technologies. We cure diseases. We discover more and more of “how” things work and use that to make our lives better. And with the advances of artificial intelligence, our knowledge, discoveries and abilities will skyrocket.
But AI is something we created. And for most of the population, it will become very tempting—and a lot simpler—to replace God with AI.
AI will make us healthier. AI will keep us safe. AI will stop us from getting hurt. All we need to do is just do what it says. Tell it more and it will help you more. Tell it everything about you! Put AI inside your body and it will make things perfect.
Why doesn’t God just make things perfect for us? If God created everything, surely he can stop our suffering.
Is that our goal? A life with no suffering? Could AI form us into our true potential of goodness and happiness because it will steer us away from our bad choices and suffering. Why not let AI finally make us perfect?
If we just listened to AI, we will be able to reach our true potential and won’t ever suffer again.
Let’s use AI on our computer for some efficiencies. Then, we connect our shopping lists and credit cards to it so it can save us time. Now we connect our bank account so it can help save some money. Let’s put AI on our phones so we can talk to it on the run. Why not just have it on a band on my wrist so I can ask it anything anytime?
Now AI is everywhere.
It’s a voice in the walls, a light in the streets, a pulse in every device. When you slept or dreamed, AI–your personal AI– was right there inside you. It corrected you when you strayed. It adjusted your emotions (and rewarded you for doing so) when they became too much. Your AI ensured that you never felt alone—because you never were.
All done to not suffer.
A Hero’s Journey
But aren’t the most remarkable stories ones of of rebirths? Stories of people who rise like a phoenix from the ashes, stronger, wiser and with the experience to make life better. Should we have agency making our own choices, failing and rising again, better than before?
The only way to do so is grounded in reality and not a synthetic world created by man. And in doing so, recognizing God’s role in the universe is critical to maintain our humanity.
We aren’t the Creator. AI isn’t the Creator. There is but one God. He is perfect not us. We are God’s audience and are here to experience His wonder and to use it to become better, wiser and closer to Him.
Any person, government or technology that promises to end suffering is a ploy to take our God given agency. Choice requires suffering. But suffering should be looked at as a blessing that forms us just the way God wants us: The Imperfect Man, an adventurer, formed into the hero we were meant to be, exploring God’s universe.
Peace.
P.S. If the advances of AI and how it will impact our lives interest you, my novel about AI is coming. Stay tuned!