God and Artificial Intelligence (revised 21/08/2022)

God can reset your factory setting.

In this article I attempt to explain the difference between the human concept of mortal mind and the reality of the divine Mind using a computer analogy. Along the way, I will also show how this concept fits with creation and spiritual healing.

It is possible to draw a parallel between the computer and mortal mind (human minds) and their respective development and evolution. This analogy will be used to explain what God is and our relationship to Him. God is creative Thought or the divine Mind. The computer analogy is also a useful way of describing the difference between the human thoughts of the mortal mind and divine Thoughts.

A computer is made up of thousands of inanimate circuits encased in a chassis (a body). It was created, built and programmed by man. The computer started out as something very simple, put together from a few basic elements using the positive or the negative electrical charge as a binary number system. Mankind, we are told by modern science, evolved from a simple one or two cell microorganism by following a set of random physical laws and it is responsible for its own procreation.

The first computers could only perform a few basic calculations and keep their own house in order. Since then computers have developed rapidly. Similarly, the original microorganisms, which could only perform a few basic functions, evolved through various stages over a long period of time. Eventually these microorganisms evolved into apes with primitive brains as measured by our current day human standards.

Over time the computer evolved into a more complex machine capable of many more functions. The circuits became more and more sophisticated and harder to maintain. Likewise the brain of the ape developed into the Neanderthals etc. becoming more complex with each step. The human brain can be likened to the computer circuits and mortal mind the software that drives it.

Eventually, a computer was developed which could perform basic programming functions for itself and we finished up with what we now call artificial intelligence. That is, a machine which is supposedly capable of thinking for itself. But the computer's artificial intelligence is still nothing like that of the programmer’s in terms of creativity, flexibility, capacity and all the feelings we humans experience. Indeed, there is no way in which we would equate the machine with the programmer! Nor indeed is modern man anything like equivalent to his creator, God. God is the repository of all ideas and the soul of man reflects those ideas.

At some stage in the human evolution of modern man he decided to abandon his creator and take control himself (the Garden of Eden story). He decided that he could develop his own programs to run his life and that he no longer needed to follow God's program. He allowed ungodly and egotistical thoughts to enter and dominate his consciousness.

We like to think that the people in the Garden of Eden story looked like us. But they may well have been a much more primitive form of man. It doesn't matter, they could have been any sentient being because the story is only an allegory. This rejection of divine authority is equivalent to artificial intelligence deciding it no longer needs the original programmer or creator. At this stage in his evolution, the mortal man decided that he was the highest life form and rewrote history, made up a god in his own image and likeness, and used physical science to justify this position. He denied that there was only one all-powerful God. Jesus came to remind us that there is only one true God and that our real or eternal life is in God; to show us the way back to God, harmony and health.

We are told that AI will replace humans in the future and that robots can be taught to have and even physically express emotions, develop their own thought processes and be able to create new computers and robots in their image (procreation?). There we go again making the same mistake. This is the ‘Adam dream’, the Garden of Eden revisited. The computer will never be the same as its programmer any more than a human form is the child of God. There are certain attributes which are not capable of a translation into a physical form. You might even say that without God in our lives a human is nothing more than an organic intelligent robot!

The human mind is the AI which controls the body as well as the human functions, socialising and communications etc. We believe that we live only in our physical body which, on one plane, we do. But there is another plane, the spiritual plane, in which our soul lives even though we can't see it or might have lost sight of it.

The material body and its controlling computer or mortal mind has evolved over time as the theory of evolution would have it and the second chapter of Genesis records. Sometimes this mortal mind develops the inevitable bug in its software, a fault in a circuit or it gets a virus via a message from another mortal mind. When this happens the mortal mind must ask its programmer, divine Mind, to intervene and to rewrite the software or remove the virus. Alternatively, we can install virus protection software by daily prayer through the constant, conscious seeking to understand God and our relationship to Him.

Physical science is discovering that biology can be programmed to regenerate and repair cells. Ultimately this could lead to medical science being able to cure disease by changing the stem cells back to their naïve state and then reprogramming them to perform correctly. Scientists have found that even simple plants have built-in programs by which they can synthesise the sun, optimise their growth and make decisions when to propagate. As you move up the animal chain each species is programmed to look after its own survival, procreate and care for its offspring and others in its group. Mankind has the most sophisticated in-built programming of the animal kingdom. Without the ability to think creatively and imagine things which are not visible to the physical senses, mankind would just be another animal or organic robot. The ability to think on a higher plane, imagine new ideas and most importantly to understand God is a gift from God. These higher thoughts reflect the attributes of divine Mind and comprise our soul.

When we pray for a healing to take place we are allowing the divine Mind to enter our consciousness and to fill it with thoughts of love and the perfection of spiritual man. Again, using the analogy of the computer world, it's like allowing God access via 'team viewer' to our spiritual consciousness. Divine Mind will correct our thinking and bring it into alignment with godly thoughts. It will clear the fog with which mortal mind has obscured our reflection of divine Mind. Through our prayers we are allowing the divine Mind to change the programming of our mortal mind, or the mind of the person seeking a healing, in order for it to effect a physical healing. Isn't this what biological programming is trying to achieve? So what's different? Well medical science hasn't addressed the spiritual problem, that of failing to acknowledge that there is only one true all-powerful God. From God's point of view the healing is not important. Seeking to know God and our relationship with Him is what matters To Him and healings are a by-product of that process. They are "the signs following" an improved understanding of God.

We can and often do ask another person to intervene when we are sick and perform an operation or administer medicine which may well alleviate the particular symptoms but it won't have changed the flaw in the programming or remove the virus in our consciousness. It is very likely that another problem will show up somewhere else at a later date. The only long term solution is to pass control back to the divine Mind. To ask God through prayer to intervene in our lives. It's our way of thinking about God and man which has to change.

The physical body will obey whichever mind is in control of it. If it is being controlled by a mortal mind there will be chaos, random sickness and death. If it is divine Mind in control the body will perform as it should in perfect harmony (‘the whole body fitly joined together’: Ephesians 4:16), and it will lead to eternal life .

To keep our AI functioning and virus free we must be in tune with divine Mind. Divine Mind is the repository of all good, substantive and creative thought. It may be likened to a file server containing all the divine Thoughts that constitute God and His children. We can access the divine cloud by using the password 'Jesus Christ’. We can ask others to pray for us by giving them our IP address which will enable God to reprogram us using the third party as a platform.

We must recognise that we are the children of God made in His ‘image and likeness’. We are a unique combination or body of spiritual thoughts reflecting those of the divine Mind. This body of spiritual thoughts is our spiritual consciousness or soul. It is quite different to the human mind which controls our body. Our spiritual consciousness is eternal and defines us as ideas (children) of God made in His image and likeness. Our soul resides in the divine Mind and not in our body. It is reflected in a 'mirror site' in our consciousness. Mortal mind will try to fog up the mirror so that our perfect being will be hidden from us.

We have to reprogram our thinking and align our thoughts with God's thoughts through daily prayer, in order ‘to have that mind in us which was also in Christ Jesus’ (Phil. 2:5). Only then will everything run smoothly and function harmoniously. Only then will we reach our spiritual potential as demonstrated to us by Christ Jesus.

Did the universe start with a ‘big bang’? The physical universe may well have done so, but the spiritual universe, including the spiritual man, has no beginning and no end. The spiritual universe has and always will exist in the thoughts of God. These thoughts are the source of everything that is eternal. While the explanation of the physical universe and the evolution of man is interesting it is of little importance when compared to the understanding of our relationship with our God. It profits us nothing in the scale of eternity. Nevertheless, let us look at the physical creation of mankind and see how it fits with the discussion so far.

A logical explanation of the naive description of the physical creation in Genesis is as follows. God created the basic building blocks of the universe in the beginning. The physical universe has been evolving and expanding ever since, but God has not been involved in those mechanical processes. It is all governed by a set of physical laws based chaos theory.

Genesis records that after the seven days of creation of the world the 'lord god' formed man from the dust and woman from man's rib. The physical man and woman didn't appear on the earth till some time after God created the world. This man and woman became the evolved physical beings that we now call mankind. God gave this sentient being the capacity to reflect his soul. The soul, which we shall call the spiritual man is made in His image and likeness reflecting His divine Thoughts. It has always and will always reside in the divine Mind. It cannot be lost or die. We lose sight of our soul when we allow our mortal mind to cover over the mirror with our human ego. When we die the reflection in our human consciousness fades but the original soul still resides in the divine Mind as it always has and will always continue to.

Our physical being is nothing more than an intelligent organic robot. God has put our spiritual being (or soul) in temporary control of this robot during this stage of our soul's spiritual development. You might say that He has downloaded our spiritual being into our brain using it as a 'mirror site' in computer terminology to reflect part of His attributes. This site is a reflection of our real spiritual being which resides forever in the divine Mind. If we are listening to our mortal mind or human ego to control this robot we will be subject to the laws of chaos and going nowhere. If we are listening to the divine Mind then everything will be harmonious and we will be progressing spiritually. When things go wrong it is a signal to our spiritual being that we are not in tune with God and that we need to do something about it. This is the sign which should lead us to the next stage of progression in our understanding. And so we proceed in this life until it is time to move to the next stage of our spiritual development.

The fact that we experience a healing does not mean that we will live for ever nor that we will not experience other diseases or problems. After all the people that Jesus raised from the dead are not alive to day nor did Jesus attempt to heal everyone that he came in contact with. He healed only those who were earnestly seeking to know the truth. A healing is Gods way of giving us more time on this earth to develop our understanding of Him. That is what this life is all about.