Capt. Kirk, AI and created gods
In the "Star Trek: The Original Series" episode entitled "Court Martial" (Season 1, Episode 20, Feb. 2, 1967), the USS Enterprise had sustained considerable damage, and the death of a crewman, Lt. Cmdr. Finney, after going through a severe ion storm. While the starship was being repaired at Starbase 11, Capt. Kirk was ordered to remain at the starbase facilities until an inquiry into Finney's death could be conducted.
An ion pod attached to the ship would be deployed during such a storm to take sensor readings. In the event of dangerous stress levels on the ship, a red alert would be ordered, giving the officer in the pod seconds to leave before the captain jettisoned it.
Finney served as the records officer on the Enterprise, and it was his turn to enter the pod and take the sensor readings. When yellow alert was signaled, Kirk warned Finney that he may need to go to red alert. As the severity of the storm rattled the ship, he ordered red alert. After waiting as many seconds as he could, Kirk ejected the pod. But Finney apparently was still in the pod when it was jettisoned, so he was presumed dead.
Key to the inquiry was the log report compiled by the ship's computer, an artificial intelligence (AI) system that assisted the crew in maintaining essential functions of the ship and records of all activities. This system was considered to be virtually infallible. According to the log report, Kirk ejected the ion pod while it was still yellow alert, not red alert, indicating guilt of culpable negligence in the death of Finney.
During the subsequent court martial, a guilty verdict appeared to be unavoidable. But before the verdict was delivered by the court, Mr. Samuel Cogley, Kirk's defense attorney, sought to present new evidence for the court to consider.
Cogley said that one of the most important human rights, expressed in the Bible and other codes of justice throughout history, was the right to face and cross-examine one's accuser, something that had been denied to his client.
The main witness against Kirk was a machine, the computer log of the Enterprise. Cogley asked the court to reconvene on the ship to "cross-examine" the computer, and that if his motion was denied, then a human being with inherent rights implicitly granted by God would be brought down below the level of the machine, which has no rights.
With Cogley's motion granted, it was discovered that Finney, aware of his society's exalted view of its AI computer systems, reprogrammed it to make it appear that Kirk jettisoned the ion pod during yellow alert when he did not.
Furthermore, Finney had faked his death to frame Kirk and destroy his life over a long-held grudge he had against him. He was later found hiding in the bowels of the ship and taken into custody.
As the AI of the USS Enterprise was viewed by the crew and the court as an indisputably correct source of information, so many today are developing a similar perception of AI applications. People grow to unquestionably depend on tools such as search engines (e.g., Google Search), recommendation systems (used by YouTube and Amazon), generative devices (e.g., ChatGPT) and automated decision-making mechanisms for work, travel, research, leisure and daily life.
Building on this, professing atheist Dr. Yuval Noah Harari, senior adviser to Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF), spoke of using AI to create a spirituality consistent with the organization's ideas of inclusivism and equity.
In an interview with Pedro Pinto of The Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation (FFMS) on May 19, 2023, in Lisbon, Portugal, Harari stated that technologies like the printing press, radio and television are unable to create new ideas, but AI is different.
"AI can create new ideas, even write a new Bible. Throughout history, religions dreamt about having a book written by a superhuman intelligence, by a non-human entity. ... In a few years, there might be religions that are actually correct. Just think about a religion whose holy book is written by an AI."
Many of the ancient Canaanite, Greek and Roman gods, represented by wood, metal and stone idols, were characterized by their greed, cruelty, deception, barbarism and licentiousness. Worshipers ascribed to them superhuman abilities, maximizing their immoral characteristics. This brought out the worst depravity in those who followed them, reminiscent of the words of Psalm 135:15-18.
"The idols of the nations are but silver and gold, the work of man's hands. ... Those who make them will be like them, yes, everyone who trusts in them." [Emphasis added.]
Notwithstanding efforts to portray AI formed from computer code and software run through metallic structures as virtually infallible, it is still as much an idol for many today as those of wood, metal and stone were for the ancient Canaanites, Greeks and Romans. It is a man-made technology subject to human shortcomings, biases and corruption, amplified by its apparent superhuman abilities to quickly compile and process vast amounts of information.
Any religious text generated from this technology would not create a "correct" religion, but design one reflecting and approving of corrupt human desires and inclinations (Romans 1:18-32). Such a text would not lead to the worship of God, but the deification of man.
We do not need a "new Bible" written by AI and the counterfeit spirituality it offers. The actual Bible is composed of 66 books by 40 different writers over approximately 1,500 years. One consistent theme, God's plan to rescue human beings from the devastating results of Adam's fall through His Son Jesus Christ, runs all the way through these books. Fulfilled prophecy, especially in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, point to the Bible's supernatural origin, its invariable reliability and God as its ultimate author.
AI created by man cannot save from sin and the judgment of God; only faith in God through the Jesus Christ of the Bible can (John 3:16-18, 14:1-6).
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