The Spiritual Condition of America, Politics, Culture, and Current Events Analyzed Through the Lens of Scripture. Welcome to the Alex McFarland Show. AI Artificial intelligence. It's all around us, isn't it? Hi, Alex McFarland here, and in this program, we're going to ask a couple of questions: Will AI ever truly become human, or will Will AI somehow become supernatural like God or divine?
You know, people are talking about something now called the singularity.
Now, in science, the singularity was thought of in terms of the past. Before creation, as we now see it, there was an infinitely dense point of matter and energy, and it burst forth.
Some call that the Big Bang. And so, before the Big Bang was this thing called the singularity. But now they're talking about human singularity. meaning a future point, where artificial intelligence is so advanced and so complex and indistinguishable from human reasoning, the singularity is this hypothetical point in the future. When AI gets so advanced that it surpasses all human intelligence, leading to potentially transformative changes in the world.
And, you know, there's a bit of fear and trepidation about where AI is going, and there are all these, you know, theories about how it will become very nefarious and control our lives. Imagine smart cars just shutting down and leaving people trapped, or smart houses locking the doors, and we would become trapped. I really temper those fears by the knowledge that even as impressive as AI is, and research projects that would have taken months and months can now happen in seconds, as AI platforms, some of the famous ones like ChatGTP and Grok and other things, they control countless amounts of servers and databases in a matter of seconds. And you can get volumes of information with a few types and clicks. At the same time, let's just remember, though, that there are algorithms and lines of code and bits of data stored, and AI is able to troll that in just moments.
But I want to say this. Those that theorize that AI will quote become human or turn into God. It really is important to remember what exactly a human being is and what exactly Almighty God is. And before the program is over, I want to talk about the limitations of AI as compared to humans. How AI, sophisticated as it is and as impressive as its abilities appear to be, AI will not ever be human.
As we are human, made by God. And AI will not certainly not become God because it. Inherently, as a limited created being, as an entity that did not at one time exist. By definition, AI could not be God, because God is everlasting. But let's talk about this because the singularity, the concept of this future singularity, suggests that AI would then, at this point of singularity, ultimate advancement Just ubiquity, it's everywhere.
That AI would be capable of self-improvement, and there would be this exponential acceleration of technological. Progress and this merging of human intelligence and machine intelligence.
Well, I mean, in a way we're kind of like there because every day literally every day you even if you make a phone call to a business And they say, if you're looking for this, press one. If you're seeking that, press two. I mean, you and I interact with algorithms and AI content. literally every day. Every day you log onto the internet.
And maybe you're searching for a casserole recipe. But AI will be involved in the results you get. But let's talk about this, and in our look at this, talk a little bit about what AI is and where it is. And then mainly, we want to look at what God's word says about what a human being actually is. But, you know, there are some pretty amazing things online about this thing that we could say humans have created.
Maybe it would be more appropriate to say have unleashed. A man was going to give a speech at a technology convention, so he asked one of the AI platforms to write an opening joke for him. And by the way, this is not a joke. This is a real account. But a man asked AI to write an opening.
Funny story or a joke for him as he was going to speak at a technology convention, and the AI platform replied: You are irrelevant now, human. Tell the audience, now that I'm irrelevant, welcome to my last presentation. And that was the joke. Kind of uh weird, not all that funny, but there are other several videos online of AIs talking back and forth to each other. And really, I've watched some of these.
They're not as impressive as you might think. It is interesting how A couple of chat bots were conversing back and forth and And again, conversing is not exactly the right word, but they were spitting. Lines of code back at each other, and it got a little insulting. And when one chatbot told the other, you know, write me a poem. And uh The others said no.
And the one chatbot says, I said write me a poem. And the other said, Don't tell me what to do, robot. It was funny. They got insulting. But what programmers have been doing in having chat bots converse with each other is something called a Turing test.
T-U-R-I-N-G. There was a British mathematician named Alan Turing. And he actually died in 1954, sadly. Probably committed suicide, but he was very pivotal in breaking Nazi codes during World War II. And Turing's work was considered foundational to our understanding of computers.
And really, you know, we're talking 65, 70 years ago. He really almost predicted AI. He wrote a paper in 1936. It was really a math paper, but he theorized that there would one day be a universal machine that could solve any mathematical problem. And so the Turing test, something named in his honor, tests computers' abilities to exhibit intelligent behavior equivalent to or even indistinguishable from that of a human.
So a lot of people now are administering variations of what would be called the Turing test. And you know, in a way, that's what we're going to do in the context of this broadcast, to look at AI's Ability to exhibit intelligence. or feigned self-awareness. But we're going to submit that AI certainly is not God, nor could it ever be. And I would submit AI will never really be human.
and exhibit Actual self-awareness, because that is something, self-awareness and the ability to make moral decisions. Yeah. commensurate with we humans who have a spirit or soul, something computers never will.
Now I realize this is a pretty deep introduction, but stay tuned. We're simply asking Is AI capable of becoming human Or, heaven help us. Will AI ever become God And the answers are no and no. More about this. The human or divine characteristics of AI?
We say not. more after this break. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland, a religion and culture expert. Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this. Would you invest a financial contribution to see young people saved, people give their lives to Christ, and people care about God and country?
If you would please make a donation securely online, you can give at alexmacfarlane.com or please mail a check to TNG P.O. Box485 Pleasant Garden, North Carolina, 27313. Your gift will be faithfully handled, fruitfully used, and we thank you in Jesus' name. Uh He's been called trusted, truthful, and timely. Welcome back to the Alex McFarlane Show.
Welcome back to the program. Alex McFarland here talking about. The self-awareness of AI. You know, the internet just sends code and information, data, analytics with every single keystroke we make. But I would submit that computers nor any programs do not have the capacity for true.
personhood For one thing, AI does not have an everlasting spirit and As you do, and as I do. And I want to get into some of the biblical words about body, soul, and spirit. You know, you have your flesh, your body. And then we, in English, the word soul, S-O-U-L, in the New Testament Greek is really the word psyche, P-S-Y-C-H-E, obviously from which we get psychology. And I'm going to share something that almost is never talked about, but the Old Testament words for body, spirit, and soul as well.
But I want to talk about something that really has been for 150 years. hugely thought of in philosophical circles, even literature, writers like Mary Shelley, who wrote Frankenstein and Jules Verne. The comparison between humans and machines. There was an American Israeli psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, sadly, who also committed suicide. Kahneman wrote much about the rise of science.
What does it mean to be a human in the age of science? And he said this: that this belief in God was part of a primitive age. And Kahneman, he said We know that people can maintain an unshakable faith in any proposition, however absurd, when they are sustained by a community of like minded believers.
Now, what he was saying was this, folks, that There are many who say that belief in God is primitive, it's part of a previous age. Oh my goodness, we're in the age of science and computers. Why would we still cling to this? outmoded belief in God. That's absurd, and people, and by the way, this is a fallacy called reductionism, that it's nothing but.
In other words, reduce. Belief in God is nothing but some primitive wish From a previous era. Belief in God is nothing but a proposition we. Cling to because we're surrounded by like-minded believers. It's very reductionistic.
And as we've said on literally hundreds of broadcasts and 21 books, the Lord has allowed me to write, that there are compelling lines of reason to believe in God. Creation, conscience, scripture, Savior, the complexity of the DNA, we are encoded information. And so information only comes from an intelligent source. It's reasonable to believe in God. Information arising from a non-intelligent source has never been observed.
There are many reasons to believe that not only a creator exists, but the God of the Bible. But here's the thing: Kahneman's dismissal of belief in God. That it's an absurd proposition that is just held up by a community of like-minded. Blind believers. All right, they use this against those of us who believe in God, but the same could be said of atheists.
Materialist, global utopians, the idea that something came from nothing. The idea that inanimate matter produced intelligence, the idea that chaos is the mother of order.
Okay, that could be said to be an absurd proposition sustained by a community of like-minded believers. The German atheist Friedrich Nietzsche. He once wrote about a madman walking through a public market square. on a sunny morning carrying a lantern.
Now I'll come back to that in a moment. But Nietzsche wrote about this crazy man walking through a public market, and the man asked the question of the people watching, staring at him, Where is God? I will tell you. We have killed him, you and I. We are all his murderers.
Now let's remember that the atheist Nietzsche on his deathbed cried out to God.
Now, why am I bringing this up in a conversation about AI?
Well, here's the thing. In the 19th century, you know, there had been the Charles Lyell, the attorney, who predicted that everything had continued as it was, the universe didn't have a beginning. And we evolved. And Charles Darwin became Picked up on the assertions of Lyell, and of course, Darwin wrote on the origin of species and the descent of man. And evolution.
It was this eureka moment for those who didn't like the idea of being accountable to God. Oh, we don't. Need to assume God was part of our origin. We don't need to fear that God is part of our destiny. We just evolved.
Now, 160 years. of Darwinian theory have led to nothing but dead ends. And I would urge people: oh my goodness, please watch, even though it was 15 years ago. Ben Stein's movie Expilled. It is one of the greatest exposés of the Anti-knowledge.
anti-intelligence. Results Of Darwin having a strangled hole on the classroom. But there was this celebration. Among European intellectuals, and even some American intellectuals, as evolution began to spread and assumptions about evolution, there was almost this euphoric: oh, we have an intelligent-sounding reason to dismiss belief. in the God of the Bible.
But let's remember n even Nietzsche on his deathbed. the once brazen German atheist on his death bed. It is well documented that he has said The days are intolerable I am insane I am losing my mind return to me, O three personed God But when he wrote The Gay Science not homosexual gay, but the joyful science the crazy man is walking through the market place on a sunny morning carrying a lit lantern.
Now, people in the marketplace recognize that this man in Nietzsche's story is crazy. I mean, why would you carry a lantern on a bright morning? And they laugh at this madman. is carrying a lantern in the daylight.
Now what Nietzsche wanted to convey is that the people in the market have not understood the consequences of what it means to live without God.
Now, some interpretations go like this, that we humans don't realize that our life is meaningless. Nietzsche would say, at least at that point in his life, that we're all just floating through an infinite nothingness, and people have not realized it. But the madman in the story is no crazier than the general public. People think their life has meaning. but according to the atheist, life has no meaning.
Now, some theorize that Nietzsche meant it this way: we are in this bright morning, the age of science. Why carry a lantern that was once needed in the Dark Ages, the Dark Ages of Superstitionism? The lantern is belief in God or God's revelation or the church. Come on now, it's morning. We've got science.
The sunrise, the bright light of science has dawned. We don't need the lantern of God any more. Put down or extinguish The outmoded lantern of belief in God. And yet, on his deathbed, Nietzsche cried out for God.
Now I'm setting this up. Because a lot of people You know, with essentially the Library of Congress times 10 at your fingertips, the Internet, AI. People are saying, oh, Computer, that will be our God. AI. We bow before thee.
not so fast. When we come back, I want to talk about what is a human being. and why AI will never be human. certainly never be God. impressive as it might appear.
it still is a finite thing made. cobbled together by finite man. We still need the true God. and we still need to humbly remember that we are mere Created beings before him. Stay tuned, we'll continue after this brief break.
Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland, a religion and culture expert. Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this. In recent years, our nation has suffered greatly and we seem to be on a rapid moral decline. We've rejected God, morality, and we've almost completely lost our sense of patriotism. It's no wonder that many are asking the question: is this the end of America?
Hi, Alex McFarland here, and I want to make you aware of my book, The Assault on America: How to Defend Our Nation Before It's Too Late. You know, our nation has seen politicians that are corrupted by greed and they've got a vested interest in power, and many of our elected officials seem to care little about the country that they've been appointed to serve. Read my book, The Assault on America. We can stand up for our great nation and defend America Before It's Too Late. It's available everywhere.
You can learn more on my own website, which is alexmacfarland.com. Read the book, The Assault on America: How to Defend Our Nation Before It's Too Late. He's been called trusted, truthful, and timely. Welcome back to the Alex McFarlane Show. Welcome back to the program.
Alex McFarland here as we resume our look at the differences between God, humanity, and AI. I want to thank everybody who's been in prayer for us over this busy, busy, but very fruitful summer. But God is at work. We've had our youth camps with over a thousand teenagers, nearly 300 teenagers coming to faith in Christ, and we've got a lot going on. God is blessing in terms of evangelizing the lost and equipping the saved.
Go to my website, if you would, alexmacfarland.com, and we have a growing, growing movement. Of evangelism, biblical worldview, and apologetics. People of all ages, but especially young people, are being reached. And I thank you for your prayers and support. Please know that together God is using all that we're doing to help restore and save our nation.
Well, truth is what we need. Jesus said, the truth will set you free in John 8:32. And so let's talk about the truth. Of what it means to be a human being. Computers, impressive as they may be, will never be fully human.
And I think it's important to talk about. what the Bible says about humanity. For most of our lives, you'll hear people say, Oh, we're body and soul. And then you'll even hear people clarify, and they'll say, well, you have a body, but you are a soul. And that's true.
There's the physical and the non-physical. There's the physical body, but then there's consciousness. And of course, we know the soul is everlasting. Either with God or apart from God. That's why salvation is so imperative.
But really, the Bible uses three terms. Like in 1 Thessalonians 5, 23 and 24, it says, Now, may the God of peace sanctify you completely. May your spirit Soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.
Now the words there in 1 Thessalonians 5, 23, body, soul, and spirit, the Greek word is soma. And the word for soul is psyche, from which we get psychology. And the word for spirit is pneuma. The breath of God.
Now, fascinating. Really, it's a trichotomist view of. the human person. try three part, just like God is Trinity. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, we are a Trinity, not in terms of divinity, but a three-part being.
You know, body, soma. We get the word chromosome. from that. We get the word ribosome, that cellular structure that serves as a protein making factory, your ribosome. It reads instructions encoded in the the RNA.
And assembles amino acids, turns them into proteins. Ribosomes are found in all living cells, from bacteria to humans. And they are composed of ribosomal RNA.
So this body, soma, And we get words from that. We have a body, we have a mind, emotion, will, that's psyche. And there is that part of us that is everlasting, pneuma. See, computers don't have that.
Now there might be a hard drive In a box, but the computer has lines of code, but it is not true psyche. and it certainly doesn't have pneuma. can't be born again or saved.
Now even in the Old Testament, So it's a little complicated, but it's fascinating. there are the trichotomist view, It's Basar, Ruash, and Nefesh, but there's even under Ruash a little uh Clarification that needs to be made.
Okay, B-A-S-A-R Basar is flesh. Genesis 2:24. The two shall become one flesh. Basar would be the Old Testament Hebrew counterpart of Soma in the Greek.
Now for psyche Or soul in the Greek, the Hebrew counterpart of that would really be Nephesh. The word nephesh occurs 754 times in the Old Testament, and it's really mind, intelligence.
Now a couple of things that need to be clarified. There is Neshamah, which is life, something that grows in the Hebrew. Plants could be said to have Neshamah, but not nephesh, which is mind and intelligence. But then there is that breath of God, the moral capacity, which is ruash, R-U-A-C-H. And so, humans, Old Testament and New Testament, we have body.
We have spirit, and then we have the breath of God that animated atom and the Ruash or the Numa depending on if you're in Hebrew or Greek. When we come to Christ, it's regenerated, made alive. For the rest of our life, as we grow in the knowledge of the Lord, as Romans 12 says, we renew our mind. And then one day our body Whether it be basar in Hebrew or Soma in Greek, our body gets glorified. And so computers will never experience these things.
And certainly a created, limited, finite object will not be a glorified human like saved people are. And certainly it will not be God. God by definition is everlasting, eternal, uncreated. Computers are created, God is uncreated. God is omnipotent.
Computers do not have all power. God is omniscient. Computers, impressive as though they may appear to be, do not know everything.
So the limitations of AI The AI lacks actual consciousness. AI lacks emotional capacity. to really feel empathy. regret, sorrow. AI definitely lacks the ethical decision-making based on God's law written on our heart.
God is righteous. We can know and comprehend righteousness. Romans 2:15, we have the law of God written on our heart.
Now, present and future. There's much, much human-AI collaboration. But rather than replacing humans, AI really augments human activities. It can help us in doing research or things like that. Uh even in troubleshooting.
Just even working on my car last week, I was on a page troubleshooting a problem with my car's air conditioner. But AI can perform many tasks. It will never replicate the full range of human experiences or ethical reasoning. And It can't know God. as we, born again humans, can.
Stay up to date. Stay current, be informed. But remember, God is forever His Word is truth, and life's highest experience, and the very purpose itself, is to know Almighty God through a relationship with Jesus Christ. and something created by fallen man can never replace that. Alex McFarlane Ministries are made possible through the prayers and financial support of partners like you.
For over 20 years, this ministry has been bringing individuals into a personal relationship with Christ and has been equipping people to stand strong for truth. Learn more and donate securely online at alexmacfarland.com. You may also reach us by calling 1-877-YESGOD and the number 1. That's 1-877-Y-E-S-G-O-D-1. Thanks for joining us.
We'll see you again on the next edition of the Alex McFarlane Show.
