Artificial intelligence will never replace human beings because robots have no conscience. Robots can be programmed to do anything. They will never feel guilt or remorse or be guided by a transcendent moral compass, unless it is programmed. If it is programmed it is not authentic. Therefore, we will never make a robot into a human. But it is possible to make humans into robots, by programming them to act without conscience.
For a conscience to be authentic it must be chosen, and since robots have no free will, they cannot choose to respond to conscience, nor can anyone choose to have a conscience in the first place. God gives us a conscience when he creates us. He expects us to nourish that conscience as a free will choice. The only way to nourish the conscience is through vital relationship with God. The conscience is God-given, God-activated and God-sustained. Robots will forever operate without conscience, which is what makes them so dangerous.
And a human being without conscience is far more lethal than a robot. Think Stalin, Hitler, ISIS, or any of the assorted monsters throughout history, chief among them, Satan, a real personality operational in the world, for the time being. Atheists and Jihadists last century were responsible for the slaughter of 100 million people. The devastating error of humanism and atheism is the belief a human can possess and nourish conscience apart from God.
The Parkland shooter credits Satan for his murderous rampage. Nikolas Cruz does not appear to have a conscience. From what we know about most all mass killers, they have this is common: no conscience. They do not feel guilt. They do not express remorse. They do not ask for forgiveness. They appear unaffected by the agony they cause. Various influences, drugs, genetic predispositions and experiences combined to make Cruz a robot acting without conscience. When conscience dies many deaths follow. The death of conscience is not confined to mass killers.
We marvel over the way certain politicians and other elitists are found lying time and again, never admitting error, never changing course. It’s as if they are machines locking into a certain mode of proceeding that belies a death of conscience.
Bill and Hillary Clinton are prime examples. Based on the known record (the tip of the iceberg), the Clintons have engaged in the most horrendous behavior, for decades, yet they speak as if they are morally superior. It is a remarkable characteristic of the malignant narcissist: while he commits assorted atrocities, he sees himself a cut above the mass of people he finds disgusting, people worthy of manipulation and domination in his mind. How is it possible for someone to destroy the lives of others and at the same time hold himself superior? How can a person stab another then complain about knives? The death of conscience.
How was it possible for Richard Nixon to lie time and again about Watergate, obstruct justice and cover up wrong doing for so long, never admitting fault? How could the Germans ignore the ovens and celebrate Nazism? How was it conceivable JFK presented himself the courageous, polished, morally inspired statesman while he committed adultery weekly for years? How could J. Edgar Hoover justify his perverse lifestyle and hateful scheming and blackmail for years without ever batting an eye, even as he held himself forth an ethical law enforcement authority? And how can Barack Obama and Co. cover lie after lie after deception after lawless act and never once blush? The death of conscience.
God warned us about the sin nature. He warned us to begin with not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He tried to protect us from the death of conscience. In our pride and rebellion we would not listen. We refused to listen to reason. We refused to consider the consequences. We make a free will decision to sin. Habitual sin destroys conscience.
Still, out of His great love for us, He gives us conscience, by the Holy Spirit, reviving it as often as necessary, so that we will detect evil, and choose good. Out of His great love, God gave us his Son, so that conscience will not die, so that sin will never have the last word, so long as we walk in the newness of life, having believed and received the Son.
He gives life to conscience that we might live forever, not as robots, but as loving human beings, the apple of His eye.
Image: CC0 Creative Commons; https://pixabay.com/en/man-body-naked-human-gestures-845847/
