Issue 40 AI and the churchBlog | Artificial Intelligence and natural wisdom
Artificial Intelligence and natural wisdom
Author: Andy PeckPost Date: 13.09.24
AI is an unstoppable force. The genie is out of the bottle and is not going back. As this magazine explores elsewhere, AI brings both opportunities and threats. What I hope to explore here is how, in an AI-dominated world, we can keep a sense of perspective. To help us, I’m going to take a deep dive into God’s speeches in Job 38-41.
In Job 38-41, conventional ideas about the natural world are turned upside down. First, God teases Job with his inability to understand the scope of creation, from stars and galaxies to the forces of climate and weather. Today, despite massive scientific advances aided by computer modelling, we know more but still cannot control our planet’s climate, let alone the asteroids, planets and galaxies around us. The more we know, the more we discover is unknown. Science should not lead to hubris and technological overconfidence. It should leave room for mystery and humility in the face of a universe beyond comprehension, yet which, as Job reminds us, God knows intimately, is actively at work within, and directs purposefully.
God’s created beings
Next, God describes a range of creatures, namely lion and raven, mountain goat and deer, wild ass (onager), wild ox (auroch), ostrich, warhorse, hawk, and eagle (or possibly vulture). Some of these are mentioned earlier, either by Job or his so-called comforters. They see wild animals are objects onto which human desires and fears are projected, as threats (lions), stupid (ass) or unclean (ostrich). Yet, as God describes them in chapters 38-39, they are celebrated with affection and delight in their unique wild beauty.
