Spirit, Not Intelligence
By Anthony Casperson
3-18-23

The concept of artificial intelligence has come to the fore of many people’s minds with things like ChatGPT and questions about the legality of AI-created art. While AI has long held a place in sci-fi stories, these steps that seem to lead us into a world like those stories excite many. (And worry others who pay close attention to the typical direction such tales end up.)

I’m not knowledgeable enough to speak with authority about how much of these supposed AIs are the beginnings of creating a machine intelligence instead of just a highly advanced random generator of various inputs already having been created by human intelligence. However, I have experienced enough sci-fi stories to know that if we continue in the realm of AI, there will be a big question that arises after a person claims to have made the first true AI.

Once there exists a fully independent freethinking machine, many will question how it is much different from a human being. Is there a sentience (or perhaps better said, sapience) in the singular intelligence? And ultimately that will lead to questions about rights similar to those of humanity.

Ultimately, a person’s answer to these questions will always depend upon their understanding of what a human is. For many—especially those with an atheistic evolutionary perspective—a human is considered akin to a biological machine. Various processes continually run to keep us living. And intelligence is the fundamental measure of what makes a conscient self. Thus to such individuals, the existence of an independent intelligence would qualify the AI similar qualities as humans.

However, I believe that we who trust in the bible should hold a different answer. And this is because intelligence isn’t the base-level qualification for what makes us beings disposed to rights.

If we trust in the biblical explanation of the creation of the world—and especially humanity—then what separates us from the rest of the world’s fauna is the fact that we’ve been made in the image of God. He crafted the first man and then breathed life into that lump of dirt and dust.

We would often call this a soul. But the since the word “spirit” in both Hebrew and Greek carries with it the idea of “breath/wind,” I think that would be the better term. (Although, the dichotomy between soul and spirit is a fine line, as we can see amidst the author of Hebrews’ discussion in Hebrews 4:12.)

This spirit within humanity is deeply connected to the image of God that we humans are. Our representation of him—broken and marred though it may be. It is this image-bearing aspect that makes humans what we are. And we can witness this spirit-life even more when we consider how the new life in Christ arrives as God’s Holy Spirit indwells we who follow Jesus. Both our physical life and our spiritual life are tied to a spirit/Spirit.

Let me give another example about the unique place of humanity. Few who believe in their existence would question the intelligence of the angelic host. Yet even in this instance, the bible shows that humans and angels differ. (Yeah, pop culture’s insistence that people become angels after they die is unbiblical.) They don’t have this same made-in-the-image-of-God status.

And it is only the fall of humanity that concerned God enough to create a way of salvation through the cross. Jesus only died for fallen humanity. Even though Satan and the part of the angelic host that followed him fell, there is no salvation available for them. (Hell was designed for Satan and his angelic followers, even though humans who reject the sacrifice of Jesus will also end up there.)

Therefore, we can see that there is something special about humanity. An image-bearing that only God can give. Our rights to life and freedom are derived from God’s grace to us. It’s something that no human can bestow upon another created being. Regardless of its intelligence.

Since, biblically speaking, it’s the image-bearing of humanity—rather than our intelligence—that provides us our unique situation of having inalienable rights, no machine that we make will ever have personhood akin to a human being. Those rights do not belong to any other than those to whom God gave them. The best that we can create is a pale facsimile of existence (which unfortunately would carry our own fallen aspects with it).

Whether or not we’ll ever reach a situation of AI like those in sci-fi stories, I don’t know. But I can say that based off of the bible, intelligence is not the standard by which we lay claim to human rights. It’s our image-bearing spirit gifted by God to us.

A gift that no machine will ever possess.