A Study on the View of Humanity in the Era of the 4th Industrial Revolution: Criticism of Religionization of Artificial Intelligence through the Theology of Youngsan

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한세대학교 영산신학연구소
· 수록지 정보 : 영산신학저널 / 61권 / 7 ~ 46페이지
· 저자명 : 이충웅

초록

Due to three major reasons, the connection between Artificial Intelligence (hereinafter referred to as AI) and the church will increase more to a greater extent in the future. First, the impact of AI on society will become enormous. Society and the church are very closely associated. Thus, if society is affected by AI, the church will be affected accordingly. Second, with the advent of AI, new religions (faith or beliefs) such as transhumanism will be rising to the surface. Third, the argument has been incessantly emerging that AI should be provided with a personality as an electronic personality or as a moral agent. These issues cannot but be theological as they surpass philosophy or jurisprudence. Recently, even a religious organization has come into view that serves AI like gods. To commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, a robot pastor appeared and attracted attention in Wittenberg, Germany. The robot pastor named BlessU-2 preaches fluently in five different languages and beams light from its raised hands to deliver blessings to believers.
From the point of view of Youngsan, Homo Deus is inconceivable. In particular, it is unbiblical for an AI robot to preside a worship service, to preach, and even to ascend to the position of God. This is because Youngsan comprehends humans as beings who possess exceptional abilities to communicate with God and to hear his voice. Taking Youngsan’s view into consideration, AI is not a spiritual being; thus, it may be utilized as a tool to assist in worship, but it cannot by itself lead worship, deliver a sermon, and guide a congregation of believers. It means that AI, which is seemingly an extension of human manipulation, should not and cannot be involved in a leading role in pastoral ministry, preaching, or Bible study. In any case, AI must remain an instrument aiding faithful servants.
Two alternatives to the challenge of AI will be presented in this paper. One is the reinforcement of the communityship of church. In the Christian dimension, “community” signifies that those who were called are building up the church, that is, the body of Christ, as members. Such a concept of community originates from the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. The ‘Trinity’ implies that the Triune God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit have a tendency to be interdependent, acknowledging their reciprocally containing authorities. The other alternative is the reinforcement of church education. The 4th industrial revolution era with the contact-free era is more in need of a community of relational and communal care. Therefore, the church should scrutinize educational methods that solidify the community, pursuing hybrid educations that take both online and offline classes. As humans own idiosyncratic characteristics distinguished from those of machines, particularly, it can be said that they require the understanding of people through human emotions, the communication with and considerate attitudes toward others, and the maintenance of communityship through empathy. The orientation of the future church must face toward the level of spirituality that AI is incapable of replenishing. Therefore, the church must primarily offer humans who use AI a thorough education of the Bible which provides explicit answers concerning the purpose of life, the values to quest for, and the ethics of life. Consequently, this era will necessitates more the 4th dimensional spirituality of Youngsan.

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