“HERE WE ARE IN A BRAND NEw YEAR, WHERE ADVANCING TECHNOLOGY HAS GIVEN US THE MOsT SOpHISTICATED WORLD ANY HUMAN BEING HAS EVER LIVED in. WHAT CAN WE learn from it as we enter?”

 I’m Dennis Finnan, host and speaker on the World, the Word & You! Broadcast and in a moment we’ll talk about technology and theology as they really go together, in my message for the New Year entitled: IMAGES OF GOD! Stay tuned…

… Every year the world of science and technology amazes us as it discovers new and better ways to harness our universe, and for it to serve mankind. Although we might debate what is the greatest invention of man, by far the top candidate would be the “computer.” As to its origin, one cannot be exact, for its appearance was truly an evolution of thought and design that come together in the 1950’s when valve-driven computer designs were in use, but were eventually replaced with transistor-based computers, which were smaller, faster, cheaper, and much more reliable, thus allowing them to be commercially produced, in the 1960s. By the 1970s, the adoption of integrated circuit technology had enabled computers to be produced at a low enough cost to allow individuals to own a “personal” computer of the type familiar to people today. However, the most interesting thing about computers is, that “evolution” of thought and design continues every day and multiplies exponentially, and seemingly nonstop. Now what do computers have to do with God, the Bible and His creation which He called “man?”  Well, after a pause for another moment of music, I’ll tell you the most amazing thing about it…

…Back in the year 1965, a man named Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel Corporation that produces computer chips, made the observation, that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits had doubled every year since the integrated circuit was invented. Moore predicted that this trend would continue for the foreseeable future. In subsequent years, the pace slowed down a bit, but data density has doubled approximately every 18 months, and this is the current definition of Moore 's Law. Most experts, believe Moore 's Law will hold for at least another two decades. What this means is, that if our computer knowledge, intelligence and design continues to double ever 18 months, many feel the computer will one day reach “sentience.”

Sentience is the capacity for basic consciousness—the ability to perceive, including the faculty of self-awareness.  Today computers in industry are used extensively in the field of robotics; that is, computer generated machines, to accomplish mass production of quality goods, and services. Robotics, indeed, a main use of computers, is the physical expressions of the field of artificial intelligence.

However, all the computers that drive our world today are totally controlled by the intelligence of man. Yet Hollywood has exploited for years the concept that one day our computers will take on their own “AI” or Artificial Intelligence and become sentient.  Not waiting for this to happen, Hollywood has given us a slew of blockbuster thrillers, showing AI computer robots built in human form, that can think, feel, perceive and have a will of their own -- usually to the detriment of humanity. The best example is the film series “THE MATRIX,” or “I ROBOT,” or even the film “2000AD” with the sentient computer named “HAL.” Although this has all been science fiction, scientists’ today feel sentient computers are coming. By the year 2029 they expect to have sufficient technology to demonstrate machine consciousness and or self awareness.

Well if and when that comes, what will that do to us who are Christians who believe in God and His creation of the universe and all that is in it? Will artificial intelligence or sentience bring a new life form that will have to be treated as such? Will no one be allowed to own an AI machine? The STAR TREK – The NEXT GENERATION television series gave us the AI machine called “DATA.” This machine was completely sentient and had the ability function as a new life form. Would this be similar to man? If so, what would be the similarities or differences? Well let’s explore this.

First of all, computers are simply “HARDWARE” digital devices that can store vast amounts of information, and perform calculations at mind blurring speed to accomplish whatever the “SOFTWARE,” designed for it, is determined to do. Today we use this to drive industry, produce goods and services, and even play games for us in our homes. However if we tore apart the computers we have in our homes and laid all the pieces out we would not find the “intelligence” that drives that machine to do the amazing things it does. This is because the real value of a computer is not in the “hardware,” but the “software.” In essence, the software that is placed in the memory banks of the hardware is the “soul” of the computer. So then, what is this amazing thing called “software?” We know one can transfer it, from machine to machine and it will do the same thing on another computer. We can store it on CDROM disks, send it via electromagnetic waves through phone lines and even across the universe, and it still exists in all its created form. And, as long as it is remembered it will exist forever in a weightless form and never disappear. So then, software is the intelligent design and creation that comes from the mind of its creator. Let’s apply this. God’s Word tells us,

Gen 1:26-27 (NIV)  Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness… 
27 So God created man in his own image… he created him; male and female he created them.

Gen 2:7 (NIV)  the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

From the Bible text we discover that man’s body was created out of the elements of the earth. Now amazingly we can see that computers are based on semiconductor devices, which are made from silicon. Silicon is found in sand as silicon dioxide. Dust is mostly fine sand particles and so the same thing as the dirt of the ground. Silicon dioxide is silicon joined with oxygen. Oxygen is what we breathe, although not perhaps the same as the “breath of life,” mentioned in the bible. Nonetheless, the suggestion of similarity is there. So apparently, computers are made from the same material as dust and dust is biblically the creative elements of man’s very being, his body. The correspondence between the Bible account of man’s creation and the technology of microprocessors is noteworthy, particularly if we are considering the idea of computer consciousness.

For within man’s body, God’s (HARDWARE), is God’s (SOFTWARE), the soul and the spirit. It is weightless, eternal, and can one day leave the body fully intact and be returned to its Designer and Maker, the Lord God. The Bible tells us this too,

Ezek 18:4 (NIV)  “For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son--both alike belong to me. The soul who sins is the one who will die.”

Eccl 12:7 (NIV)  “and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.”

In the Bible, we are told that man is a tripartite being composed of a “spirit, soul and body.”

1 Thess 5:23 (NIV) “…May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Heb 4:12 (NIV)  “For the word of God is living and active… it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

So, we have a tremendous analogy of man’s creation, the computer, and God’s creation called mankind. The one thing the Bible tells us about our existence can be seen in the world of computers. Today an average computer’s useful lifespan is about three years before it either breaks down or has become outdated. Often what we do then is remove and transfer the good “software” onto a disk or another hard drive, and buy a new computer and replace it on the new, to continue its work and purpose for us. In other words, the software lives on, although the hardware (machine) itself, is sent to the junk pile.

God’s word tells us that one day every one of us is going to die. That is, our bodies (living biological machines) God created, will wear out and die. Yet contrary to evolutionary thought that life ceases to exist at death, we are told in the Bible that the divine Creator, just before the body ceases to function, He removes the soul and spirit which is everlasting.

Eccl 12:7 (NIV)  “and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.”

Is it so hard to believe the Bible? Today brilliant minds reject the idea that man, once created, will live on forever and ever. They refuse to believe this and manufacture the idiotic idea that our biological machines and its software of consciousness and sentience (soul and spirit), just evolved out of the primordial slime with no designer behind it. If one can believe that then all I need to do to get a new fast computer, is dig in my backyard and find one of them that have evolved out of the dirt of the earth. As preposterous as that is, this is the theory of evolution! However, man today, compared to our computers, is beyond our comprehension.

“Our route today to seek artificial consciousness in computers, attempts to directly simulate the behavior of the cells that form our brains. Such a software program is called a neural network. For a neutral network to have a chance at consciousness, it must at least be as complex as the human brain. I’m told today that the human brain has 1,012,000,000,000 neurons.

Each neuron makes 1000 connections with other neurons, each being a single cell. So, to run a neural network of this size on a computer would require 5 MILLION GB of memory. When do we expect to be making computers with this amount of memory? Giorgio Buttazzo, a professor of computer engineering at the University of Pavia, Italy, calculates the year we might possibly do this is 20291 AD.

Well, all this tells us is -- the human being is a marvelous creation of an infinite omnipotent Designer.  This Designer, who created all life, has not left us without knowledge of Him. Although we all are created as intelligent beings with individual consciousness and awareness, we have been created to seek and return to our Designer, called God. The Bible is God’s communication to us, and what He wants from us, so that we can, as His living beings, exist for eternity in a perfect, pleasurable and exciting environment -- to challenge our consciousness and self-awareness.

The problem we face is that these biological machines God created, called man, have gone haywire. Yet by our own self-consciousness, the first model of man, built in the image of God, was created to replicate himself. But before it did this, God gave it a test to see if by its own self-will and awareness it would desire to live with and love its Creator forever and ever.

However, through interference of another created being, called Satan a fallen angel, man was side-tracked, and chose to live and operate on his own will rather than God’s. Thus, the human race is in a sense “divine robotics gone bad.” The Bible tells us that the entire human race was replicated from the fallen, broken, and corrupt image of Adam and Eve, and in like manner their divine “software” (soul and spirit) is damaged and due for destruction.

To rectify this, God has promised mankind that all those who come to Him, with their own will, seeking to be made “new,” God would install new divine “software” a new Spirit in man, to work properly, and enjoy the presence of the Designer forever and ever. What a perfect illustration this is for us to consider in light of what the Bible says,

John 3:16-17 (NIV)  "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

 John 1:11-12 (NIV)  He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—

All of us are accountable to our Creator and Designer God, who has revealed Himself in the Person and work of Jesus Christ. Scripture tells us, God became one of His own Creatures, and in perfection and design is willing to lead all of us “damaged” creatures back to His love, care and protection. However, since God did give sentience to all of us, that is, a free will, we must of our own choice desire and determine to return to God’s control and purpose for us. All who refuse, as is their choice, the Bible says will be deactivated bodily and God will separate the soul and spirit from the body and cast it into a place called Hell. Since the soul and spirit will live on forever, once created, God has to give it a place to exist outside of God’s blessings, goodness, and plans for obedient creatures.

The question is where are you going when your body (God’s biological machine) dies? Will you return to be with the Creator and loving Designer who has great plans for you to be “reinstalled” in a new, fantastic body that will live forever? Or will you continue to exist in a corrupt broken down, and useless “machine” or body, God will return to you when He casts you into Hell?

It’s your choice! So here we are entering a brand New Year, 2006. What it holds for us we don’t know, yet for a number, this will be the year of their biological death, but not their soul and spirit it will live on and be sent to wherever God determines – Heaven to be with God, or Hell to be separated from God, for all eternity. The amazing thing is as “sentient” beings, we are the ones who make the choice. The Bible tells us if we choose God the Creator, in Jesus Christ and turn our wills over to His control, we will live on forever in His blessing and joy. But, if we refuse or ignore this, we will be cast away and scrapped from God’s intended use, but like software, our soul and spirit will never die, just exist somewhere else and be of no value to the great Designer anymore. Now think about it -- how many of us have old software lying around we simply don’t use anymore because it has become useless to us? Don’t become the same with God. This is why the Bible cries out for all of God’s creation to return to our Maker, by seeking His Son Jesus Christ who has paid the price for restoring us to the place of God’s choice design and purpose. Listen to God’s call to you and to me,

John 6:37-40 (NIV)  All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

Yes, in a sense, God has a fix for our corrupted “software” of life and living as a sentient being. That fix is to be reformatted with Jesus Christ who gives us a NEW LIFE in Christ. This new life is a corrected program that enables us to love God not as a robot, but as a living sentient being by our own will and desire. Everyone who has this installed in us is “born again,” by faith in Jesus Christ as our God and Savior. They receive this new life (programming) and when our bodies grow old and die, God will lift our soul and spirit from our bodies and give us a brand new forever body to live in His presence and enjoy Him forever. Listen to God’s word on this matter,

1 Cor 15:40-43 (NLT)  There are bodies in the heavens, and there are bodies on earth. The glory of the heavenly bodies is different from the beauty of the earthly bodies… Our earthly bodies, which die and decay, will be different when they are resurrected, for they will never die..”.

Now that’s not so hard to comprehend is it? If so, why don’t you right now look up to heaven and cry out in your soul and spirit for God to remake you, to come into your very being and take up residence there and grant you His full forgiveness and life eternal? It’s that simple, but God will not force you, nor will He change you without your personal free will surrender to Him and asking Him to do this.

John 11:25-26 (NIV)  Jesus said … "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

As God’s servant of His Word, I’ve given you the plan to fix and restore broken humanity, and all that remains is for you to heed and acknowledge your sins and disobedience and ask Jesus Christ who died for you, to make you whole again. He will by no means cast out or away anyone who comes to him surrendering their heart and life to Him as Lord and Savior. So may God add His blessing to these words for Jesus sake, Amen.

---

·         Radio talk #0106

·         Broadcast date: January 01, 2006

·         Speaker: Dennis L. Finnan, Commentator

·         Program: The World, the Word & You! Radio Broadcast

·         Address: P.O. Box 60033 Grand Junction, CO 81506

---

The World, the Word & You! Broadcast is a non-denominational ministry based on the historic fundamental evangelical interpretation of the Scriptures. A copy of our doctrinal statement is available upon request. These weekly radio commentaries are not exhaustive studies of any particular subject due to the time limit of broadcasting. Actual broadcasts can be heard in selected areas around the nation, as funding provides. Dennis Finnan has been the speaker for over 25 years, and serves as General Director.

* These transcripts are available free of charge to all who desire them. Also available are actual audio radio messages on CD's, and printed booklets of each message. A free listing of recent messages is available upon request also.

---

Want to Help?

If you've been blessed and encouraged by these messages, you can help keep them on the Internet. Below is a secure link to PayPal, a way to donate through the Internet to this Christian Radio Broadcast. We are a faith ministry depending totally upon the love gifts of friends like you. Please consider a donation today of any amount. Or you can use the snail mail address at bottom left to write to us. God bless you.

---

* DISCLAIMER: PLEASE READ - By printing, downloading, or using you agree to our full terms. Review the full terms at the following URL: http://www.wwy.org/disclaimer.htm. Below is a summary of some of the terms. If you do not agree to the full terms, do not use our information. We only publish the talks of Dennis L. Finnan, who does not claim to be an author but a compiler of related information. Such information may have errors or in time be outdated. Some information is from historical, spiritual and biblical sources or represents opinions of the author. It is for edification and research purposes only. The information is "AS IS", "WITH ALL FAULTS". User assumes all risk of use, damage, or injury. You agree that we have no liability for any damages. We are not liable for any consequential, incidental, indirect, or special damages. You indemnify the World, the Word & You! and Dennis L. Finnan for all claims caused by you and your use of these articles.

Visit us at our radio website:  www.wwy.org