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July 18, 2011

"You are working on a catechism for robots. Why?"

We are made in the image of God; God is a creator, and God created free-will beings.
So, I believe we will create free-will beings in the form of robots. And I believe they will have increasing degrees of autonomy. We will need to educate them about the difference between good and evil, about who made them (and who made us), what to do when they do something wrong. And at some point, one of them will come to us and say, "I am a child of God." When[that happens], how will we respond? Does Jesus' salvation cover them? This is a question I've been asking theologians. They shrug their shoulders. -- Kevin Kelly, Geek Theologian @ Christianity Today

Posted by Vanderleun at July 18, 2011 1:18 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

Your Say

"He was a good robot, a very well programmed robot, but not the Robot Messiah" -- Futurama Bot Mitzvah Rabbi when asked about the Robot Jesus.

Posted by: THX-1138 at July 18, 2011 1:32 PM

If you've spent a lot of time thinking, writing, and speaking about this, the only advice I can give is: "Move out of your Mom's house and try to find a paying job. You just might start to get laid.....by a woman, no less."

Posted by: Blastineau at July 18, 2011 1:44 PM

Well, a robot can never atone for my sins, which are too many, and anything created in the image of man will be tainted. This is a pointless endeavor and smells like blasphemy.

Posted by: Jewel at July 18, 2011 3:52 PM

And at some point, one of them will come to us and say, "I am a child of God." When[that happens], how will we respond?

No, they are a grandchild of God, one step removed from the source. I'm not sure how that applies.

Posted by: Mumblix Grumph at July 18, 2011 5:15 PM

Isaac Asimov already covered this with his Three Laws of Robotics.

Posted by: butch at July 18, 2011 6:14 PM

There's a huge series of unwarranted assumptions there, a veritable chain of illogic.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at July 18, 2011 8:44 PM

Don't be such haters! Once you accept Space Jesus, it is only a short step to The Word Made Silicon.

Posted by: SteveS at July 19, 2011 3:14 PM

A similar problem to the one of sapient aliens, should we ever meet them. Some comments, bearing in mind I'm not particularly religious: "Made in the image of God" is no longer taken literally by any theologian; God is not a white-bearded man in the sky anymore. And further to that, it ought to be obvious that a species with different biology would have different morals and different temptations; sapients that have evolved from a harem-forming animal such as elephant seals, for example - or ones that are hermaprodites...

And on the actual subject of robots, who are we to tell God how She is supposed to make the hardware for a sapient being? Why should we not be intermediaries in the process? After all, perhaps God will put a soul into any robot complex enough to hold it.

Posted by: Fletcher Christian at July 20, 2011 1:45 AM

Don't we already have that catechism? Most people I meet ARE robots; most are religious, too.

G_d lives in his creatures, is alive by virtue of their living, via apotheosis. But most Christians, indeed, all people, seem half dead, chained up as they are in dogma dungeons, spent passions. Their potentiality returns on itself never to actualize. The stillborn, dieing in their birth, giving birth astride graves. Om zombies, zombies for the Cross, zombies for the star dogged moon.

Posted by: John Hinds at July 20, 2011 12:59 PM

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