The AI articles - an interlude:
When questions of theodicy make writing about AI hard (and week 26 readings)
The plan (for last week) was to complete a three-part article on AI and omniscience as it relates to God. The plan was to have the third article delve into the moral, ethical and legal implications and responsibilities of AI, and how these compare with God’s all-knowing, all-powerful, all-present features.
But I got stuck in an existential questioning … if God is all powerful, why didn’t or why doesn’t God prevent tragic and violent events (like the school shooting at Tumbler Ridge, BC - BBC video report, CBC written report) from happening?
This question is raised over and over in scripture:
either directly - for example by the Psalms which query how long will it take before God comes to our defense?
or indirectly - when we hear narratives in which God is ascribed to acts of violence, colonization or even just what sometimes feels like meaningless threats:
(think: Abraham, being told to bring his son to be sacrificed),
(think: the stories of Israel’s conquest of various nations in claiming the land God has [supposedly] given them),
(think: the poor Egyptian soldier who said bye to his wife and kids expecting to come home that evening, only to get drowned by the selectively parting Red Sea as he went in hot pursuit of Moses who - lucky guy - got his request to the Pharoah, to set God’s people free)(Why are some lucky and others not? Is this some weird short-straw competition??)
It isn’t just a police line that says “do not cross”, it is an exploration that delves into questions of meaning and purpose that, well, I just wasn’t up to tackling last week when I should have written that third article.
But it is coming … and I am thankful that I connected this triplet of articles to our weekly Bible readings, for three reasons:
someone called me to task asking where the delayed reading list was (thank you Martha, you are a faithful and well-loved soul!)
and I couldn’t write the reading list for week 26 without addressing why I haven’t written the third article yet.
and this is why writing, and theologizing in community is the best way to go - because on our own we can weasel out of our commitments to self, easy-peasy!
Sometimes I think, just like the meaning of scripture doesn’t sink in right away, or it sinks in in stages, little by little, over weeks, years, even decades of meditating, discussing, praying - just like that, the meaning of God’s actions takes time to be revealed - and not just time, but also deep grace, slow dawning wisdom - a broadening of the confines of my less-than-omniscience (which AI cannot always help).
In any life which has encountered any hardships or difficulties, the question of “Why me, God, why me?” arises, and it isn’t a question that indicates a lack of faith, but rather a calling out to the God we love and trust, a calling out for revelation and understanding as to meaning and purpose - especially behind suffering. I hope, later this week, to tackle the third article in the AI and omniscience series - once I get over my current “Why me, God, why me?” hump!
So today, first a prayer, then the reading list for week 26, with deep apologies for missing more than half the week already!
Prayer to a Confusing Creator for Tumbler Ridge
Confusing Creator, in the midst of this beautiful and peaceful place, pictured above, your all-powerful (omnipotent) and all-knowing (omniscient) and all-present (omnipresent) capacities failed. From my perspective, they failed. You are bigger than AI - why didn’t you intervene? Why did you allow 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar to use AI to get information on how to do a school shooting? And Why did you allow 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar to then execute that execution? Why didn’t you stop it? Why didn’t you work your All-Powerful Spirit in the people in OpenAI who knew these AI searches had been done by 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, yet did nothing to report? did nothing to stop the violence and massacre?
For that matter, Confusing Creator why have you historically and to-date allowed, yes allowed so many horrid things to happen? On scales of Holocausts and genucide, on scales of intergenerational trauma and animal extinction, on scales of personal heartbreak and soul-disappointment? If we are made in your image and likeness why aren’t we better, better to each other and to ourselves and to creation? Collectively, why aren’t we more goodness and less badness, more grace and less judgement, more mercy and less vengeance? Confusing Creator, I do not understand your whys and wherefores. Please help my lack of understanding. Please help me to find meaning in the meaningless, and purpose in the purposeless, especially where it shows up in the granular places of my own life. Reveal yourself to me, Confusing Creator, in the name of your son, Jesus, whose own life was granular indeed, I pray. Amen.
Week 25 Readings:
Thursday June 25th : 2 Kings 8:1 to 2 Kings 9:13, Acts 16:16-49, Psalm 143:1-12 and Proverbs 17:26
Friday June 26th: 2 Kings 9:14 to 2 Kings 10:31, Acts 17:1-34, Psalm 144:1-15 and Proverbs 17:27-28
Saturday June 27th: 2 Kings 10:32 to 2 Kings 12:21, Acts 18:1-22, Psalm 145:1-21 and Proverbs 18:1
Sunday June 28th (Lectionary includes the story of Abraham taking Isaac to be sacrificed): 2 Kings 13:1 to 2 Kings 14:29, Acts 18:23 to Acts 19:12, Psalm 146:1-10 and Proverbs 18:2-3.
Monday June 29th: 2 Kings 15:1 to 2 Kings 16:20, Acts 19:13-41, Psalm 147:1-20 and Proverbs 18:4-5
Tuesday June 30th (Psalm we will hear at Jan Arnold’s funeral this coming Thursday): 2 Kings 17:1 to 2 Kings 18:12, Acts 20:1-38, Psalm 148:1-14 and Proverbs 18:6-7
Wednesday July 1st (Happy Canada Day): 2 Kings 18:13 to 2 Kings 19:37, Acts 21:1-16, Psalm 149:1-9 and Proverbs 18:8
The hallways of my mind just come up empty of answers to so many questions. And I think of those hallways at Tumbler Ridge and so many other communities where school shootings have happened. And I feel the resonance between this image and the hallways of my own mind, as I ask, “Why, God, Why?”
Police line Photo by Jenn on Unsplash
Tumbler Ridge, BC Photo by Dulana Kodithuwakku on Unsplash
dark empty hallway Photo by Jackson Emery on Unsplash
There is God giving human kind free will. We also are confused by God's will for our lives. The phrase "God doesn't give you any more than you can handle" to me is not an image of a God of unconditional love. God is there for us to comfort and support through the difficult times and also through our blessings. We need to listen. We need to ask the questions. He/she always has time for us.