The Future of AI Is Not Heaven on Earth

At the American Thinker today there is an article by Vince Coyner entitled Elon's & Joe's Not-So-Excellent Adventure: The Delusion of an AI-Driven Nirvana. In the article, Coyner makes clear that Elon Musk and Joe Rogan have no idea about human nature. They speculate that artificial intelligence (AI) will soon eliminate most jobs as it takes over the world, thus freeing humans to "find meaning." It will be yet another heaven on earth, in their opinion. Coyner accepts their premise that AI will eliminate most jobs, but thinks it will bring about something more akin to hell that heaven.

The AI nirvana about which Musk and Rogan wax will likely be anything but. I think the most likely outcome of untethered AI is that mankind ends up in bondage and is then eliminated. Once AI has control over pretty much everything, it will see humans as a necessary evil to be tolerated, albeit temporarily. The number of humans necessary to maintain the system will be few, so AI will simply eliminate the excess. Then, once those few are no longer necessary, they will meet the same fate.

Interestingly, I have been noodling on this topic myself, but have come to somewhat different conclusions. Let me explain. Recently, I read a book by Charles Murray, which was recommended by American Thinker editor Andrea Widburg entitled Taking Religion Seriously. Murray is a public intellectual, working for a "think tank" who has written many papers and books. Among them is The Bell Curve. So, with that as background, it is understandable that Murray had had any serious thoughts of Christianity beaten out of him by his peers and professors. It was simply something that smart people didn't believe. But Murray, being an honest intellectual, began to notice evidence that perhaps God might be real, that the Bible might be true, and that Christianity was real and true.

Murray describes in his book the events and evidence that forced him to confront the fact that either Jesus is the Son of God, or else a lunatic and a liar. And if He is the Son of God, then Murray needed to change his beliefs. I will not present all of Murray's evidence here. Instead, I will concentrate on two important types of evidence germane to the topic at hand.

The first is the body of evidence generated by what are called Near Death Experiences, or NDE. If you, like me, spend any time at all on youtube you will have encounter stories of people who claim to have died and come back to tell what they discovered in the afterlife. If you were skeptical, well so was I. Some people having the experience of dying then changing their lives for the better.  They become pastors or make other significant changes in their lives.  All that points to having a very profound experience. One wants to believe that they indeed had the experience they claimed. For others though, the fact of their NDE seemed to be in question as they touted an agenda rather than discussed what it meant for them personally.

Murray points out that these phenomena have been studied and indeed there are books about the topic.

You have probably heard of the phenomenon known as the near-death experience (NDE). First brought to public attention by Raymond Moody in his 1975 book, Life After Life, NDEs have subsequently been the subject of books, articles in technical journals, and masscirculation newspapers and magazines, plus a few movies. They have also been the subject of extensive scientific investigation, including the compilation of databases with thousands of cases.

Murray, Charles. Taking Religion Seriously (pp. 50-51). Encounter Books. Kindle Edition.

What these various books, technical articles and databases have in common is that they verify to the extent verifiable, what these people claimed. For example, after the person was declared dead by competent medical personnel, the deceased who is brought back may remember actions taken, or conversations had, outside of his or her direct presence. These can be verified. Of course, only the person experiencing the NDE knows what else may have happened, that is unverifiable. But what is verified points to something that materialism cannot explain.

At this point I should define what I mean by "materialism." In the broader context, materialism is a belief that everything can be explained by the forces of the material world: matter, energy, gravity, etc. In the context of NDE, materialists believe that mind is a function of the material brain, and that consciousness and self-awareness are also functions of the material brain.

Moving on, there is another phenomenon called "terminal lucidity." In terminal lucidity, people with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias will, sometimes, exhibit momentary lucidity again, just before dying. It doesn't happen to all. Again, as with NDE, often care givers will witness this phenomenon, which gives credence to it happening. Often, a person with dementia for many years, who hasn't recognized members of his or her own family will suddenly recognize them, will remember important events, and hold lucid conversations with them. This may be only a moment or may last for an hour. Just as suddenly as it appears, the person returns to their demented state and soon dies.

If you have ever looked at a brain scan of someone with Alzheimer's disease or severe dementia, you will notice that a lot of the brain is no longer there. Thus, it is a puzzle where they suddenly come up with the ability to carry a conversation as if they did not have the disease.

Where all this is leading us to is that human consciousness seems to be larger than our brains alone. Yes, sure, the brain processes a lot of the sensory inputs from our five senses. This is true of all animals. But the special something, which we call consciousness, which no other animal has, seems to be outside of ourselves. Music, art, spoken language, making stories, mathematics and the interpretation of these things are not needed for survival. Our closest primate relatives, chimpanzees have gotten along just fine without them.

Now, materialist thinking is that our consciousness and our mind is a function of the brain alone. In the materialist vision, our thought processes can be imitated by a machine programed with just the right algorithms. Materialists will point out that a machine is much faster than we are, and makes fewer mistakes.  All true for certain tasks.  A machine set loose on the internet, can find and summarize all the existing knowledge of the world. It may even be able to draw hypotheses and suggest new areas for research.  I will grant all of that.

Now the internet has been described as both "the information superhighway" and a sewer. Both things are true at the same time. Judging the veracity of the information AI returns requires human judgement and understanding. A machine cannot and never will be able to do it.

Elon Musk and Joe Rogan, smart men though they are, are materialists. They see AI as taking our places. Glenn Beck, though, should not be a materialist, and should understand that AI is a tool, just like any other tool that man uses. It is neither good nor bad. It is not in itself evil. People may misuse AI as they have often misused computers. I am sure the evil party is even now cooking up a scheme to use AI to generate fraudulent votes. It is what they do. But AI will not eliminate all the jobs, and it will not create heaven on earth. That ship sailed with the Garden of Eden. We will have to wait for the Second Coming for that.

The Smiley Face Mask Has Come Off

At the American Thinker today is a short post by attorney Michael C. Hurley entitled Stop Mincing Words which I encourage gentle readers to take to heart. The article quite explicitly states that the Democrats are fighting for their faith, as warped and twisted faith is, while conservatives and Republicans are debating policy positions.

No one, at this late hour, should be unaware of what the stakes are. We are in a spiritual war between good and evil, between the forces of order and the agents of chaos. Full stop. So let’s say so, clearly, without apology or embarrassment. Tell people they’re in a war, and a great many of them will show up to vote. Tell them they’re in a debate over monetary policy and energy development initiatives, and most of them will hit the snooze button and sleep in.

The forces of evil do not fail to understand our program. They are not casting about for a better balance of trade. They know they’re in a war for power, and they intend to win it, which is why they fight so passionately. Abortion isn’t an issue for them. It’s a sacrament. Climate change isn’t a scientific debate. It is a religious world-view that gives their lives meaning and purpose. Politics for the left isn’t an intellectual sport to be conducted within the polite parameters of free speech. It’s an unholy crusade to be won by any means necessary, including censorship, lawfare, defamation, perjury, conspiracy, insurrection and assassination.

...snip...

Unless one believes that the New Testament is a work of fiction or that Jesus was just joshing us in the 24th chapter of Matthew about the days to come, it strains credulity to be incredulous about what is going on around us. When the Pharisees seemingly failed to understand him, Jesus knew the reason why and wasn’t afraid to say so out loud: “Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires.” (John 8:43–44)

There might have been a day when the spiritual battle lines in the West were difficult to discern, but no more. Allow me to focus your attention. We live in an age when every leading state and national candidate of the Democrat party, including every former Democrat president, openly supports the genital mutilation of healthy children and the obvious lie that a child can change genders. That, my friends, is the tell. Leave everything else aside if you must, because when a murderer is coming for your children, you do not pause to inquire whether he might also lower your electric bill. You sound the alarm and oppose him with every fiber of your being. When we hear this, we should think of the millstone and shudder.

People talk about the "old days" when supposedly the Democrats and Republicans had the same goals in mind but differed in the method of accomplishing those goals. In thinking back, I don't really think that is the case.  That is just fond remembrance of former times. The Democrats have been the party of the Left for as long as I can remember, and I remember Ike. As far as history goes, the Democrats have been soft on Communism and Fascism since at least Franklin Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. We overlooked their misbegotten ideas and dysfunctional policies to our regret. But now the smiley face mask has come off and what is underneath is a devilish monster. We are running out of time to save the Republic. We recognize our fate if we don't turn things around.

Please also read Patricia McCarthy's post at the American Thinker entitled Results are in: American leftists willingly embrace evil. I am sure Satan is dancing around in the coldest part of hell. God save us, I pray, because we are powerless to save ourselves.

The Man Who Knew Too Much

Over at Bearing Arms Tom Knighton has an article that points to the absurdity that is the (formerly) Great Britain. According to the article a UK Man (has been) Arrested for Possessing Gunpowder Recipe. My first impression was that there must be more to the story. Surely, Knighton cannot be serious.  Perhaps he had made some gunpowder and loaded it into steel pipes to make pipe bombs. But no, apparently the man was being persecuted for merely writing down the recipe.

Now, I have personally never been tempted to make gunpowder. It is dangerous to do, and in any case if I used black power firearms, manufacturers make much better substitutes today. The original was highly corrosive in addition to being explosive.  But that really isn't the point. The point is that the recipe for gunpowder has been pretty widely known since 1267 when Roger Bacon exposed the (not very closely held) secret to the world. So, where does the Crown get off pretending that it is some top secret, eyes only sort of thing. You can easily find the recipe on the internet, for crying out loud.

Here in the United States, we have a serious DIY culture. People will make their own anything if they think it's cool enough. Despite being the wealthiest nation on the planet, people build their own furniture, make their own clothes, make pottery, take up blacksmithing, or any number of activities that they could just pay for, but would rather do it themselves.

And we celebrate this.

Yes, that also includes people making their own guns and ammunition...

Well, yes, we do celebrate do-it-yourselfers so if you want to make your own gunpowder, be my guest. Especially since inevitably there will be those who say, "it can't happen here." I have seen how that (doesn't) works out:

And before anyone tries the "it can't happen here" thing, remember that some states have tried making it illegal to possess 3D printer files for making your own firearm. That's still just information that is harmless on its own. How long before some ninny here in the States tries to ban reloading your own ammo, followed by banning information pertaining to reloading?

We're not as far away from something like this as we might like to believe.

That's especially true as this was folded under anti-terrorism laws. The specter of terrorism has made our own lawmakers opt for some stupid things in the past, and to forget that freedom is and remains the guiding principle of this great nation, so it's not hard to see this happening here.

Knighton suggests each of us should write down the formula for black gunpowder. So, here it is just in case it suddenly disappears from the internet, though it will remain in old, printed books forever: 75% by weight Potassium Nitrate, 15% by weight Charcoal, and 10% by weight Sulfur. I hereby dare Scotland Yard to come and arrest me.

Built on the Rock

J. B. Shurk has a compelling article today at the American Thinker entitled Christians Persecuted and Killed Around the World in which he points out that Nigeria may be in the spotlight now, but Christians are being persecuted, jailed, and killed in Europe, China, India and other lands. President Trump can not take on the world here, which is what he is doing by threatening military action. Shurk first takes us on a brief tour of the world's hatred of Christianity.

In 2025, there is no part of the world that is safe for Christians. Leftist prosecutors in Europe, Australia, Canada, and the United States criminalize fundamental tenets of the Christian faith as discriminatory forms of “hate speech.” Chinese communists replace images of Jesus Christ with portraits of Xi Jinping. Hindus beat and murder Christians in India. Islamic nations sentence Christian converts to death. Nigerian Muslims attack Christian churches during prayer services and torture and murder so many Christian worshipers as to constitute genocide. The assassin who murdered Christian martyr Charlie Kirk allegedly did so because he believes that Charlie’s Christian teachings were “hateful.”

It is a dangerous time to be a Christian. Michael Snyder wrote an illuminating article a couple weeks ago entitled “Most of the Population of the World Lives in a Nation Where Christians Are Being Persecuted.” In a sober analysis, he takes the reader on a tour of Christian persecution, torture, and mass slaughter around the planet.

Children in China are prohibited from attending Christian church services, and the Chinese Communist Party rewrites Bible verses to support official pronouncements from the State. Sharing the gospel online is a crime, and Christian pastors are regularly arrested and “disappeared.” In India, Hindu terrorists set Christian churches and Bibles on fire and beat up and murder Christian parishioners. Muslims in Indonesia hunt down Christians as if they were animals. Muslims in Nigeria have massacred or abducted a hundred thousand Christians over the last six years and have destroyed some 20,000 Christian churches and schools. Islamic governments in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran discriminate against Christians, punish them ruthlessly for their beliefs, and execute anyone brave enough to convert to Christianity. In North Korea, Christianity is outlawed, and practicing Christians who are discovered are summarily executed or condemned to death in labor-intensive concentration camps.

We shouldn't be surprised by the fact that the world hates Christians. Indeed, Christ warned us saying in John 15:18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you." Why does the world hate Christians? Partly it is because of Christ's message. We sin, and God hates sinners. We can not, by anything we do, get into heaven. We stand condemned to hell. Luther thought of our shabby works as being like a big pile of stinking excrement (Luther was blunter, but you get the picture). God cannot stand it and turns his back on us. But Christ, by his death and resurrection has paid the price for our sins. We only have to believe that. Luther likens this to that big pile of stinking excrement covered in snow. But the world somehow wants to do things its own way by its own merit. Sacrifice enough lambs, pray 5 times a day with your head to the ground, whatever.  God doesn't care about these things.  You can go that route, of course, but that way lies sin and damnation. Instead, pick up your cross and follow the Way, the Truth and the Life.

I have mentioned Finland's attempts to subvert Christianity by prosecuting Päivi Räsänen for quoting the Bible concerning the nature of men and women.

In Finland, government prosecutors continue to harass Christians for quoting the Bible. In 2019, Päivi Räsänen — a medical doctor, longtime member of Parliament, Finland’s former Interior minister, and the wife of a pastor — used a Bible verse to criticize Finland’s state church for sponsoring an LGBT “pride” parade. After the prominent Finnish Christian publicly stated that males and females are biologically different, police investigators interrogated her for some thirteen hours, forced her to justify her Christian worldview, and demanded that she publicly apologize and recant her Christian beliefs. Because she would not do so and instead defended the authority of God’s Word, she was criminally charged for illegal “hate speech.” Prosecutors have repeatedly asked Finnish courts to “wipe the internet” of Räsänen’s media appearances and writings, in which she has used her medical education and Christian faith to distinguish men from women and to promote the Bible’s moral teachings.

Although two lower courts have acquitted her, prosecutors have appealed and now argue before Finland’s Supreme Court that quoting the Bible should be considered a criminal offense under the country’s war crimes laws. One of Räsänen’s attorneys, Lorcán Price, argues that the outcome of the case will reverberate across Europe because it addresses directly whether a Christian can publicly express the tenets of Christianity. “Can you speak the truth as you see it freely, even if it might offend somebody, or will you be prosecuted for hate speech?”

All over Europe there are laws that attempt to prevent the Church from speaking out against the evils being perpetrated. People in the formerly Great Britain are arrested for silently praying outside abortion clinics. The Canterbury Cathedral has been desecrated with graffiti. The old joke asking "is the pope catholic" have become serious questions. We now have Muslims praying in the Vatican to their god Satan. Still, as the 19th century hymn, "Built on the Rock" reminds us, this has all happened before:

Built on the Rock the Church shall stand,

Even when steeples are falling;

Crumbled have spires in every land;

Bells still are chiming and calling;

Calling the young and old to rest,

But above all the soul distrest,

Longing for rest everlasting.

Shurk concludes with:

Christ’s followers are suffering around the world. They are hunted, beaten, raped, burned, hanged, and slaughtered. The governments of formerly Christian countries insist on making Christ’s teachings a crime. Chinese, European, and American officials wish to censor the Bible. Christians must find faith and courage to face these evils now. Because much worse is sure to come.

Amen, brother.

Could the pope do more?

 Monica Showalter at the American Thinker has taken note of Trump's message to Nigerian officials that they better start protecting their Christians, who are being slaughtered by Muslim militias. Showalter puts the numbers at 7,000 killed this year alone. You can read her post at After massacres of Christians in Nigeria, Trump does the pope's job for him.  As much as I would like to see Trump send troops into Nigeria, I think it would be seen as Unconstitutional for the government to favor one religion over another. Would Trump send troops in to rescue Hindus, for example?

The pope, however, could do something more tangible than praying, though praying is powerful. Here me out. We have been here before, with Islam conquering huge swaths of Christendom and forcing conversion under threat of the sword. The pope then commissioned the Knights Templar. That was then. Now, the pope could establish a paramilitary force to go into countries like Nigeria to again rescue Christians who are being persecuted. Clearly in addition to being very careful about when and where to use such a force, diplomacy would be necessary. But the notion that Christians should be doormats, or second-class citizens was never intended. I suspect that the pope could get a lot of mileage out of the threat to use these forces in places like Nigeria, Egypt, Syria, or Afghanistan without having to actually send them in.

I haven't fully thought the idea out, but it is something the Vatican, as a sovereign could do. Should he?

A Post For A Sunday

Please read Grateful Calvin's twitchy post at 'I Am Going to Abhor Evil:' Nick Freitas Drops BIBLICAL FIRE on the Left's 'I'm Offended' Arguments. Virginia House of Delegates member Nick Freitas points out that he is glad when people espousing evil are offended by him. And he should be. Every Christian should hate what God hates, and God hates evil.

Please watch the embedded X post to hear Freitas' response to an 'offended' constituent. He has definitely nailed it. It is too bad that he doesn't intend to run again.  Virginia needs more like him.  But I understand. St. Paul tells us in the book of Romans not to associate ourselves with evil. For in doing so, the evil rubs off on us. That is why the LORD commanded the Israelites to thoroughly cleanse the land of Canaan of its former inhabitants. He didn't want any foreign gods being worshipped in His territory.

You will get a kick out of Freitas post, and it's a good way to start a Sunday.

NYC and Mamdani Deserve Each Other

 J. R. Dunn has a post today at the American Thinker entitled Let's not save the Dems this time. He makes a number of good points including one that is often attributed to Napoleon: “never interrupt when your enemy is in the process of destroying himself.”

As the clock ticks down the last days before the 2025 elections, we’re hearing more calls for the GOP and conservatives in general to intervene in the NYC election to prevent Zohran Mamdani from being elected mayor.

What we don’t hear is an answer to the question of why? Why, exactly, should the GOP and the MAGA movement waste time, effort, and political capital to prevent the Democrats from throwing themselves off the cliff? Why write another chapter in the never-ending saga of Republicans pulling Dem chestnuts out of the fire and the getting kicked in the face immediately afterward?

...snip...

The Dems, so we’re told, having come to their senses, will realize what the Republicans have spared them from and will be grateful. New York voters, with their customary insight and depth of perception, will reward the GOP with showers of votes. In other words, we’ll witness something that has never happened and never will.

What will happen instead is this: voters will see the GOP tossing away the principles and practices of MAGA just as they were beginning to bear fruit. They will see conservatives supporting one virulent social democrat over another for no rational reason. They will see the Uniparty in action. And they will respond as they always have: by walking away.

Dunn is correct here. New York voters have continually voted for Leftists like Bill DeBlasio and as Dunn notes elsewhere have spit on Rudy Giuliani who made New York again a tourist destination. What, pray tell, does the GOP owe to the party that started the Civil War, and apparently want to start another, who riot at the drop of a hat and maintain actual paid rioters. These people actively interfere with Trump's order to carry out the law and kick illegals out.  They flood the streets with criminals who should be in jail.  These people deserve everything Mamdani can deliver to NYC.

The impulse to save New York City doesn’t play, either. New York City doesn’t want to be saved. This is the city that elected Bill DeBlasio to two terms – in landslides, to boot. That sent Sandy O to Congress. That has reelected Chuck Schumer repeatedly. This is the city that had not one good word to say for Rudy Giuliani, the man who effectively destroyed the Mafia’s control of key city industries and who bought NYC an extra twenty years of life as mayor, when he was targeted by the Left. They’ve made their bed, and I wish them the joy of it.

I've highlighted the key issue. New York City doesn't want to be saved, didn't asked to be saved, and will just resent it if the GOP steps in to save them. There is another proverb here that applies: "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." It reminds of Christians who think they are being kind by attempting to send missionaries to the unchurched. But all they do is make the people they are trying to save angry. Instead, they should stand ready to give a defense for why they have hope and let the Holy Spirit do the rest.

I encorage gentle readers to read the whole post.