Understanding Religion Through Artificial Intelligence


Book Description

1. Introduction -- 2. Religions old and new -- 3. Bonding and belief -- 4. Identity and extremism -- 5. Artificial intelligence and religions in Silico -- 6. From AI in Silico, to AI in Situ: creating AI gurus, birds eye views of Christianity, and using MAAI to study social stability -- 7. Schisms and sacred values -- 8. The future of religion.




Understanding Religion Through Artificial Intelligence


Book Description

In Understanding Religion through Artificial Intelligence, Justin E. Lane looks at the reasons why humans feel they are part of a religious group, despite often being removed from other group members by vast distances or multiple generations. To achieve this, Lane offers a new perspective that integrates religious studies with psychology, anthropology, and data science, as well as with research at the forefront of Artificial Intelligence (AI). After providing a critical analysis of approaches to religion and social cohesion, Lane proposes a new model for religious studies, which he calls the “Information Identity System.” This model focuses on the idea of conceptual ties: links between an individual's self-concept and the ancient beliefs of their religious group. Lane explores this idea through real-world examples, ranging from the rise in global Pentecostalism, to religious extremism and self-radicalization, to the effect of 9/11 on sermons. Lane uses this lens to show how we can understand religion and culture today, and how we can better contextualize the changes we see in the social world around us.




Understanding Religion Through Artificial Intelligence


Book Description

"In Understanding Religion through Artificial Intelligence, Justin E. Lane looks at the reasons why humans feel that they are part of a religious group, despite often being removed from other group members by vast distances or multiple generations. To achieve this, Lane offers a new perspective that integrates religious studies with psychology, anthropology and data science, as well as with research at the forefront of Artificial Intelligence (AI). After providing a critical analysis of approaches to religion and social cohesion, Lane proposes a new model for religious studies which he calls the 'Information Identity System'. This model focuses on the idea of conceptual ties: links between an individual's self-concept and the ancient beliefs of their religious group. Lane explores this idea through real-world examples, ranging from the rise in global Pentecostalism, to religious extremism and self-radicalization, to the effect of 9/11 on sermons. Lane uses this lens to show how we can understand religion and culture today, and how we can better contextualize the changes we see in the social world around us."--




God from the Machine


Book Description

'God from the machine' (deus ex machina) refers to an ancient dramatic device where a god was mechanically brought onto the stage to save the hero from a difficult situation. But here, William Sims Bainbridge uses the term in a strikingly different way. Instead of looking to a machine to deliver an already known god, he asks what a computing machine and its simulations might teach us about how religion and religious beliefs come to being. Bainbridge posits the virtual town of Cyburg, population 44,100. Then, using rules for individual and social behavior taken from the social sciences, he models a complex community where residents form groups, learn to trust or distrust each other, and develop religious faith. Bainbridge's straightforward arguments point to many more applications of computer simulation in the study of religion. God from the Machine will serve as an important text in any class with a social scientific approach to religion.




Religion and the Technological Future


Book Description

We live in an age of rapid technological advancement. Never before has humankind wielded so much power over our own biology. Biohacking, the attempt at human enhancement of physical, cognitive, affective, moral, and spiritual traits, has become a global phenomenon. This textbook introduces religious and ethical implications of biohacking, artificial intelligence, and other technological changes, offering perspectives from monotheistic and karmic religions and applied ethics. These technological breakthroughs are transforming our societies and ourselves fundamentally via genetic modification, tissue engineering, artificial intelligence, robotics, the merging of computer technology with human biology, extended reality, brain stimulation, and nanotechnology. The book also considers the extreme possibilities of mind uploading, cryonics, and superintelligence. Chapters explore some of the political, economic, sociological, and psychological dimensions of these advances, with bibliographies for further study and questions for discussion. The technological future is here – and it is up to us to decide its moral and religious shape.




Apocalyptic AI


Book Description

Apocalyptic AI, the hope that we might one day upload our minds into machines and live forever in cyberspace, is a surprisingly wide-spread and influential idea. Robert Geraci points out that the rhetoric of 'Apocalyptic AI' is strikingly similar to that of the apocalyptic traditions of Judaism and Christianity.




Re-Enchanting the Earth


Book Description

"Artificial Intelligence (AI), the new frontier of human evolution, holds the promise of reuniting religion and science"--




The New Visibility of Religion


Book Description

A unique collection of essays that brings together contributions from; theology, aesthetics, social and political science, philosophy and cultural theory to examine the surge in the public visibility of religion.




Human Identity at the Intersection of Science, Technology and Religion


Book Description

Science and religion have often been thought to be at loggerheads but much contemporary work in this flourishing interdisciplinary field suggests this is far from the case. The Ashgate Science and Religion Series presents exciting new work to advance interdisciplinary study, research and debate across key themes in science and religion, exploring the philosophical relations between the physical and social sciences on the one hand and religious belief on the other. Contemporary issues in philosophy and theology are debated, as are prevailing cultural assumptions arising from the `post-modernist' distaste for many forms of reasoning. The series enables leading international authors from a range of different disciplinary perspectives to apply the insights of the various sciences, theology and philosophy and look at the relations between the different disciplines and the rational connections that can be made between them. These accessible, stimulating new contributions to key topics across science and religion will appeal particularly to individual academics and researchers, graduates, postgraduates and upper-undergraduate students.




The Digitalised Image of God


Book Description

This book focuses on the idea of the imago Dei to engaging theologically with artificial intelligence (AI). It reflects on how enormous progress in the development of AI has raised some challenges to Christian theology. Questions explored include: is AI created in the imago Dei? If so, does AI challenge the uniqueness of the human being as the imago Dei? If not, could AI be incorporated into human communities as a human companion in the same way as a natural human person? Would AI eventually develop to have human-level consciousness and be capable of performing liturgies and ethical actions? Bringing to light the radical distinction between the imago Dei and the imago hominis, the book constructs a theo-ontological foundation for AI and draws on the Reformed theology of archetype–ectype as a metaphysical tool to deploy a holistic account of the imago Dei in theology–AI dialogues. The author argues that the imago Dei is the signifier of the beginning both of God–human stories and stories of human ethical performances towards others. From the perspective of the image of the imago Dei, it can be argued that AI can somehow participate into the narration of these religious and ethical stories. This book will be of particular interest to scholars of theology and those working in the field of religion and science/technology.