• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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• v.147
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• pp.117-146
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• 2018

This paper discusses, whether religion is possible even in the age of artificial intelligence, and whether humans alone are the subject of religious faith or ultra intelligent machines with human minds can be also subjects of faith. In order for ultra intelligent machines to be subjects of faith in the same conditions as humans, they must be able to have unique characteristics such as emotion, will, and self-consciousness. With the advent of ultra intelligent machines with the same level of cognitive and emotional abilities as human beings, the religious actions of artificial intelligence will be inevitable. The ultra intelligent machines after 'singularity' will go beyond the subject of religious belief and reign as God who can rule humans, nature and the world. This is also the common view of Morabeck, Kurzweil and Harari. Leonhart also reminds us that technological advances should make us used to the fact that we are now 'gods'. But we fear we may face distopia despite the general affluence of the 'Star Trec' economy. For this reason, even if a man says he has learned the religious truth, one can't help but wonder if it is true. Kant and Bloch are thinkers who critically reflected on our religious ideals and highest concept in different world-view premises. Kant's concept of God as 'idea of pure reason' and 'postulate of practical reason', can seem like a 'god of gap' as Jesse Bering said earlier. Kant recognized the need for religious faith only on a strict basis of moral necessity. The subjects of religious faith should always strive to do the moral good, but such efforts themselves were not enough to reach perfection and so postulated immortality of the soul. But if an ultra intelligent machines that has emerged above a singularity is given a new status in an intellectual explosion, it can reach its morality by blocking evil tendencies and by the infinite evolution of super intelligence. So it will no longer need Kant's 'Postulate for continuous progress towards greater goodness', 'Postulate for divine grace' and 'Postulate for infinite expansion of the kingdom of God on earth.' Artificial intelligence robots would not necessarily consider religious performance in the Kant's meaning, and therefore religion will also have to be abolished. Ernst Bloch transforms Kant's postulate to be Persian dualism. Therefore, in Bloch, even though the ultra intelligent machines is a divine being, one must critically ask whether it is a wicked or a good God. Artificial intelligence experts warn that ultra intellectual machine as Pandora's gift will bring disaster to mankind. In the Kant's Matrix, a ultra intelligent machines, which is the completion of morality and God itself, may fall into a bad god in Bloch's Matrix. Therefore, despite the myth of singularity, we still believe that ultra intelligent machines, whether as God leads us to the completion of one of our only religious beliefs, or as bad god to the collapse of mankind through complete denial of existence.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.35
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• pp.181-216
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• 2020

The incarnation of Jesus and Jeungsan's descending to earth as a human being are important theological theories in their respective religions, Christianity and Daesoon Jinrihoe. Both theories are the doctrinal devices necessary for the religious description of each religion. However, this kind of study is likely to result in a theological study that generates religious apologia or explanations. Therefore, it is impossible and meaningless to define the theory of another religion as meta-discourse in terms of one's own religious viewpoint. From a traditional theological point of view, the incarnation is an exceptionalist case wherein God descended as a human being named Jesus to save humanity from original sin. In the case of Jeungsan's descending to earth as a human being, its religious features appear in various forms, so the attempt to unify these two is not an objective method of religious studies. However, this paper aims to find the religious significance of Jesus' incarnation and Jeungsan's descending to earth as a human being by understanding them from a third-person terminology or third-person religious viewpoint rather than from a specific theological position. To this end, this paper will use Kim Jong-seo's position that the concept of Jeungsan's descending to earth as a human being was borrowed from the concept of the incarnation of Jesus as the premise of the research generated in this paper. Therefore, this paper avoids the quest for "Total Christ" or "Total Jeungsan" that integrates and views the divine and human elements of Jesus and Jeungsan. This is because such a research method becomes a theological study. Instead, it excludes transcendental elements or metaphysical aspects that discuss the divine pre-existences of Jesus and Jeungsan and clarifies the significance of the incarnation and Jeungsan's descending to earth as a human being at the physical level in terms which are objective and verifiable. According to this research methodology, this paper develops a discussion after presupposing the hypothetical names of "incarnationist religion" and "divine descent in human avatar religion." However, the two presuppositions mentioned above contain elements of criticism that they are materialistic interpretations that completely eliminate connotations of divinity and religious significance. Nevertheless, it can be said that the two presuppositions have academic significance due to the way in which they avoid the current entanglement of transcendence and instead aim for modernistic relevance.