Recently Pope Leo delivered a letter or “Encyclical” entitled Magnifica Humanitas on safeguarding human dignity in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). The vice president of BioLogos, Jim Stump, wrote an outstanding reflection on this encyclical and I really hope you take the time to read the article. I will include the URL here for your convenience. https://biologos.org/articles/magnifica-humanitas-reflecting-on-pope-leos-ai-encyclical?utm_source=chatgpt.com
In his article, Stump argues that the encyclical's central concern is human dignity. The question is not whether AI can become more intelligent than humans, but whether humanity will remember what makes human beings uniquely valuable. Human worth does not come from our ability to calculate, produce, or compete with machines. Instead, our dignity comes from being creatures made for communion with God, with one another, and with creation. (Matthew 25:35-37).
Pope Leo highlights two biblical images:
The Tower of Babel which represents technological achievement driven by pride, power, and self-glorification, and
Nehemiah’s Rebuilding of Jerusalem’s Walls which represents shared responsibility, community, protection of the vulnerable, and the common good.
The Pope asks whether AI development will resemble Babel—concentrating power and prestige—or Nehemiah's project—building a society that serves and protects people.
A major theme Stump emphasizes is that technology shapes people. AI is not merely a neutral tool. The values and assumptions built into AI systems influence how people think, behave, and relate to one another. Therefore, Christians must ask not only what AI can do, but what kind of people AI is helping us become. AI can provide information, but it cannot replace the spiritual and moral development that creates mature human persons.
BioLogos is a Christian nonprofit organization that seeks to promote harmony between science and biblical faith, particularly regarding topics such as evolution, creation, genetics, and the age of the earth. It was founded in 2007 by Francis Collins, an evangelical Christian physician-geneticist. Dr. Francis Collins is one of my heroes of the faith. He was the Director of the Human Genome Project (1992-2008) that oversaw the project that produced the first complete sequence of human DNA and helped usher in the era of genomic medicine, that has revolutionized medical treatment today. He was also the director of the National Institute for Health (NIH) from 2009-2021. He has written several great books – “The Language of God,” “The Language of Life,” and “The Language of Wisdom” – to name a few. I urge you to check them out. I also urge you to check out BioLogos Foundation (https://biologos.org). It’s a great organization.
—Brenda Strysko
16th century painting “The Tower of Babel” Pieter Brueghel