{"id":35066,"date":"2024-01-18T23:30:36","date_gmt":"2024-01-19T07:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=35066"},"modified":"2024-01-18T23:36:34","modified_gmt":"2024-01-19T07:36:34","slug":"the-divine-spark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-divine-spark\/","title":{"rendered":"The Divine Spark"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cThe Creation of Adam\u201d by Michelangelo<\/p>\n

\u201cThe concept of the Divine Spark has captivated the human imagination for centuries, transcending cultural and religious boundaries to illuminate the profound essence that resides within each individual. Rooted in various spiritual traditions, philosophical teachings, and mystical experiences, the Divine Spark represents a source of divine energy or consciousness believed to exist within every being. This essay delves into the multifaceted dimensions of the Divine Spark, exploring its historical and cultural significance, its implications for personal and collective transformation, and the diverse ways in which it has been articulated across different belief systems. As we embark on this exploration, we aim to unravel the threads that connect humanity to a higher, transcendent reality, seeking to understand the profound implications of recognizing and nurturing the Divine Spark within ourselves and others.\u201d [1]<\/a><\/p>\n

I was curious on what ChatGPT would say when I asked it to write an introduction to an essay about the Divine Spark.\u00a0 It was pretty good, but I haven\u2019t trained my ChatGPT to use my voice yet, this voice is a wee bit smarter sounding than me. \u00a0And this isn’t about Divine Spark, but it was a beautifully written paragraph. \u00a0I have used AI to write a cover letter and man did I love (with credit) that I was able to whip out a bibliography much, much, much faster and I cannot thank AI enough for that gift.<\/p>\n

I spend a good amount of time each day contemplating and helping others contemplate soul.\u00a0 What is it?\u00a0 When did we get it? Is it divine? Is it ordinary?\u00a0 It\u2019s a challenging concept to start down the rabbit hole with, do we go to heaven? Is there Hell? Don\u2019t we just go to nothing?\u00a0 What goes on? Our soul\u202621 grams. \u201cIn 1907, Duncan MacDougall reported that the difference postmortem amounted to 21 grams\u201d.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Eve Poole takes on this very topic of soul in her book Robot Souls. <\/em>In her chapter about The Soul, she writes about a few different attempts\u2019 others have taken to define the soul, such as \u201cPlato, sees the soul in three parts, the appetitive, the spirited and the intellectual.\u201d[3]<\/a> And his student \u201cAristotle believed plants and animals had souls, although humans were the\u00a0 only entities that had a rational soul, or \u2018mind\u2019 which is both immaterial and eternal.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

For me this chapter is key to the whole discussion on AI.\u00a0 I am fascinated on how they are trying to give AI \u201csoul\u201d.\u00a0 I wish them well, but in my belief, it will never happen, at least not authentically.\u00a0 We are embodied beings of flesh, blood, bones.\u00a0 Our creation and how we \u201cwork\u201d is absolutely miraculous.\u00a0 We come from ash and return to ash, and there is something mystical about that process that no intelligent machine can reproduce.<\/p>\n

Poole asked great questions at the end of this book to \u201cspark\u201d discussion (Pun intended). \u00a0I am going to answer a few of them and would love to hear what you all think.<\/p>\n

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  1. How do you feel about the rise of Artificial Intelligence? Mostly I feel concerned at how fast society and technology is moving and how slow our ethics chase after it!\u00a0 But I have a small bit of awe at what we humans can create!<\/li>\n
  2. What does the idea of the soul mean to you? It is what makes us ourselves!\u00a0 Cogito, \u201cknowing\u201d it is the spark of our bodies, minds, feelings, how can that ever be artificially replaced?<\/li>\n
  3. What do you think about giving Artificial Intelligence rights? Why would we when we continue to trample on the rights of others?\u00a0 We can even agree on basic human rights.\u00a0 It has always been disturbing to me that corporations have \u201crights\u201d.\u00a0 In healthcare there are ethic boards that do the research, the gathering of information and \u201cadvise\u201d doctors on tough situations.\u00a0 All I can say is that I hope we have an ethics board for AI!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    [1]<\/a> www.chatgpt.com<\/a><\/p>\n

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    [2]<\/a>\u00a0 Poole, Eve. Robot Souls: Programming in Humanity. <\/em>(Florida, CRC Press, 2024) 65.<\/p>\n

    [3]<\/a> Ibid, 66.<\/p>\n

    [4]<\/a> Ibid, 65.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u201cThe Creation of Adam\u201d by Michelangelo \u201cThe concept of the Divine Spark has captivated the human imagination for centuries, transcending cultural and religious boundaries to illuminate the profound essence that resides within each individual. Rooted in various spiritual traditions, philosophical teachings, and mystical experiences, the Divine Spark represents a source of divine energy or consciousness […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":187,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3004,2489,2090],"class_list":["post-35066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-divinespark","tag-dlgp02","tag-poole","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/187"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35066"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35070,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35066\/revisions\/35070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}