Artificial Intelligence? Yes, But What About The Supreme Intelligence?

These days, there is much talk about the great powers and possibilities of what is called ‘Artificial Intelligence’ (AI)—a recent invention that is truly awesome, or so we are told. But what about the truly awesome powers and possibilities of The Supreme Intelligence (TSI), which has been in existence even before Time and Space as related to our present Universe came into being? While the recently-invented AI might well deserve to be lauded (with caution, of course), we ought also to be aware of and celebrate the eternally-existing TSI, which, having caused the whole Creation itself to come into being, is infinitely more awesome than any product of human ingenuity can ever be.

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Recently, I was at a retreat centre where I met a young man with whom I had several conversations over the dining table. Among the many things we talked about was TSI, or what we can call ‘God’. My new friend seemed to doubt the existence of God: perhaps he was an atheist or an agnostic, or maybe he was simply unsure. As with many other people, it might have been that some belief system(s) that he had been exposed to had made him skeptical, with their claims about God that he was unable honestly to accept, on ethical or logical grounds. Perhaps it was this that had led him to doubt or even reject the possibility of God’s existence.

Now, I cannot remember exactly what it was that I suggested to the young man as our conversations about God unfolded over several encounters, but maybe it was something like this:

a. Approach the issue of God without bringing in any pre-existing belief system.

b. Reflect on your own body. Consider your heart, for instance. You have never seen your heart; yet, it has been beating non-stop ever since you were born, and even before that, while you were still in your mother’s womb. Not once in all this time has your heart stopped. Nor has it ever got tired of beating, despite working continuously over many years (in contrast, your hand might easily start to pain or turn numb in just ten minutes if you were to wave it about for just that short a while).

Now, are you consciously willing and making your heart to beat? No! Since, you know that you are not doing so, there must be something else—a force or power that is other than you that is making your heart function in this manner. It is this Life-Force that you can call ‘God’. If you feel the word ‘God’ is problematic for some reason, give it some other name. ‘The Supreme Intelligence’, or TSI for short, could be one such.

c. Consider the food that you eat. This food is converted inside your body into blood (and bones, muscles, tissues etc.). Now, are you doing this work yourself? No, you are not! If someone gave you some bread, would you be able to transform it into blood using your own hands and your own intelligence? No, you wouldn’t! Not even the greatest scientist would! So, what is it that is changing the food that you eat into blood inside your own body without you doing so yourself? It must be a force or power other than you. It is this force or power that one call ‘God’ (or The Supreme Intelligence, TSI).

d. The force or power that is causing your heart to beat and that is also making the food that you eat to be transformed into blood must be present inside your body, because that is where these bodily processes are happening. This means that ‘God’ or TSI, or by whatever other name one might like to refer to this force or power, is located within you. Further, since these same processes that are happening inside you are also happening inside every other such living creature, it means that the force behind all these occurrences that is located within you is also located in all other existing beings: One force present in all the many diverse beings that exist in the world.

e. Now, go out of yourself and consider something that is located far beyond you: the Sun. Without the Sun, life on Earth would be impossible. If the Sun were located significantly closer to Earth than it presently is, Earth would be so hot that life here would be impossible. Conversely, if the Sun were located significantly further from Earth than it presently is, Earth would be too cold to support life. This means that the Sun is in just the right distance from Earth for the life-forms that are present on Earth to exist here. Now, obviously, human beings have not invented the Sun, and nor is it that they have placed it in just the right distance from Earth for life as we know it to be possible here. This means that all of this has been arranged for by a force or power that is other than human. It is this force or power that can be called ‘God’, or ‘The Supreme Intelligence’ or by any other such name.

f. The force or power that is located inside of you (and all other beings) that makes your heart beat and that converts the food that you eat into blood is the very same power that is located outside of you and that made the Sun, putting it in just the right distance from Earth in order for life to be possible here. This means that God or The Supreme Intelligence is all-pervasive or omnipresent, being present or dwelling both within us and everywhere in the Universe outside of us.

g. Fashioning a heart that beats without human effort or converting bread into blood or inventing a Sun and putting it in just the right place for life on Earth to be possible here requires intelligence, and that, too, of an extraordinary sort, one that is completely beyond the ability of human beings, because these are not things that any human being can do. This means that the force or power that is behind all these processes, while being immensely powerful (all-powerful, in fact), must also be immensely intelligent, with an intelligence that is way beyond any level that humans can boast of. One might thus say that this force or power must be or possess some sort of supreme Mind. This fact, in turn, means that it is not a mere impersonal force (like, say, Gravity). Rather, it must be or must have a supreme sort of personality (though not necessarily exactly as we understand ‘personality’ to be in our, human terms).

h. On the basis of all this one could say this force or power can be understood as the almighty and supremely intelligent personality or the Supreme, All-Powerful, All-Knowing Personal Being that is behind all phenomena and processes occurring in the Universe/Multiverse. And, if God, this force or personality, is a Personal Being, it means that it is possible for us human beings to have a personal relationship with God, which is something that can be personally experienced and verified and so is not an unverifiable truth-claim or mere belief.

All of this corresponds to the idea of God in classical Theism.

i. In the manner outlined above, God’s existence comes to be seen as clearly obvious without this being premised on consent to unverifiable dogmas or truth-claims made by any pre-existing belief system that cannot be rationally ascertained.  This being so, one can relate with God directly, without belief in and identification with any pre-existing belief system.

j. TSI, or God, as we have seen, exists within every being (and thing), and so is always with us, wherever we may be. This means that we can relate with TSI or God directly, without any intermediary. This also means that one does not need to belong to any particular group (defined by birth, belief, location, etc.) in order to commune with God. Every person, no matter who they may be or how they identify themselves as, can commune with TSI, or the Indwelling God, within themselves. They can do this through a simple, direct, two-way conversational relationship with TSI/God.

Understanding God in this way makes way for a truly universal, non-dogmatic spirituality.

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Our numerous theological exchanges, principally at mealtimes, did seem to have some impact on my new friend. He seemed to come to recognize that understanding God in the way that we discussed as our conversations opened up did make sense.

Understood as the Life-Force that has brought the infinitely vast universe into being and that is the force or power that energizes processes and phenomena—from the intense surging of love in a mother-bird for its fledgling to the swirling of massive galaxies, and from the non-stop beating of a creature’s heart to converting bread into blood in the human body—with which the Universe/Multiverse abounds, the existence of God or The Supreme Intelligence (TSI) is clearly evident. While we can certainly celebrate the awesome abilities of AI that we humans have recently invented, AI seems but a dot compared to the immensity of what TSI must be. And, what if AI is but just another way in which TSI is manifesting Itself, a new method that God has made manifest to us humans and is using in our age to bring about God’s purposes in the world? And, just as we can access AI for good purposes, can we not access TSI, through an intimate personal relationship with God, for just the same, as indeed has been recommended by wise men and women for centuries, perhaps ever since human beings appeared here, on Earth?