Original Monotheism and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

This article introduces a known epistemological problem to a general audience.

Dec 30, 2024

Largely; the domains of “Big Tech,” public academia, government bureaucracy, much of the establishment mainstream media, etc. have not been and are not correctly defining the original religious worldview of modern humans (i.e. homo sapiens sapiens) as of the date of this article. The result is that a near exclusive propagation of the evolutionary origin of religion model is communicated to information consumers. And when reference to original monotheism is given, it is almost always materially misrepresented. Importantly, this constitutes a disservice to humanity.

Few academics still try to defend the evolutionary view on the origin of religion though the many atheists among them continue to assume that all religion had a purely human origin that moved from mana to animism to polytheism to henotheism to monotheism.

But as Corduan (2012) states with respect to this evolutionary model of religious development:

"...it has never been observed. Certainly there is a lot of change in the religious life of many cultures. But the changes may occur anywhere along the line and can proceed in either direction [including out of sequence]. We have no record of any culture moving precisely from a mana-like beginning to a monotheistic culmination, incorporating all stages in proper sequence, or anything even close to it, and the same thing is true for any of the variations of the evolutionary model. In fact, there is no region in the world where such a sequence is demonstrated by successive different cultures either.

The only place that we see it is as a presupposition that scholars continue to bring to the study of a particular religion (even if they do not assent to an evolutionary pattern in general), when they just assume that a supposedly lower stage must have preceded an allegedly higher stage... The best that can be claimed is that the evolutionary model is an ideal that development should follow because an evolutionary theory demands it-but never has" (Section 1-Religion).

Yet those responsible for determining the information which databases are populated with, that online services leverage, remain either uninformed or worse.

For example, in December of 2024 the following question was typed into one of the global artificial intelligence (AI) systems: "What is the original religion?"

The AI system subsequently answered with the following:

“The world's first religion is difficult to pinpoint with certainty, as religious practices have existed for tens of thousands of years in various forms. However, early evidence suggests that animism and shamanism were likely among the first religious systems practiced by humans. These belief systems were rooted in the idea that natural objects, animals, and elements of nature possess spiritual significance or are inhabited by spirits.

Key points about early religious practices:

1. Animism: This is the belief that everything in the world—such as animals, plants, rocks, rivers, and the sky—has a spirit or soul. Evidence of animistic beliefs has been found in prehistoric societies, including the Paleolithic period (around 30,000 years ago).

2. Shamanism: Shamanism involves practices where spiritual leaders (shamans) communicate with spirits to heal, guide, or predict events. Shamans were often believed to enter altered states of consciousness, often through rituals and trance states.

3. Early Civilization Religions: As early human societies began to form around 10,000 BCE (with the development of agriculture), organized religions started to emerge, especially in places like Mesopotamia and Egypt. The earliest known organized religious systems include those in Ancient Sumer (around 3,000 BCE) and Ancient Egypt, both of which had gods, rituals, and temples.

4. Hinduism: Often considered the oldest surviving major world religion, Hinduism has roots that go back over 4,000 years, with its earliest texts, the Vedas, composed around 1500 BCE.

While it is difficult to definitively say which was the ‘first’ religion, animism and early forms of shamanism are believed to be the foundations of spiritual belief in human prehistory. As societies developed, these early beliefs evolved into more complex religious systems.”

To be clear, the model which locates the beginning of religion is original monotheism. Not simply ancient monotheism, but original monotheism. Animism, polytheism, and fetishism precede Hinduism which precedes Zoroastrianism (with cultus evidenced long before Hinduism); however, all of them came after original monotheism.

Rodney Stark (2017) wrote of the early reports published by those studying primitive peoples (and the resulting literature by writers such as Andrew Lang who relied on them) that they “overwhelmingly reported the near universality of High Gods in primitive societies” concluding, "the idea of a creator God is not recent. As far as we can tell, it was a central feature of religion from earliest times" (pp. 233-235).

Corduan (2013) noted, “The history of religions subsequent to the Primitive era bears out two important consequences. We see the expected degeneration [into animism, polytheism, and fetishism] but also the fact that numerous cultures did not do away with the entire idea of a single God above all other spiritual beings, even when the culture as a whole has been tainted by incompatible beliefs and practices” (p. 336).

(Corduan, 2012, Figure 1.4-Decay of Religion)

Let us briefly examine this from a Judeo-Christian viewpoint following the decay of religion into depravity from the original human population to the time of Noah when creator God first provided humanity a reset. Whatever the magnitude of an ancient flood affecting the cradle of civilization (Ross, 2014, pp. 145-182; Genesis 6-9), as the population of modern humans (i.e. homo sapiens sapiens) spreads out they are initially practicing the animal sacrifice of Noah to creator God (Genesis 8:20, 9:1). Please note that biblical canon (i.e. the Bible) is the authoritative scripture in Christianity.

Subsequently, they descend into a myriad of pagan animistic, polytheistic, and fetish religious beliefs and practices that are often accompanied by sacrifice with monotheism usually still evidenced. Eventually, with Abraham, creator God provides humanity a second reset by reestablishing monotheism apart from the animism, polytheism, fetishism, and associated socioreligious depravity that had again emerged (Corduan, 2012; 2013, pp. 324-329; Genesis) in preparation for the arrival of the long-prophesied Messiah (France, 1998; Kaiser, 1995; Luke).

As Corduan (2012) stated with respect to early scriptures of religions with roots in the ancient world and the anthropological method:

"Virtually every religious culture carries a vestige of monotheism that can be identified... And the tribes that are least developed in terms of their overall material culture provide some of the strongest support for original monotheism... they [evolutionary atheists] did not recognize that simple belief in a Creator God may be precisely such a religion with minimal development. Instead, they assumed that such a religion must be what they called "primitive"... In reality, the cultures they pointed to as religiously undeveloped are often quite complex, involving elaborate theories of the afterlife, convoluted relationships among the spiritual powers, multiple social distinctions (such as totemism and grades of shamanism) and elaborate rituals. The idea that a materially undeveloped culture could worship a Creator God in heaven was intrinsically implausible to them because they had already a priori designated monotheism as an advanced form of belief" (Section 1-Religion).

As this is but an informal article addressing a known epistemological problem to a general audience, readers are encouraged to gain the prerequisite competency with respect to this discussion by reading both Corduan's "Neighboring Faiths: A Christian Introduction to World Religions" and "In the Beginning God: A Fresh Look At the Case for Original Monotheism" as a starting point.

Though a correct application of logic, the facts, and correct correspondence are employed to rebut the evolutionary origins of religion model (also religious relativism), please note that this article makes no determination with respect to biological evolutionary theory. A person can hold to biological evolutionary theory and the original monotheism origins of religion model as many Christian theistic evolutionists do. Whether theistic evolution is congruent with a biblical worldview, or not, is a separate discussion. Such, at least, understand how starkly the sterile metaphysical hopelessness of atheism contrasts with the living, meaningful, and hopeful metaphysics of Christianity (Moreland, 2009; Moreland et al., 2022; Rickabaugh & Moreland, 2023).

So why do most of these online services neglect or misrepresent the original monotheism model when asked for the world's oldest religion? The answer is that their databases are populated with the evolutionary origin of religion model while the leading competitor, the model of original monotheism, is either omitted, suppressed, or materially misrepresented in the databases being leveraged.

The solution is for the original monotheism model to be prominently and correctly represented in their output, rather than continue to do humanity (the majority of whom hold to exclusive monotheism¹) such a disservice (Miller, et al., 2012). But unfortunately, conservative scholars who understand this do not have the ability to overcome the systemic barriers installed and enforced largely by the political left in charge of “Big Tech,” public academia, government bureaucracy, much of the establishment mainstream media, etc. to correct the misinformation being propagated to information consumers.

And given the unyielding opposition (and ideologuery) that those in charge of the information being leveraged to information consumers have shown to finally have the model of original monotheism included and correctly represented (as scholars such as Winifred Corduan have done), remedy appears immensely difficult at present. They do not take seriously the more than half of the world’s population who hold exclusively to original monotheism as external stakeholders in the global information marketplace that deserve to have the model of original monotheism both represented and finally represented correctly (as scholars such as Winifred Corduan have done). If they did, that by itself would be a major step forward.

But unless the problem is remedied, moving forward, these new iterations of AI systems will continue to either ignore or present a false view of the original monotheism origin of religion model globally to information consumers across end-user devices.

And from a Christian viewpoint, more than just an offense to conscientiousness is involved. In Christianity, modern humans (i.e. homo sapiens sapiens) are asserted to possess the Imago Dei (i.e. the image of God) which distinguishes them from the rest of creation; with the Imago Dei to be fully restored in those who respond favorably to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the life-changing transformation of the Holy Spirit of God when their immaterial essence (e.g. soul, spirit) is reembodied in some new glorified state as “holy immortals with direct and unhindered access to God’s presence” (Genesis 1:27, etc.; Pothier, 2024, pp. 17-27; Ryken, 2000, p.370).

Christianity teaches that this world is significant, that human beings are the apex of God’s creative work in this world; and that human beings can expect eternal forgiveness, eternal life, and eternal gain if they are in a right relationship with God which is His will (1 Timothy 2:3-6, etc.; Pothier, 2024, pp. 28-37).

The following table depicts the primary hierarchical immaterial essence classification of modern humans, animals, and artificial intelligence from a Christian viewpoint (NASB, 1997).

Figure 1 - Primary Hierarchical Immaterial Essence Classification of Select Entities

Note: The purpose of this simple table is to convey that modern humans possess the image of God with immaterial essence (e.g. soul, spirit); animals are soulish possessing an immaterial essence (e.g. soul, spirit) but without the Imago Dei; and artificial intelligence (including when extended to robotics, biological material, etc.) has no immaterial essence, intrinsically. The purpose of this table is not to assert that parrots cannot engage in mimicry, etc. The table simply offers a hierarchical look at the primary classification of select entities with respect to immaterial essence.

From a Christian viewpoint, whoever and whatever obstructs human beings (who are the apex of God’s creation in this world and made in His image) from a right relationship to creator God acts in opposition to the revealed will of God and does a grave disservice to those human beings (NASB, 1997).

Aside from foregoing the obvious salvific and spiritual regeneration benefits that being in a right relationship with creator God results in, and undesirable eschatological ramifications of global databases standardizing on antichrist misrepresentations of information and information representations, what other consequences can result from being disconnected from a right relationship with creator God? Depravity, corruption, and fallacy increase which is no small matter.

Correctly embedding genuine orthodox (i.e. biblical truth) Christianity into AI increases exposure so that people and societies can better understand and appropriate genuine orthodox (i.e. biblical truth) Christianity which results in a long list of benefits ranging from the transcendent to the material. For example, humans who have been authentically redeemed by God through His plan of salvation (see the Gospel of Jesus Christ) and are spiritually regenerated by the Holy Spirit exhibit far more holiness and integrity in their lives than they would otherwise collectively providing both a God-aided bulwark against depravity and corruption and a valuable resource toward societal reform efforts. But this article is lengthy enough, so we shall save that for a future article.

This article addresses a known epistemological problem with respect to the topic of original monotheism and AI, from a Christian perspective.

More generally, if right reforms are not implemented, information consumers can expect to see the following problems with AI:

Information consumers will continue to be exposed to some degree of information bias (e.g. misinformation, omission of information) enforced by the political left largely in charge of “Big Tech,” public academia, government bureaucracy, much of the establishment mainstream media, etc. across almost all devices globally; especially with respect to the social sciences.
The same concerns that off-shored many U.S. jobs while also insourcing foreign workers to such an extent that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports (as of 2022) that almost one-in-five workers in the U.S. is now a foreign worker, are signaling they are to begin replacing private-sector U.S. jobs via AI and automation in the U.S. at an accelerated rate (see appendix) (BLS, 2023).
AI leveraged for increased domestic surveillance of citizens (Feldstein, 2019; Sahin, 2020; Sundance, 2024).

In closing, it is suggested that information consumers who hold monotheistic worldviews begin viewing themselves as external stakeholders with respect to the governmental and organizational entities they receive information from.

They can responsibly communicate their concerns to governmental representatives and the leadership of organizations that provide them information while exercising more discretion in which informational services they interact with; exercise their political voice and vote with respect to the problem; include the need for this change in their prayer lives; and educate others as to this problem.

A new Christian awakening is expected in the not distant future. For the West, it has been a while. May God richly bless you with understanding, wisdom, salvation, the fruits of His Holy Spirit, and assist you in times of trouble and need.

-Paul L. Pothier, M.Div., MBA, B.B.I.S., etc.

Footnotes:

1. In Matthew 24:11 Jesus Christ prophesied that after his death, resurrection, and ascension; many false prophets would arise and mislead many people. And, so it has been. With respect to 2 Peter 2:1, Spence-Jones & Excell (1919) explain that these false prophets (pseudo-didaskaloi) were not restricted to false prediction but they were false teachers alleging a message from God. This definition is found in the writings of Christ's apostles. Put simply, the biblical presentation of false prophets is those who introduce heresies and promote behavior which is not of God, in addition to whatever false prophecies they make, all of which they incorrectly attribute to God. And, so it is with Islam. The canonical Judeo-Christian scriptures possess the correct divine revelation with respect to the model of original monotheism.

Appendix:

Though an aside, it also needs to be understood by the general public that very wealthy concerns have undermined private-sector U.S. workers for decades to increase their wealth through activities such as offshoring millions of U.S. jobs; insourcing of foreign labor to the point that almost one-in-five U.S. jobs is now held by a foreign-worker; a trend toward oligarchy (with negative economic and political outcomes for U.S. workers and small businesses); etc. Now, these concerns are about to accelerate AI for the purpose of replacing U.S. workers to increase profits. About 60% of all companies (and 84% of large companies) surveyed said they are implementing AI to automate tasks employees do (A New Assessment of the Role of Offshoring in the Decline in US Manufacturing Employment, 2019; Kelly, 2024; Foreign-Born Workers Were a Record High 18.1 Percent of the U.S. Civilian Labor Force in 2022 : The Economics Daily: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023; Is the United States Moving toward an Oligarchy?, 2024; CFO Survey, May-June 2024; U.S. Companies Ramp up Automation and AI as Inflation Persists, 2024).

Yes, President Trump's reform agenda will offset this for now; however, the replacement of U.S. workers by AI, robotics, automation, and the machinations of oligarchs and said concerns is NOT going away. Private-sector U.S. workers will eventually have to care enough to vote in a way that primaries out undesirable political representatives (who are lobbied hard by said concerns) and replace them with competent high-integrity politicians that work for the interests of U.S. workers in order to protect U.S. citizens and their progeny from being displaced and having their real wage growth affected in their own domestic labor market.

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