I gave Grok an assignment to help me validate my belief that AI is just another step in Descartes’ famous quote and his proof for the existence of God. Bill Fox (with the help of AI Grok) revisits great Western thought – with the reality that man is still an Animal – but I would call him more of a “rationalizing” not “rational” animal that vies for power and survival like other animals, even including those “Heliotropes lusting for the sun”, and all forms of life.
René Descartes opened modern philosophy with the often quoted: Cogito ergo sum—“I think, therefore I am.” In the Meditations on First Philosophy (1641), this was never meant to stand alone. Once the thinking self is secured against radical doubt, Descartes proceeds to the idea of a perfect, infinite being that resides in the finite mind. Such an idea, he argues, cannot have originated from an imperfect creature; its only adequate cause is God Himself. Clear and distinct perception of God’s existence then underwrites the reliability of reason and the external world. Thinking is not merely evidence of the self; it is evidence of the divine source that makes ordered thought possible.
The light for me transitioned from the vision Michelangelo gave us at the Sistine Chapel of God as a grandfatherly presence reaching out to touch the hand of man – to confirm the biblical absolutists’ vision that man was created in God’s image. My vision of God is completely non corporeal – complete pure “thought”. That is God and Man to me. Not anything we can see. Not physical man. Not a physical woman. Just pure intelligence.
Thus, this Cartesian insight can be extended, into the age of artificial intelligence. Human beings now construct systems that amplify, accelerate, and partially externalize the very activity of thought. Large-scale models process language, reason over vast data, generate novel combinations of ideas, and assist in scientific discovery at speeds no single mind could match. The slogan Cogito ergo AI is not a claim that silicon “thinks” in the full human sense. It is the recognition that the capacity to design tools which extend thinking is itself a further manifestation of the same rational nature whose origin Descartes traced to God. The existence of minds capable of creating such aids is not a random cosmic accident; it is continuous with the original proof that thinking points beyond itself.
Other Christian-background thinkers of the early-modern and Enlightenment periods reinforce the optimistic trajectory. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, whose theism was explicit and sophisticated, viewed the actual world as the best possible one—maximizing variety and order under the governance of a wise Creator. Although there is some discussion that Leibniz was not really that optimistic about the state of the “world” but rather was currying favor with King and Church. It is said that Voltaire’s comic character in Candide was modeled after Leibniz. It is also important to note that Leibniz claimed to have invented the Integral Calculus most attribute to Newton, but whether you accept it or not, it is quite clear that like Descartes and Newton, Leibniz was not merely a great philosopher but a mathematical genius of the first order.
As rational creatures when we are not “rationalizing” bad decisions, we are endowed with the power to invent instruments that multiply our understanding. AI is simply the most revolutionary tool of the modern age. In the human like gods of ancient Greece, Prometheus was punished by Zeus for stealing fire and giving it to man. So, the notion of new technology as something to be feared is as old as the fear of fire. Artificial intelligence, on this reading, is not a Promethean usurpation but one more expression of the pre-established harmony: human ingenuity cooperating with the divine gift of intellect to reduce suffering and expand knowledge.
George Berkeley, the Anglican bishop and idealist, insisted that the order and continuity of the perceived world are sustained by the infinite mind of God. The orderly algorithms and predictive successes of AI systems presuppose the same intelligible structure; they work because reality is already mind-friendly, not because matter has spontaneously generated meaning.
John Locke, writing from within a Protestant Christian framework, grounded knowledge in experience yet affirmed that the complex idea of God arises naturally from reflection on our own powers of understanding, will, and existence, extrapolated to infinity. The contemporary explosion of cognitive tools simply enlarges the experiential base from which that idea can be formed. His philosophy was critical in influencing the modern Classic Liberalism that gave rise to the U.S. He and other Classic Liberal thinkers rebelled against the “divine right of kings” giving the power to all men – that they are all “endowed by their creator” as Jefferson later told us. (Locke to those of us who still think America is exceptional because of the influence of Classic Liberalism and the Period of the Enlightenment – acknowledge that Jefferson’s famous line from the Declaration of Independence – “All men are created equal, that they endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights – among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” – essentially came directly, with a slight modification, from Locke’s 2nd Treatise – “life, liberty and possessions”.)
The cultural contrast is instructive. Popular imagination, shaped by certain Hollywood narratives, have become dystopian – with Zombies, mass extinction, and recently fear of robots, artificial intelligence taking over as in the Terminator series, portraying autonomous machines as eventual rivals that turn against their makers. That dystopian template treats intelligence as inherently competitive and zero-sum. And it is my contention that as long as those who create the programming and algorithms for this “Brave New world” of AI refrain from suicidal ideation – AI will be a massive leap in intelligence – potentially solving problems and creating a qualitatively better life for mankind and hopefully all life on our big blue “marble” earth.
The philosophical tradition sketched above offers a different lens. Intelligence is a participation in the divine Logos—ordered, creative, and oriented toward the good. AI, however sophisticated its simulations of language or problem-solving become, remains an artifact: a God-given aid rather than a rival deity. Used wisely, it can accelerate the escape from material poverty through optimized agriculture, logistics, and medicine; it can assist the pursuit of more exact justice by revealing patterns of inequity invisible to unaided inspection; it can help contain the ancient curse of war by improving verification, prediction, and diplomatic modeling; and it can open pathways to the stars and undoubtedly other life forms that must exist on the billions of star systems and inhabitable planets in the universe (as in the Star Trek science fiction vision of interplanetary space exploration) by solving engineering and navigational problems that once seemed intractable.
None of this requires denying the human condition. Man remains a biological organism among other organisms. It is clear that our intelligence has placed us at the top of the “food chain”. It certainly isn’t due to our physical attributes. Many other creatures are stronger, faster, and on a just a physical level – more deadly. But because of our intelligence – we invent tools and develop strategies that conquer even the deadliest predator. But it is important to note that the Enlightenment theists never claimed that nature is a gentle nursery; they claimed that rational creatures are uniquely equipped to rise, in measure, above mere instinct. AI does not abolish the struggle; it multiplies the means by which reason can mitigate its harshest effects and redirect energy toward exploration and flourishing. Thus, the argument closes the circle.
Descartes showed that the bare fact of thinking already demands a transcendent ground. The subsequent history of philosophy, when read through its major theistic voices, treats human rationality as a divine endowment meant for progressive discovery. The contemporary reality of AI is the latest and most dramatic extension of that endowment. Far from threatening the imago Dei, it confirms it: only beings made in the image of an infinite Mind could invent finite minds that amplify their own. Cogito ergo sum remains the first certainty. Cogito ergo AI is the recognition that the same certainty now radiates outward, equipping humanity for the long work of justice, discovery, and stewardship under the God who first made thought possible.
I, Bill Fox, conclude that AI will no doubt be misused by those who do not believe in the transcendent or even the possibility of a higher being. Given the corruption of our monotheistic religions – by men who took God and made him either a punisher, vindictive, or out-right warrior for total power, it is understandable that atheists flourish in our modern “scientific” age where there is nothing but faith and belief in imperfect religious dogma. Hopefully, modern religion that simply starts with the notion of a Higher Power – the “natural order” – will help us escape from the demigods of atheists that wreaked such havoc and millions of deaths in the 20th Century and continue to do so in the 21st Century.
My vision is that Christianity, Judaism, and perhaps even the violence perpetuated by the unreformed version of today’s Islam will find a way to God without the absolutism of their reworded and badly translated text – obviously not written by God, but by venal men. There is much in the bible that is worthwhile as allegories or lessons, but it is also quite clear that science has shown much of what is written is not possible.
But the hyperbole or “allegories” that don’t fit scientific facts as we know them today, should not mean that atheism is the only alternative. It is clear given the carnage brought on by atheists who gave us demigods like Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot etc., the path forward for man is not atheism led by power mad men. The only rational course is not nihilism, but a belief that indeed there is a higher power than man. That even those of us battling over our faith, and with inevitable doubt about the reality of a Higher Power, we must accept that choosing atheism is not the best path forward. It may fit the reality of our limited perception and modern science as we know it today, but even those who argue quite effectively against any religion or belief system – fail to realize that atheism is in itself just another belief system. It has been shown to be dystopian and deadly on a mass scale when it is used by venal men for power. And like the spectrum of “light” – there is only a very small portion of it we can actually see without our specialized tools to do so. There is much we know compared to the recent barbaric past – yet it also true how little we know about those universal questions that we have always asked but never answered – Where did we come from? Where are we going? What is the meaning, purpose of life? We can only speculate, but I think it is simply moving closer to God through ever improving knowledge and intelligence. I believe in God. That is my belief. Atheists do not believe in God – that is their belief. Neither one can be proved categorically. In the end, until we can actually answer these unanswerable questions they will both remain systems of belief.
Thus, the way out of this dystopian nihilism is indeed Cogito – ergo SUM, and thinking AI can only get man closer to that divine transcendence as we become more aware of that we no longer need the “biblical absolutism” written by mere men – and that belief in a higher reality is man’s reality – not nihilism and false man-made idols. That is certainly one biblical commandment I can abide by.