The last blog discusses how a majority of philosophers do not believe in God. They also don’t believe in the existence of people having a soul. God and the soul cannot be proven. The concept of God is an extraordinary idea, which is far different from our everyday earthly experience. Since it is more straightforward for philosophers to take the view that there is not a God, then that is the standpoint that they choose to believe.
If not God, what do they believe in? …well, robots of course.
That’s right, robots. As technology advances, robots are becoming more and more like people; they are able to walk, talk and are coming closer to thinking and expressing emotions. One school of thought among philosophers is that one day robots will be virtually indistinguishable from human beings and at that point, robots should have civil rights equal to the rest of us.
To me, this is a great stretch of the imagination. Robots are not equal to humans, never have been, and never will be. This really becomes obvious if we examine the situation using dogs as an example.
The technology for robotic dogs is really already here. They can walk, bark, be taught tricks, fetch, play games, show emotion, and really do everything except have puppies.
In fact, I believe robotic dogs actually have many advantages over real dogs. These include:
- Being able to turn off the eating and pooping app
- Not shedding
- Being able to turn off the biting app
- As a doctor I can say that if you do get bit by the robot dog, it won’t have as many bacteria in its mouth, so you will be less likely to get an infection.
- Quicker to housebreak
- No vet bills
- No bad breath
- They don’t pass gas (which can be a disadvantage as people won’t have anyone else in the room to blame it on).
- You just lock them up when you go on vacation- no kennel or dogsitter bills
- Being able to turn off the random barking app
- You don’t have to let them out (i.e. they don’t track mud inside)
- If it got run over by a car, I would be unhappy but not too sad…I’d just go and buy another one.
Wait a minute, what was that last one? Not too sad if it’s run over? I’ve seen a lot of people have a significant grief reaction over loss of a pet. The first reaction of someone who has lost a pet is not to just go get another one, as the one they lost was unique, irreplaceable. The difference is you get an emotional attachment to the live pet, including love.
The real difference between a robotic dog and a real dog is the real dog has life to it, a soul if you will. This distinguishes it from the robotic dog no matter how lifelike the robotic dog is. I think this is really intuitively obvious to us all.
Dogs are indeed different from robotic dogs. And in the same way, people will always be different from robots, no matter how great the technology. People have souls, unique from the body. Since there is a soul, there has to be a higher power.
Another way to think about it is that we actually live in 5 dimensions. The first three dimensions are the usual: north-south, east-west, and up-down. The 4th dimension is time. The fifth dimension is the spiritual.
It is this 5th dimension, the spiritual dimension, that includes your soul, good and evil, and yes, God. It is the 5th dimension that allows for out-of-body events which people encounter with near-death experiences. (For more on that, please see the chapter on near-death experiences in my book Live, Love, and Let Go).
The spiritual dimension is what makes it obvious to us that dogs are undeniably different from robotic dogs, no matter how great the robot technology is. This difference between real dogs and robots is what demonstrates to us that there must be a dimension above and beyond touch, see, taste, and hear. It is an unprovable truth. We can’t totally describe it, but we know in our hearts that it is genuine.
St. Augustine said that, ‘Faith is believing what you do not see. The reward of this faith is to see what you believe.’
Our souls know that there is a spiritual dimension. Our ‘logical minds’ often have difficulty seeing that aspect of life. Faith allows us to overcome these barriers, and reap the benefits of knowing God.
Want proof? Take a moment to gaze into the eyes of a dog…and you’ll know it’s true.
Tom Dunham says
April 4, 2017 at 4:57 pmWonderful example!