Often, we read something new regarding relationships. Most of the time, it is about communication and conflict resolution. This time it is about robots? Seriously? We found this to be extremely interesting and thought we would share it with our readers. We would love to hear your response.
ASK AUGUSTINE
by Paul A. Tambrino, Ed.D., Ph.D.
I read an old issue of “Scientific American” which predicts that we will soon be mating with robots? Does the Bible have any direct or indirect statements that prohibit our marrying a droid?
At first glance, I did not think this was a serious question until I read the referenced article in “Scientific American” (March 2008, p. 85f.). The author, David Levy is an artificial-intelligence researcher who holds a Ph. D. in computer science from the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands. He states in his book, Love and Sex with Robots, that love, sex and even marriage between humans and robots are coming, perhaps as early as 2050.
Levy contends that robots can adopt a total humanoid look, can be programmed to match a person’s social and physical interests, and that as people “grow up with all kinds of electronic gizmos (they) will find android robots to be fairly normal as friends, partners and lovers.”
Levy goes on to note that the internet has “made it possible to fall in love” without meeting face to face. He says, “It just matters what you experience and perceive.”
Alas, we see Levy advocating that fundamental philosophical teaching of our postmodern age: Feeling is more important than reason; sincerity is more important than truth. Christian ethics on the other hand is concerned not with personal preferences and feelings, but with obligations that command the conscience.
Indeed, developments in science have been outstripping our ability to understand adequately their long range ramifications. While it is true that the Bible does not explicitly address relationships with robots, it is straightforward in its treatment of sexual matters and the teaching of Scripture is the final court of appeal for ethics. Human reason, the social and natural sciences, as well as church tradition may aid in our moral reflection, but divine revelation as found in Scripture is our foundation for ethical decision making.
When the Bible discusses marriage, it speaks of two people clinging together as one flesh (Genesis 2:24). It is hard to image a more graphic way to depict marital sexuality and it is even harder to imagine that depiction with some man made object.
The Bible is quite frank in describing the sexuality of many of its most significant figures. The Song of Songs describes in passionate, sensual images the feelings between a young shepherdess and her lover. Yet as liberal as the Bible is in its approval of permitted sexual relations, it imposes numerous restrictions on other types of sexual behavior.
The eighteenth chapter of Leviticus opens with a denunciation of sexual deviancy in Egypt and Canaan. Biblical laws forbid incest, which prohibition is extended to non-blood relatives. It prohibits marrying a half sister, the marrying of one’s wife’s sister (including the sister of a divorced wife) during the wife’s lifetime, and the marriage of an aunt and nephew. Other sexual activities prohibited in the Bible include adultery, homosexuality and bestiality.
The New Testament especially forbids fornication, illicit sexual relations between unmarried persons. In Matthew 5:28, Christ expanded the prohibition against adultery to include sexual lusting. It is impossible to imply from any of the above passages that explicitly address prohibited relationships that the Bible permits mating with machines.
Biblical guidelines on what traits to look for in a partner are recorded in Genesis 24 and they can hardly be found in a robot. The verses 24 and 25 of Leviticus 18 are emphatic in their insistence that widespread violation of these biblical sexual norms will lead to national catastrophe. “Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you. For the land is defiled; therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants.”
