Robotics Reference
In-Depth Information
in so far as the robot represents Christ at the altar, this is inappro-
priate. A simple repost to this would be that Christ was also a Jew
and a former carpenter and yet these are not deemed to be essential
requirements for priesthood. It seems to me that Christ died for
all persons, male, female, human and robot. A second argument
might be that a robot is unlikely to be an icon of Christ at the altar,
but I suppose that priestly robots could grow long hair and a beard
if desired.
Could a Robot Go to Hell?
This is the ultimate question about the sinfulness of robots. Could
a robot steadfastly set its face against the will of God. Could a robot
continuously know what is the right thing to do, and yet choose to
go against it. Could a robot ultimately choose to reject God and
all goodness, and desire to be cut off from God and his grace for
all eternity? Surely a robot being so knowledgeable would choose
a path of goodness. But we have to allow for the possibility of free
choice, and in allowing the robot this possibility, we also have to
allow for it ultimately to go to Hell. [23]
There seems to be little reason to doubt that robots can and will have
beliefs, even if they are only simulated beliefs. What is important here
is that, if they convince us that they have beliefs, by what they say to us
and how they act, then, in accordance with Turing's doctrine, we should
accept them as having beliefs.
From a position in which we believe robots to have beliefs, it is only
a small step for us to accept that robots can be religious. And if a robot
behaves as though it is religious, by its actions (connecting with some sort
of robot church, or even attending a human place of worship
26
)and/or
by what it tells us about its religious beliefs, then are there any grounds
on which we should decry those beliefs or deny a robot the right to follow
them?
26
Why not? If a robot can attend a conference and give a talk on how it works (see Chapter 8),
then why can a robot not attend a place of worship and perhaps read the sermon?
