Think for Christ

In Part 1 of this Introduction to Apologetics series we begin by looking at the nature of apologetics. We then turn to consider the support for apologetics in the New Testamant.

Pat Flynn joins Anthony Alberino to discuss his latest book: The Best Argument for the Existence of God. Amazon link to Pat's book: https://www.amazon.com/Best-Argument-God-Patrick-Flynn/dp/1644137801/ref=sr_1_1?crid=23JG38HM01ZCR&keywords=the+best+argument+for+god+patrick+flynn&qid=1692900330&sprefix=the+best+argument+for+g%2Caps%2C229&sr=8-1 Link to Pat's YouTube Channel Philosophy for the People: https://www.youtube.com/@PhilosophyforthePeople/videos

In this final episode in the series, we take aim at the most popular view of the mind among physical reductionists: the computational theory. Many today believe the mind is nothing more than a complex biological computer and that thinking is nothing more than running the right kind of program. The computational view of the mind is without question the greatest source of optimism for the project of reproducing human intelligence in a machine. But there are series problems with this view. We look at two from philosopher John Searle here. First there is the famous Chinese Room Argument and then the lesser known, but very powerful, argument that computation is itself a mind-dependent and observer-relative feature that is imposed from the outside and is not intrinsic to any physical system. Together these arguments show that any attempt to model the mind on a digital computer is bound to fail, and with it the greatest single hope for the prospects of building a truly intelligent machine.

In this episode we begin to consider the problem of rationality with a look at the Argument from Reason.

Dr. James Dolezal, theologian and professor focused on classical theism, discusses God’s absolute, noncomposite being and why God must be the ultimate cause. He contrasts classical theism with mutualist/personalist models, defends divine immutability, simplicity, impassibility, and atemporal eternity. He explains how these doctrines shape prayer, Scripture interpretation, and the relation between God and time.

In the previous episode we looked at what I consider to be the best hope and strongest motivation for the belief that artificial intelligence could one day become actually intelligent. That is the philosophical view called physical reductionism. We saw that there is widespread belief among computer scientists, neuroscientists, cognitive scientists, and philosophers of mind that the human mind is nothing more than a kind of biological computer. According to this view, mental states and processes are nothing over and above the physical states and processes of the brain. We also saw that, if this is true, then the idea of machine sentience is not only possible, but is already actual, since every person on the planet is already a kind of wholly material thinking machine. So that the idea of creating a machine that is as intelligent and even more intelligent than a human being is entirely possible in principle, even if not actually feasible given the current state of our technology. However, those who ground their belief in the possibility of a sentient AI on physical reductionism face a serious problem. It’s a problem that by extension confronts any effort to construct an intelligent machine from the ground up. This problem has it’s own name in the philosophy of mind. It’s called The Hard Problem of Consciousness. Join us in this episode of Think for Christ as we consider the nature of consciousness, a subject that takes into a discussion of qualia, intentionality, the knowledge argument, the zombie argument, the construction problem, the unity of conscious experience, the construction problem, the binding problem, and more.

Why do so many people, including academics, believe that it is possible to make a fully intelligent AI? In this episode, Anthony Alberino explores the thinking behind the claim of AI sentience and examines a widely held view in the philosophy of mind regarding the nature of human intelligence that makes the notion of a fully intelligent AI plausible.

The topic of artificial intelligence has become a critical one lately. There is a ton of chatter about AI right now; it has become one of the most pressing issues of our time. Unfortunately, in the midst of all this noise, I think the most important and profound question about AI is getting very little attention. That question is this: Is it possible for AI to become truly intelligent? This is the question we are asking today on Think for Christ. Now, it’s not as if this that this question isn’t being asked at all. It’s just not being asked seriously enough, and it’s not being asked to right people. Popular culture is looking to technology moguls, computer engineers, and cognitive scientists for the answer. But I submit that the question of whether an AI can ever truly be intelligent is not one that can be answered by scientists because it is not a scientific question. Before we can ever know whether AI is or can be intelligent like a human being, we first have to know the nature of human intelligence; but, of course, to ask about the nature of intelligence is ask a philosophical question, not a scientific one. Which is why I’ve invited philosopher Dr. J. T. Bridges to join me on this episode of Think for Christ to help us think through this critical philosophical question. You can find Dr. Bridges' YouTube channel, A Considerate Life, here: https://www.youtube.com/@jtbridges/videos

There was a popular saying that was a kind of mantra in the Middle Ages that went like this: "Theology is the queen of the sciences and philosophy is its handmaiden." What does this mean? And how is philosophy related to Christian theology? In this episode Dr. Anthony Alberino recounts the failure of Greek philosophy to reconcile itself with Greek religion and the success of Christian theology to reconcile itself with Greek philosophy. The God revealed in the Jewish and Christian Scriptures brings together the philosophical notions of first cause and ultimate principle with the religious notion of a creator God providentially directing the affairs of men. Christian revelation at once provided philosophy with the insight it needed to move from the stagnate plane of the essential to the living and active plane of the existential. The interpenetration of Christianity with Greek philosophy at once lifted the latter to heights it could not reach on its own and enriched the former with an indispensable asset and tool that would become essential for the formulation and defense of the faith.

As I said in the previous episode, many contemporary philosophers do not find the literal meaning of the term 'philosophy' (lit. the love of wisdom) to be very enlightening or helpful when understanding the nature of the subject. Most philosophy textbooks ignore this original meaning and instead define philosophy by more or less looking around and observing what philosophers are up to today. But to the mind of the classical philosopher, you can’t possibly pursue philosophy if you don’t understand what it means to pursue wisdom. So, to get at the nature of philosophy as it was originally intended, we have to go back to see how it was defined and explained by the guys who kicked off the philosophical project. And when it comes to defining and unpacking the meaning of philosophy for the classical period, there is no better source that the man who was unquestionably the greatest of the Greek philosophers, and in my opinion probably the greatest philosopher who has ever lived, Aristotle. In this episode, Dr. Anthony Alberino takes a look at the original meaning of philosophy as the love of wisdom as it was understood by Aristotle as well as by almost everybody in the first 2000 years of philosophical history.