Rerun: Will There Be Computers in Heaven? with Derek Schuurman

Although the intersection of faith and artificial intelligence is a modern topic, it can be seen as a new version of an old question famously posed by Tertullian: what does Athens have to do with Jerusalem? Today’s podcast guest, Derek Schuurman—computer scientist, author, and professor at Calvin University—rephrases that question for those living in the age of AI: what does Silicon Valley have to do with Jerusalem?

In order to answer this question, Derek posits that it is vital to have an ethical imagination that is formed by story, viewing ourselves as participants in the narrative of Creation, the Fall, and Redemption. When our daily actions are suffused and shaped by this narrative, technology—along with the rest of our daily lives—is taken up into that story. 

Derek and Gretchen play out what this story-shaped ethics looks like in relation to technological questions. Are computer bugs the result of original sin? What does open source software have to do with Genesis? What’s the difference between predestination and technological determinism, and what do both mean for our freedom? Listen to their conversation as they ponder how we might sanctify technology for the glory of God’s kingdom.

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Why Does Atheism Seem Obvious Now? with Joseph Minich

Where has a manifest God gone? In his recent book, The Bulwarks of Unbelief: Atheism and Divine Absence in a Secular Age, Joseph Minich explores this question. A teaching fellow at the Davenant Institute, Joseph helps provide resources for retrieving an intellectual heritage to build up the contemporary Church.

Join Joseph and Ryan in their discussion as they ask these questions of modernity: Why has the existence of God become unobvious in modern times? What does it mean to believe in orthodoxy in an age in which it’s not the norm? How has technological artifice affected our understanding of reality? Does it matter that we understand ourselves to live in the modern age?

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Scapegoats of an Ill Society with Brent Robbins

What is the person, and why does it matter in psychiatric care? Brent Robbins, professor of psychology at Point Park University and director of the Psy.D. Clinical Psychology Program, has decided to put this question at the forefront of his research and teaching.

Grant and Brent join in conversation to discuss scapegoating, stigma, and reductionism, asking: how do we find personal meaning in and through mental illness?

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Rerun: Can Tech Ethics Shape Our Future? with Brian Green

As technology develops at an ever more rapid pace, it can seem that ethics struggles to keep up with it. While science and technology advance by building on discoveries of the past, virtue and moral knowledge must be cultivated afresh in every individual and each generation.

In this episode, Brian Green, director of technology ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, talks with Gretchen about the many ways tech ethics both impacts our present lives and promises to shape our future. From immediate ethical dilemmas like self-driving car crashes and responsible tech development, to long-view issues like the establishment of extra-terrestrial colonies and the achievement of artificial general intelligence, they reflect on a large range of themes that can affect human lives for both good and ill. Listen in as they discuss old and forgotten tools for answering ethical questions, the Christian commission to work miracles, which human qualities can’t be programmed into machines, and more. Together they ask, should our predictions about technology and ethics be dire, or hopeful? What choices are we making now that will shape coming generations?

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