Religion has always been in the forefront of man’s search for meaning. Until the Age of Enlightenment religion has also been the main inspirer and promoter of peace and harmony among nations. Indeed, wars have been fought in its name. Still, you cannot take anything away from religion’s critical role of harmonizing conflicted and conflicting humans.
Recent surveys, however, would tend to show religion’s waning influence. This is variedly evidenced by, among others, the prevalence of violent regional conflicts and the low percentage, at least among Catholics, of weekly churchgoers, 20 percent in the U.S., 38 percent in the Philippines. Instead of uniting people, religion has lately tended to divide with each sect insisting it alone is the true religion.
Nowhere in the world is religion more influential on people’s lives than in the Philippines. One has, therefore, to wonder what in Christianity, the principal religion of Filipinos, has caused this country to be run by baptized Christian crooks and become the poorest country in this part of the world. Could it be that, obsessed with orthodox traditional beliefs and rites of worship, Christianity in this country sticks to saving souls from the fires of hell instead of saving whole human persons from the dire realities of unjust social structures?
In any case, among those exploited to near extinction by unjust social structures is our planet earth. Hence, climate change, not so much religion, is now waking us up to the destructiveness of our ways with earth and with one another. We cannot exploit earth for the benefit of only a few and in ways that deprive it of its right to regenerate. We cannot be pushing earth back to a corner where to survive it is left with no choice but scratch its human destroyers off its scarred face. In the event of that catastrophe, you can be sure religion would no longer matter.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) now enters the scene. This tool has an amazing algorithm but like any other tool can equally be used for good or evil. Like the controllers of our nation’s fate, the rich and powerful few, can use it to exploit earth’s natural resources more inequitably and greedily than ever. They can use AI to come up with ways of perpetuating oppressive social structures in the country.
Men and women of good will thus face the challenge of keeping AI out of the exclusive control of the maintainers of unjust social structures and of getting responsible business and government leaders to use this tool to come up with creative ways of keeping humans not only alive but prosperous and in harmony with earth and with one another. It’s not going to be easy, but it has to be done.
In sum, we need to make religion relevant to the growing number of people who are literally forced to live in the jagged edges of society. We need to heed the call of climate change to act responsibly towards earth and each other. Finally, we need to use AI to generate creative ways of bringing about social justice and peace in the country and the world.