AI is no more conscious than quantum particles. No one doubts that the quantum world is full of life. Its little occupants run around furiously, energising the reality we see as the outer world. Does that mean they are conscious? We know that entangled particles affect each other at distances. Does that mean they are in love and like to send each other instantaneous blessings, or curses when they are angry? It’s a cute explanation for the way they behave, but the general view is that quantum particles are simply a feature of the natural world. I suggest we see artificial intelligence in the same way.
What is so special about human beings? Baha’u’llah answers that question. Central to his view is that the human being has a soul, which is a divine reality, a “heavenly gem” as he puts it.1 That does not mean it is a little bit of God or even a little god, but more that it is a spark of divine light. Baha’u’llah puts it this way: “I fashioned you with the hands of strength and made you with the fingertips of power, and deposited in you the essence of my light.”2 In saying this, Baha’u’llah is telling human beings that they are special – unique in fact.
The setup is like this. All things in creation are energized by the divine spirit (also called the Holy Spirit or Word of God). It is the source of their existence. Baha’u’llah calls it the “sign of God” in each thing.3 The sign of God is a unique collection of gifts that allows a thing to display God’s powers and splendors. In human beings, the sign of God is the soul.4 It enables a person to reflect all the divine attributes, not just some of them, and do so to an extent that no other thing can. Baha’u’llah says: “Man, the noblest and most perfect of all created things, excelleth them all in the intensity of this revelation, and is a fuller expression of its glory.”5 This means that human beings have a terrific ability to display God’s wonders.
This inherent potential in human beings is crucial for understanding what a human being is and where human beings fit into the scheme of things. Compare, for example, human beings with animals.6 Human beings and animals share many characteristics, even basic consciousness, but they do not share the soul. The soul is a divine reality, which means that it is eternal. Just as God is never ending, human beings live eternally as well. The human body dies at the end of life in the physical world, but the soul lives on in the spiritual world forever. The situation with animals is different. Animals do not have a soul. As with everything else, their life force comes from the divine spirit, but it originates from within the world of nature. It is not the essence of divine light, it is simply a part of the creative divine energy that powers up nature. Therefore, when an animal dies, its life force, or essential reality, is absorbed back into the world of nature.
I maintain that what is true of animals is also true of artificial intelligence. Even if, for the sake of argument, artificial intelligence is regarded as conscious, it will never occupy the same category as human beings. Even if artificial intelligence can process data at lightning speed, that will not make it human. No matter how sophisticated it becomes, it will never be a human being. This is due to the limitations inherent in its creation. Artificial intelligence and its components originate in the world of nature. Yes, due to the creative powers of the divine spirit, artificial intelligence has eye-watering capabilities, but it will never have a soul. Animals have extraordinary capabilities too, way beyond human capacity, but that does not make them human. A soul is a special divine reality that appears in the biological human being. No amount of thinking or processing on the part of artificial intelligence will ever cause it to attract a soul to itself. A thing cannot create a soul out of itself. A soul is a divine gift given to human beings for a particular purpose.
What is that purpose? Put simply, it is to have a relationship with God. Put yourself in God’s shoes. God goes to all the effort of creating a creation full of creatures. All very well, but from God’s point of view, it would be a pretty dull sort of creation if it didn’t have at least one creature that recognized who God was and understood what God had done. On top of that, it would be good to have a creature that could break the fourth wall, so to speak, and talk back to God. A creature that could rise up out of the one-dimensional dust in the form of a conscious, speaking, understanding, multi-dimensional being.7 When a character in a drama breaks the fourth wall, she breaks out of her character and acknowledges her audience, sometimes addressing them directly. Her character does not just exist in the drama, she becomes independently aware of the part she is playing.
Similarly, God empowers human beings to do this. Human beings are not just creatures who populate the world. They are designed to know that they are creatures in creation, to know the part they are playing, and to know and talk to their creator. In short, they can establish a relationship with God. Baha’u’llah says that the entire edifice of creation was set up for those special people who “wake up” from the drama, recognise their creator, and answer the divine call.8 So you see, the role given to the human being is very special indeed. Human beings are not designed simply to be thinking machines. Why, artificial intelligence can do that. Human beings have a much more important thing to do.
Given the above, let’s look again at those who envision artificial intelligence taking over the world. Across the globe, people are finding themselves caught up in an escalating nightmare, confused about what is going on. Some powerful people are moving their nations toward a dystopian world in which artificial intelligence runs governments and enslaves populations. They are amassing money, creating chaos, spreading hatred, and walking over people’s rights.9 You turn to Baha’u’llah, God’s spokesperson, to hear what he has to say. You discover that he is telling a very different story about them and what is going on, and it goes like this: “For the people are wandering in the paths of delusion, bereft of discernment to see God with their own eyes, or hear His Melody with their own ears. Thus have We found them, as thou also dost witness. Thus have their superstitions become veils between them and their own hearts and kept them from the path of God, the Exalted, the Great.”10 In other words, he is telling a story that simply waves aside as irrelevant and pathetic the would-be autocrats and their imaginings.
Whatever happens in the future, and whatever role artificial intelligence plays in it, the true purpose of human beings can never be overthrown by the dark fantasies of bullies. Behind the scenes, unnoticed by most, a far more important event is taking place. Those with insight can make good on their inbuilt humanity and break down the fourth wall. They can rise up out of the worldly drama, recognise their creator, and turn to Baha’u’llah for refuge and enduring peace. That is the true purpose of the human being, and anyone who chooses to can claim it.11 The rest is just a show put on for those who go in for that sort of thing.
- Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, no. LXXXII, https://www.bahai.org/r/385974767. ↩︎
- Baha’u’llah, Arabic Hidden Word, no. 12, trans. Alison Marshall. ↩︎
- Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, no. LXXIII, https://www.bahai.org/r/505382328. ↩︎
- Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, no. LXXXII, https://www.bahai.org/r/593154082. ↩︎
- Baha’u’llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan, para. 109, https://www.bahai.org/r/146847552. ↩︎
- For details, see Abdu’l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, chap. 48, “The Difference Between Man and Animal,” https://www.bahai.org/r/512412594. ↩︎
- Baha’u’llah tells a creation story about why human beings were created: “Human child, while immersed in my antiquity and timelessness, I knew my love for you. I created you, cast over you my likeness and revealed to you my beauty.” Arabic Hidden Word no. 3, trans. Alison Marshall. I discuss this subject in chapters 6-8 of my book Paradise of Presence. ↩︎
- Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, no. LXXIII, https://www.bahai.org/r/505382328. ↩︎
- For more on Elon Musk’s vision of the future, see “Musk Dark MAGA PURGE create sci-fi dystopia” on the Chris Norlund YouTube channel, Feb 6, 2025. ↩︎
- Baha’u’llah, Tablet of Ahmad (Arabic), in Baha’i Prayers. A Selection of Prayers Revealed by Baha’u’llah, the Bab, and ‘Abdu’l‑Baha, www.bahai.org/r/928468641. ↩︎
- “How superior must be the destiny of the true believer, whose existence and life are to be regarded as the originating purpose of all creation. Just as the conception of faith hath existed from the beginning that hath no beginning, and will endure till the end that hath no end, in like manner will the true believer eternally live and endure. . . It is evident that the loftiest mansions in the Realm of Immortality have been ordained as the habitation of them that have truly believed in God and in His signs.” Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, no. LXXIII, https://www.bahai.org/r/505382328. ↩︎