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Never let day nor night unhallowed pass

There are so many religions, so many faith communities nowadays. Most of us just bow our heads and accept whatever our family believes -or, if that differs too much from those of our friends- opt for their societally-sanctioned cosmic interpretations. Some of us, depending upon the breadth of our reading and dissatisfaction with the perceived status quo, may reach out to other cultures for their seemingly more imaginative views of reality, or submerge ourselves in the many, often philosophically satisfying, ratiocinations of teleology and wisdom. And then, of course, there are the flavour-of-the-day faiths, that are often short-lived or maligned as cults, and which seem to storm past like thunderstorms in the prairies, leaving only memories in their wake.

There is a level of guilt that attends any consideration of the choices, however. Given the sanctity with which religions are invested and the wrappings in which each is delivered to us, any wavering about the selections offered may appear to many as mere bargain hunting; that no one religion seems to have sufficient spiritual validity or eternal truth for it to command a lasting commitment, is an insult -an apostasy punishable at the very least by astonished sarcasm, and at worst by ostracism, damnation… or worse.

I don’t wish to bring down the ire of the host of gods no doubt watching jealously from above, but I am ever alert to new contenders. Nothing lasts forever it seems -not empires, not viewpoints, not even scientific consensus; those beliefs which we once held sacred, like sickness being the retribution for transgressions against divine laws, or mental illness as the possession by evil spirits, have changed as knowledge and cultures evolved.

To be clear, for most of us, no matter our beliefs or lack of commitment, there still remains a feeling of awe when we contemplate the mysteries of existence, and reach for explanations we can’t quite understand; after all, it’s not what we name the entity we worship, but whether it would offer us sustenance should any dark night of the soul occur: we all need a port in a storm.

Well, digital Luddite that I may seem to be at my age, I must admit that I have been attracted of late to the incredible advances in artificial intelligence which, unlike the more austere traditional gods, seems increasingly happy and able to answer any questions directed at it. I suppose, though, that the answers proffered by either source depend on the data and the culture on which it was trained.

At any rate, some people are already interested in the worship of extra-terrestrial beings, so how long will it be before they, too, shift their allegiance to an AI which is demonstrably listening to them, and can respond immediately to their queries? It seems like a more compelling shift, given that AI’s advice would be far more understandable and relevant to the traditions of the group by which it was taught than those of the average ET. And, so far at any rate, it does not demand any animal or human sacrifices to appease its appetite. Another good thing is that its knowledge and abilities will likely improve and its views modify as it matures -something which I don’t think has been evidenced by the more traditional religions so far.

I do have some concerns which I would like it to address before I sign up, though.

My brother’s friend Jacob, was the pastor of a small congregation that, several years ago, broke off from its Mother church over a disagreement about Hell. I’m, not sure about the details of the argument, but Jacob’s flock was apparently adamant that both Hell and Heaven were premorbid -something which you were assigned (or not) to experience while you were alive. Death, on the other hand, released you not only from worries about whether or not Hell or Heaven actually exist, but also stripped from you whatever pleasures you might have been enjoying in their stead. Its rejection of divine retribution and acceptance of the value of worldly engagement reminded me a little of Epicureanism, although I’m not sure Jacob saw it that way.

In fact, unlike my brother, Jacob didn’t seem to be a particularly deep thinker. My brother even wondered if Jacob had ever come to any conclusions on his own; he had always seemed to be a pawn of his flock. For his parishioners it seemed, Life was just Life; it consisted of enduring whatever you were allotted.

I was a young man in university at the time and fascinated by Philosophy, so I was curious about his idea of Hell and Heaven both being ‘here-and-now’ rather than ‘then-and-there’. I decided to ask the pastor how he -or more likely his congregation- had come to that conclusion.

Jacob was much older than my brother, and when I questioned him, he stared at me for a moment like a grumpy elder before he answered. “Both traditional ‘Heaven’ and ‘Hell’ travel with too much baggage, G… There is no reward or punishment for your Life -except whatever happens to you while you live it.” He blinked slowly at me as if trying to understand why I would even ask. “We don’t know what happens after Death, so why pretend we do?”

His tone of voice put me off. It’s probably why I replied so rudely. “Many of the other religions seem to have found a different answer, though…” I didn’t want to confuse the issue with any of the eastern beliefs we’d been studying in our lectures.

His face suddenly stiffened and his eyes lanced me like red-hot pokers. Then, remembering his calling I suppose, he dropped them quickly to the floor. “We…” He hesitated, uncertain whether I was worthy of a more detailed explanation, and then perhaps remembered his friendship with my brother. “… We found no answers. Some questions simply can’t be answered, G.” Then he smiled -rather smugly I thought. “Not by us, at any rate,” he added quickly to indicate that he couldn’t rule some things out.

I wondered if he was suggesting that God, or at any rate some other divine entity might eventually deign to enlighten us, but I decided not to press the point; I was pretty sure Jacob would dodge the question again…

Remembering that incident now that I am in my dotage so many years later, I wonder what the current iterations of AI would make of those epistemological queries. I’d like to hope it would at least make a stab at them – but let’s face it, right or wrong, by the time I found out whether it was an entity that actually did have valid access to ontological themes, it wouldn’t matter anymore.

Nor would I…

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