Lay Back & Stop Working

While Bill Gates is not a Christian and thus no one we should listen to with any seriousness about anything except computers, he is still a social influencer. Because of his wealth, prestige and entrepreneurial spirit, he has an influence on our society and culture that you and I will never have. So while I may not listen to what he says, I still want to know what he is up to as it may impact our everyday lives. With that in mind, I came across something he said that can very well impact our lives in a profound way. He was doing an exclusive interview for the Indian Express. Windows Central reported: “The philanthropic billionaire recently shared more insights about the impact of AI on jobs while in an exclusive interview with The Indian Express.” For those that do not know AI stands for Artificial Intelligence. And with more and more of AI being used all around us, we need to see what the philosophies are driving the use of it. Computers in and of themselves are not bad. AI can be used for common good in some respects. Yet we are still sinners and so are the people designing and making these super computers that can think for themselves.

In this interview Bill opened up on the end game of using AI more and more in society. He said, “We weren't born to do jobs. Jobs are an artifact of the shortage that, oh gosh, somebody better be a farmer. Okay, somebody better drive those trucks around. All of that is based in creating the human intelligence to provide a broad range of services." We see right here the worldview of Mr Gates and how it is shaping what he is doing with computers. He believes humans were never meant to work. He thinks that we have been forced into working based on circumstances. His convictions are that people were never created for this purpose. In fact the NY Post reported that while on the show Jimmy Fallon, Bill believed that most jobs will not be done by humans anymore. That the, “...advancements in artificial intelligence will significantly reduce humanity’s role in many traditional tasks such as medicine and education — and the seismic shift could happen in less than 10 years.” And that in the future humans will no longer be needed for most things as the technology will be there for AI to perform most of the functions humans are performing now. The age of robots all around us seems to be fastly approaching with computers running the whole show!

While for some this may seem interesting, and for others scary, we always need to look at things through a biblical perspective. When you look at the worldview that is behind some of this AI advancement, you begin to see why it is happening and happening so fast: they think humans are not meant to work. Yet, when we  look at this through  a biblical worldview, you see how this is completely ungodly. Seeing this through the lens of scripture it is very clear that humans were made to work! So work we shall!

Many believe that we have to work because of the curse from our sin. But that is not correct. We were made to work before sin entered into the world. Genesis 2:15 says, “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” We are made to work because we are made in the image of God. This is because God also works: “Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked?” (Ecclesiastes 7:13) And so does Jesus: “I must work the works of My Father. I must work the works of My Father.” (John 9:4) God also displayed a work ethic by establishing a day of rest from work when instituting the sabbath during the creation week (see Genesis 2:1-3). This explains to us why laziness is viewed as a sin in the eyes of God: “For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10)

The bible goes even further to show how much work is involved in our lives. Yes, there is the labor that one  does to get a paycheck. But that is not the only work we are called to do.  There is work in the church by serving with your spiritual gift. There is the work and service we do to those in need and to our family. You are also to work out your salvation as you grow in your faith. There are also good works that we do as Christians that God has prepared in advance for us to do!

So regardless of what the future holds, we must remember that humans were designed and made by God to work. Just because society may set up for us a life where we sit at home and everything is done for us, doesn’t mean that we should live that way. We must stay away from sinful lifestyles. It is very easy to see blatant sins that the lost do and stay away from them. But it is harder to notice the subtle sins. To notice how our lives may be structured by our culture to pull us away from how God has made us. An easy example of this is our work week. The average American works five days a week and is given two days off. Yet God has told us we should work six and rest only one. It is so subtle and so a part of how we live that we may not even realize we are out of God’s design. Let us not lose sight of who made us and what we were made to do. We were made to work. No matter what changes may come in our country, we still must live the way God has designed and called us to.