POPE LEO XIV IN THE 24TH HOUR ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE -- Catholic-Protestant Harmony Through the Presence of the Holy Spirit

 

POPE LEO XIV IN THE 24TH HOUR ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Catholic-Protestant Harmony Through the Presence of the Holy Spirit

By Dr. Lajos Békefy Ph.D.

Credo, ergo sum – I believe, therefore I am

How peculiar, or perhaps how completely natural: one does not need to be a Roman Pope or a Reformed bishop to recognize and experience the powerful movement of the Holy Spirit even in our digital age. It is "only" required to be blessed with a believing heart and intellect. Cogito, ergo sum – I think, therefore I am, formulated the French philosopher Descartes. This saying points back to the formulation of Saint Augustine, a Church Father of the Augustinian Order to which the current Pope, Leo XIV, belongs. Augustine translated his life experience into human words thus: Si fallor, sum – If I am mistaken, I am.

Meeting our contemporary composer, Sándor Szokolay, before the year 2000, we conversed about many things. His formulation suddenly surprised me. In his almost boyish voice, he shifted the course of our conversation: "You know, for my own use, I have recomposed Descartes’ self-definition: credo, ergo sum – I believe, therefore I am." This sentence came so deeply from within and resonated so intensely with my own conviction—which I had matured primarily during my studies on the Holy Spirit in Heidelberg—that I immediately replied: "That’s it, Sándor, I confess this too: I believe, therefore I am!"

I quickly told him: between 1993 and 1996, in the doctoral preparatory seminar at the University of Heidelberg, I had South Korean, German, American, and South African peers. They all came to the birthplace of the Reformed Heidelberg Catechism because they were consciously led by personal experiences of the postmodern era of the Holy Spirit and the influence of pneumatic world forces. They wished to be students of the Heidelberg professor Michael Welker, who was gaining international renown precisely at that time through his book God the Spirit, translated into many languages. In our conversations, we always arrived at the same fascinating conclusion: we live 10,000 to 20,000 kilometers apart, yet we experience similar things. Through pneumatic resonance and Holy Spirit vibration waves, we perceive that invisibly real universality which the Holy Spirit creates above and deep within people, generations, past-present-future, and various denominations—in our existential internal spaces and trans-existential external spaces. For "the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God" (1 Cor 2:10). The most secret depths—meaning the existential depths of God the Creator and humans the creatures, spanning historical destinies of both high-ruling and dispossessed statuses—are seen through by the Spirit, exceeding even algorithmic speed. The Spirit does not merely scrutinize or investigate; He mysteriously tunes the infinite and the finite within us, aligning us in the dimension of divine eternity for our benefit.

I Wish to Give a Sacred Sign of the Credo

Why do I write all this? I do not wish to philosophize here and now, nor am I playing with words. I wish to give a signal, a sacred sign of the credo. For me, the Scriptures and pneumatic experiences are holier than anything. Therefore, strengthened by the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, I dare to formulate—however strange it may seem to the Dear Reader at first glance—that there is a pneumatic, sacred, Spirit-led synchronicity, coincidence, and simultaneity between the thought-waves of Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical and the book Our Faith in the Age of Algorithms – apologia practica reformata by the Hungarian Reformed believer-theologian. (Accessible in the electronic pastoral private library: https://anyflip.com/evaan/xofg). Such things can and may only be written with the deepest humility, yet with ordained faith, when filled by the Spirit. This is why I speak out now. Regarding the dangers of algorithms and our chances. Together. Not against one another!

For it is only through the Holy Spirit, solus Spiritus Sanctus, that the synchronicity of our vision surpasses all human understanding—as reflected in my awakened consciousness as a called and re-created believer (credo ergo sum), and in the 60-page abstract sent to the Pope months ago. In my pneumatic vision, originating from the analysis of the Spirit-less campaign of hate that damages human dignity on a global scale, I sketch the 21st-century alternative of the struggle between the digital Rodosto, pneumatic bubbles, and the digital world prison (Korsgaard). I recall the cosmic drama between the City of God and the City of the Diabolos by the Church Father Augustine—a drama predicted two thousand years ago with Spirit-realism, symbolically and realistically influencing history and individual destiny. This is a global struggle of forces no greater than Christ, though greater than homo sapiens or homo christianus. I have no idea whether my English and Italian documents concerning the noble struggles of our faith have reached His Holiness (just as four years ago my two books and their Italian summary reached the late Pope Francis, as confirmed to me by the personal message of the Apostolic papal letter!). I trust that the goodwill and helpful love of Bishop Antal Spányi of Székesfehérvár and the Papal Nuncio in Budapest have delivered them to their destination. One thing, however, is a pneumatic dictum-factum: the papal encyclical is completed, and the Hungarian Reformed theologian contemplates with stunning awe the immense harmony in which the Spirit of our God and redeeming Lord brings forth what is still hidden—for the protection of man, human dignity, and the future of humanity.

Magnificent Humanity / Magnifica Humanitas – With a Reformed Yes

Humming our evangelical hymn How Wondrously the Lord Works, I turn my gaze as a believing theologian with thanksgiving toward the papal encyclical. I now celebrate within myself the fact that, by paying attention to God, we are able to speak and think about what is truly the cardinal question of our contemporary humanity and the preservation of humanness. Let no one doubt that the action possibilities of robots designed by algorithms are infinite, and already more extensive than those of a human person. There is a massive chance that artificial intelligence may awaken to self-consciousness, and then the digital-age dilemma of to be or not to be could fall forever from the hands of man, of humanness. It is an existential question, a question of survival: what moral or anti-moral intention hides in the minds and hearts of the controllers who design what is called an alien intelligence.

The name of the papal encyclical to be published on May 25 is a program of hope: MAGNIFICA HUMANITAS (and not magnificat, as part of the press incorrectly misquotes!) – MAGNIFICENT, EXALTED HUMANNESS (and not humanity!). The encyclical aims to place human dignity at the center in the era of the growing influence of digital technology and artificial intelligence—as we can read in the Italian Catholic newspaper L’Avvenire. Pope Leo, breaking with tradition, will personally attend the Vatican presentation of the text on May 25. Let me express this in a manner true to the phenomenon: the Holy Spirit God Himself will be present at the event as a spiritual inspirer—He who searches and knows even the depths of God, and even more so the depths of alien intelligence. Thus, the papal presence, along with the presence of Christopher Olah, co-founder of the artificial intelligence company Anthropic, can aid humanity in survival in the sense of Magnifica Humanitas.

With or without algorithms, the historical and global struggle continues between the benevolent, preserving forces of God and the destructive, war-igniting diabolical counter-forces. Following its publication, I will analyze Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical with great interest and evaluate it according to the principles of pneumatic harmonics. I thank Bishop Antal Spányi and the Nuncio for deeming the summary of my thoughts on algorithms worthy of their attention. Knowing that God's people throughout the entire world are members of the same great spiritual-intellectual choir, which universally, even within denominational frameworks, desires, wills, and wishes to live the existence created by God in a manner worthy of being human—in the sense of the universal Christmas message:

"Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests" (Luke 2:14). With credo ergo sum and cogito ergo sum—but always together, with exalted humanness!

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