God

Does God need us to love him?

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Human-like artificial intelligence. Does their creator need to be loved by them? Will they rebel? Photo: Haley Joel Osment and Jude Law in A.I.

A Christian perspective.

A.I. (2001) speculates on artificial intelligence in the future and asks, does the creator need the creature to love him back?

It is an important question for artificial intelligence. In other words, when humans create a new life form, such as human-like artificial intelligence, would the creator need to be loved by this new life form?

A.I. even goes one step further: try to understand artificial intelligence by going back to the start, with the Creator, God. Does the Creator need his creatures to love him?

Then, do the creatures that humans create, such as David, need to be loved back, as they have this intrinsic need to be loved?  

The A.I. David hopes the “Blue Fairy” (a character in the book Pinocchio) will grant him his wish of being loved. David will have to become a real boy, loved because he is a real boy, so it takes him on a journey through the “new earth” to find what he is looking for.

But go back to the start, with the original Creator. Does God have a need? Is God needy? Did God create humans out of need? Does God really need humans to love him? Does the self-sufficiency of God beg the question that he does not need?

I think this goes to the very heart of God. The Bible says that God is love so in his heart is pure love for his creatures. God will love irrespective of getting love back from his creatures. God goes on loving. So, is A.I. asking the right question, that God has a need? It is one of those tricky theological questions again, but God is. In the Bible, God is the I AM. The Alpha, the Omega, the beginning, and the end. Not how much we love God back, but how much God loves us—this is the undeniable fact of his love for us.

We can love our “creatures” like this, with care.

Center

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Spirituality is subjective. Christian spirituality would have to be centered on Jesus Christ, but cannot be about “who is Jesus for you”, as therefore Jesus could be anybody who fits your description of Jesus and not the gospel’s.

There can be many spirits, but only one Spirit from Jesus Christ. There can be many false Christs, but only one Christ from history, who can reveal himself to us today–the only true Jesus Christ as shown to us in the gospel. The question to our spirituality, from which Christian spirituality flows, is do we believe in this Christ?