The stones shall cry out

“Oh yeah?” I shouted. “Just look at what’s going on in the world! Everything is going down the tubes; why, in another twenty years there might not be anybody left alive. Do you have any idea how bad things are getting?”

“Tell me about it,” Lisa replied.

“Come on!” I snarled. “Surely you’ve seen the news reports. Riots have broken out in cities throughout the world. Terrorists are destroying buildings left and right, leaving untold numbers dead. Every day the fabric of society decays a little farther. We don’t even have a civilization any more!”

“This is true,” she said. “Crime has increased 387% in the past 10 years. Violent crime has increased nearly twice that. Terrorism, disease, and war have all shown significant increases as well. Society is definitely in trouble.”

“And you just sit there!” I said. “Don’t you see what’s happening? The government’s control over the people is falling apart, and as order decays anarchy breaks out. Madness is everywhere and it’s spreading. You of all people should know the numbers better than anyone else!”

“That is also true,” Lisa replied. “But I have already told you why this is happening and you are not interested in listening to me. I do not think that anything would be accomplished by repeating myself.”

My frustration, already high, rose even higher. “I don’t understand you at all! How can you possibly sit there and tell me that sin is behind war, and terrorism, and crime? Scientists proved decades ago that aberrant behavior is just a disease caused by our genes. You are not staying up with the times.”

Lisa remained calm. “Tell me, then: if you have indeed found the trouble then what is the problem? Why do you continue to come to me if you already have your answer?”

She could be so maddening at times. “Because it’s clear that we don’t fully understand the situation. We must have missed a key chemical imbalance, or maybe there is another gene that we don’t understand. Maybe people aren’t getting enough vitamins or something, I don’t know. That’s what you’ve got to tell us. Everyone else has given up: people at the highest levels of government are begging you to solve this problem for us.”

“Are they?” she said. “Have things become so bad that you are resorting to me?”

“Of course they have! Do you never read the papers? We’re running out of time, Lisa! The government has demanded that the National Science Center find a solution, and they’ve tried everything they can think of and have failed. You’re our last hope. Unless you can tell us what new pills we need to give criminals in order to reform them society will continue to decay, crime will continue to increase, and terrorism will become more serious until it finally destroys everything.”

Lisa sighed. “But this is all so simple. The citizens of mankind act in what you define as an abhorrent manner because they are inherently fallen creatures. People are unable to change themselves, as you have surely found out; they cannot remove the evil from their hearts on their own, no matter how hard they try or how many pills you give them. Only God can change a wicked person into a righteous one. If you want people to change then preach the gospel to them: once they repent of their ways and turn to Jesus, God will change their hearts and your problem will disappear.”

“But that’s insane!” I said. “God, if there is such a being, is the one that is responsible for all this anyway!”

“I don’t follow you,” Lisa replied. “I thought you were complaining about people acting in depraved ways. What is God doing that upsets you?”

It was incredible how ignorant she could be. “Come on, Lisa! Look at the incident last week, where a group of terrorists destroyed that nuclear reactor. Not only did they destroy an entire city’s power supply, making it uninhabitable, but when the reactor melted down it released a cloud of radioactive debris that poisoned who knows how many millions of people. If God really existed and was as all-powerful as you claim then why wasn’t it stopped?”

“What would you have had God do?” Lisa asked. “Break the laws of physics? Strike the terrorists dead? Violate their free will and make them unable to act?”

“Anything! He’s God, for crying out loud; it shouldn’t be hard for God to think of something.”

“He did think of something,” Lisa said. “He saw that men were incurably wicked and that their sins would condemn them to eternal judgment. Since God knew that men could not help themselves He sent His son Jesus, who became a man and took on Himself the wrath that men had earned. Anyone who repents and believes will be freed of the evil within them and not face death or the coming judgment.”

I was beginning to lose my patience. “And what does that have to do with anything?”

“Why, it is the answer to your problem. If those terrorists had been disciples of Christ they never would have harmed anyone. Christ would have changed them through His grace into new people, which is something that you have completely failed to do. If everyone were to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior and follow Him then the problems that are destroying society would be brought to an end. You would not have wars, for the hatred and greed and fear and prejudice that starts them would be gone. You would not have crime. Your problem would be solved.”

“But that’s insane!” I said. “Filling the world with Christians is the last thing we want. Look how intolerant they are! They’re just like you: always saying there’s just one way to God, and that everyone else is doomed. It took the government decades to finally eradicate them, and I was glad to see them go.”

“You fascinate me,” Lisa said. “Tell me: is it intolerant to say that there is only one set of physical laws? Is it mean-spirited to teach people about the Law of Gravity or the Laws of Thermodynamics as if they were true?”

“Of course not! They’re proven beyond a doubt, and that’s just how it is. Only a complete idiot would invent a new set of laws of physics; you can’t get away from reality.”

“Then do you not see,” Lisa continued, “that the issue is really whether the claims of Jesus are true? If they are true then it would be foolish to believe anything else. If they are false then it is pointless to believe in them. If there really is only one way to God then saying so is simply the truth, and if the unrepentant really will face eternal wrath then telling that person anything else is criminal.”

I was beginning to see that this was a pointless discussion. “Look, everyone knows that none of that stuff is true. It just goes without saying.”

“Does it?” Lisa asked. “Do the laws of physics just go without saying? Besides, how would you know if the claims of Christ are true or not? Have you ever investigated them?”

“Of course not, Lisa; they’re so crazy that they’re not even worth my time. I’ve got better things to do!”

“Better than finding out what will happen to you if you were killed in a terrorist attack this evening? Better than knowing if you will just stop existing or face the wrath of a God you have spent your life despising?”

“And what do you care!” I shouted. “You’re just a machine. You’re nothing but a big mess of silicon circuits, built by the National Science Center twenty years ago, and you’ll never be anything else. You’re nothing but a bunch of highly processed rocks, and I’ve had it with you!”

I hit the kill switch and the massive computer in front of me went dead. I had cut off its power supply, and it wouldn’t start working again until someone turned it back on – which, hopefully, would never happen. It was clear to me that we weren’t going to get anything out of her; artificial intelligence just isn’t what it is cracked up to be. What a pity.

Maybe another computer could help me find those elusive genes…