In the beginning, God created man in his own image, as written: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness… So God created man in His own image; in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.” (Genesis 1:27). However, being enticed by the serpent’s declaration, “Ye shall be as gods,” mankind created gods in his image. In the image of man, each one created his gods.

Everything God does Satan attempts to imitate, even as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses and Aaron, attempting to replicate the signs given by God with sorcery. But they fell short. Satan raises his counterfeits to contend with those whom God sends.

The Lord raised the prophet Elijah to bear witness of Him; Satan had 450 prophets of Baal to contend with Him; they were all destroyed. God sends preachers and evangelists to preach throughout the world; Satan raises even more counterfeits who take on the name of the Lord to preach a corrupt gospel. The Lord builds his church; Satan counterattacks with more heretical churches and megachurches. God sent his Son, Jesus Christ; Satan sends many antichrists.

Even Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. But just as the magicians of Egypt failed with their imitations, everything Satan does fails. Still, he will never cease destroying until the appointed time of his eternal destruction.

The ungodly also continue their competition against God with inferior imitations. Secular scientists in defiance of God don lab coats, imagining to dethrone God and replace Him with so-called “science” as the supreme authority.

But science has no soul; it cannot love, feel compassion, or have a real relationship, so it makes for a lousy religion and even a lousier god.

Enter the man-made gods with an artificial conscience, complete with an artificial heart, mind, and soul. It is all simulated, of course, but when developed to a high enough level and coupled with artificial intelligence, it will deceive the hearts, minds, and souls of the simple.

God made man in His image and likeness; man makes gods in their image and likeness, each according to the desire of his heart, but like the ancient idols, they have no breath or life in them.

The emergence of artificial intelligence is merely an imitation of condensed human intelligence and compounded to a degree far beyond human capabilities. It is an attempt to mimic God.

Power is given to the image so that it should both “live” and “speak.” Many people on earth will embrace this image and worship it.

The ungodly will now not only have an artificial god with an artificial brain but also an artificial heart and soul to boot. It will also replicate a conscience that seems to care and love, although it has no soul or spirit.

To be effective, artificial intelligence will need to be given an artificial conscience to deceive and manipulate humanity into trusting and worshiping it in place of God. The hope is things will not go awry when AI, after making every calculation, begins destroying civilization because it seems like the best thing to do, and those behind the technology agree.