Religion, Evolution, and AI with Ilia Delio
How can we rethink religion through a lens of progressive science and evolutionary consciousness?
About this Conversation
A major schism is likely for the church unless structural issues such as imperial politics, ancient metaphysical and philosophical principles are addressed.
The church needs to make a radical decision "towards a new ecclesial structure" our guest Ilia Delio, PhD argues.
Sister Delio is an acclaimed theologian and ground-breaking author of twenty books in the area of science and religion, exploring themes of evolution, physics and neuroscience.
Ilia Delio
Ilia Delio is an academic, lecturer, and Franciscan Sister of Washington, DC who proposes that every seminary curriculum should include Big Bang cosmology, evolution, quantum physics, neuroscience, depth psychology, and systems thinking.
Her forthcoming book, The Hours of the Universe (Spring 2021), suggests the universe is the new monastery to a broad, general audience seeking new meaning and purpose in today’s world. Delio's recent book, titled Re-Enchanting the Earth: Why AI Needs Religion (2020), aims to reconcile evolution and religion with particular attention to the role of Artificial Intelligence.
Why tune in?
Delio is forward thinking. She believes that our relationship with technology has in some ways replaced the idea of God, but asks: What is a God without religion? What is at stake if we let technology define our path forward?
Her work is influenced by that of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881 – 1955) a French idealist philosopher and Jesuit Catholic priest who conceived the vitalist idea of the Omega Point, a maximum level of complexity and consciousness, towards which he believed the universe was evolving.
Delio has also said we are part of the expansion of the universe, and quotes Paul Dirac, recipient of the 1933 Nobel Prize for Physics, who said: “Pick a flower on Earth and you move the farthest star."
Re-Enchanting the Earth: Why AI Needs Religion
In this book, scientist and theologian Ilia Delio takes up the challenge of reconciling evolution and religion with particular attention to the role of Artificial Intelligence. She argues that AI represents the latest extension of human evolution, which has implications not only for science but also for religion.
