By Todd Paetznick, December 12, 2024

Creativity differentiates people from machines and Artificial Intelligence. God made people curious and uniquely able to solve problems.  

In the first chapter of the Bible, God instructed Adam and Eve to subdue the earth (Genesis 1:28).  Subdue does not mean to exploit or take for personal benefit. The world and everything in it were theirs to enjoy, but they were also expected to be stewards of creation. Adam and Eve were charged with taking care of everything God created.  They were responsible to Him for what they did with what they were entrusted and expected to discover solutions to the problems they encountered, just like we are expected to do today.   

Details on how to subdue and steward creation are missing from the biblical account.  Some people view the missing specifics as an excuse to do nothing with an already perfect creation.  Others understand the lack of specificity as being given the freedom to discover, think, learn, reason, and create from what has been hidden in creation for the benefit of the rest of creation.  In many ways, what has been hidden is a gift given to people so they can exercise their creativity.  

Discovering solutions to the world’s problems is both a challenge and a gift.  Historically, difficulties were solved through human ingenuity and innovation when the world has faced problems.  Necessity is truly the mother of invention.  There are around 8.2 billion people in our world in 2024.  Without modern logistics, getting food to hungry people would not be possible.  Without modern energy production, we could not run our factories or many of the conveniences we take for granted.  Human ingenuity and creativity created these discoveries, innovations, and advances.  

This brings us to Artificial Intelligence (AI).  AI is feared and the subject of many science fiction stories, giving it capabilities it does not have.  But like other machines and innovations, AI is a tool that can be used and does not need to be feared.  (I’m looking at you, Luddites of the 1800s.)  AI depends on what has been discovered and what has been known that can exist inside a computer.  Its limitation is an inability to see the future and know what will happen.  People have this same limitation.  But unlike AI, God made people with creative minds.  People learn, remember, and use knowledge to solve previously unseen problems.  People will innovate and experiment to solve problems.  People will try something; if it does not work, they learn from failure and try something different.  It’s the way that God made us and the world.  

“God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”” (Genesis 1:28 NASB20)