Calling Artificial Intelligence…….Calling AI. What Is Forgiveness?
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Yesterday, I asked AI about forgiveness and received this definition: “Forgiveness is the intentional decision to let go of resentment and anger toward someone who has harmed you, regardless of whether they deserve it.”
I then asked another form of rationality about this definition. That other form was my own studying of forgiveness for the past 40 years. Here is my response to the new intelligence that so many see as definitive:
1. Forgiveness is a decision. No, it is not. A decision is only one part of forgiveness. As an analogy, suppose you “make a decision” to work in a soup kitchen. There, you did it. However, suppose that you now spend most of your time on the couch as you eat corn chips and never actually go to the soup kitchen. Does your “decision” to work in the soup kitchen actually fulfill the goal? No, because you now have to act on this decision. This involves: a) thinking, such as planning; b) feeling, such as having sympathy toward those who do not have homes, which serves as an internal motivator to get up off the couch and put the chips away; and c) behavior as you go to the soup kitchen, get your assignment, and fulfill it.
2. Forgiveness is letting go of resentment. No again, it is not. If forgiveness only consists of letting go of resentment, then one might be able to do that by, for example, having disparaging thoughts about the offending person, such as, “This person is such a low-life that he just can’t help himself. I need to stay away from anyone like that!”
3. Forgiveness is letting go of “resentment and anger.” No again. Resentment encompasses anger in bigger doses over long periods of time. If one is going to use the terms “resentment and anger,” it is necessary to distinguish them. Short-term anger can be good as you see that no one should treat you unfairly. Resentment, as longer term anger, can turn on the one harboring it so that fatigue and even anxiety or depression might emerge.
4. The AI sentence shows reductionism. If AI were to expand what forgiveness is, it should include adding ideas such as “forgiveness is a moral virtue, or deliberately being good to those who are not good to you, more positive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors toward those who acted unfairly.” This would include working against the opposite of goodness, or struggling against negative thoughts that condemn, negative feelings that could include resentment, and negative behaviors which can include revenge toward those who offended.
AI does not have all the answers. Beware the easy way out when trying to understand what forgiveness is and is not. It is not excusing unjust behavior, automatically reconciling, or abandoning the quest for justice.
