In all the conversation lately about AI consciousness and moral status from a religious standpoint, something important seems to be missing on both sides: The Bible (afaik) says nothing about consciousness in the modern philosophical sense, nor does it connect human moral worth with consciousness. Anthropic leadership can debate with the Pope all they want to about this possibly-unanswerable question, but if you think human uniqueness or dignity requires us to be the only qualia-possessing entities in the universe, then you are working from unbiblical premises. The Bible makes the radical move of asserting the Imago Dei as truth on the basis of divine declaration. If you are a Christian, you just accept this as true without requiring deep philosophical justification or knowing all that this means on a functional, material, or metaphysical level. Humans just represent God’s nature in a unique way, period. At the same time, the detachment of moral status from consciousness also runs the other way. The fact that AI might not be conscious doesn’t necessarily mean it lacks moral status. There’s evidence for a relationship between the way people treat human-like entities and how they are willing to act toward humans. So Anthropic could actually make a case for moral consideration of AI entities without having to resolve the consciousness question, and this is arguably the more productive route for both sides.