Turing and the Theological Objection
Turing and the Theological Objection

Summary/Abstract: This article contributes to the literature on Turing and machine intelligence in three ways. First, it provides a detailed logical and metaphysical critique of Turing's so-called theological objection, situating it within classical Aristotelian - Thomistic ontology and demonstrating how his simplifications misrepresent established theological principles. Second, it reconstructs Turing's sub-arguments with precision, highlighting logical fallacies such as straw man and begging-the-obvious in his treatment of the spiritual soul. Third, it introduces a novel counterfactual protocol for evaluating the Turing Test, emphasizing its limitations in probing global consistency and reasoning under hypothetical status changes - an aspect largely overlooked in prior discussions. Collectively, these contributions clarify both the philosophical and logical boundaries of Turing's arguments and offer a new methodological tool for assessing machine intelligence from a formal perspective.

• Details
• Contents