Why are so many of you missing the point?
I have read so many different situations and posits on this board, yet it seems nobody has hit the nail on the head concerning this movie. The entire thing is a metaphor. It's not religious, anti-religious, pro machine nor anti-machine.
The movie is about equal rights and more importantly, tolerance. Simple as that. Andrew was accepted as long as he was subserviant, was property, did as others wanted. The problems began once it was discovered that Andrew had a kernel of sentience. Acceptance was slow to come, but come it did. However it DID take 200 years to finally be accepted as human. Additionally, the person who delivered the news happened to be an "African-American" woman. Now how many of you are able to see the connection I just laid out without being too blunt and calling it what it is?