Could this be [*"Destination: Void"* by Frank Herbert][1]?

> In the future, humankind has tried to develop artificial intelligence,
> succeeding only once, and then disastrously. A transmission from the
> project site on an island in the Puget Sound, "rogue consciousness!",
> was followed by slaughter and destruction, culminating in the island
> vanishing from the face of the earth.
> 
> The current project is being run on the moon, and the book tells the
> story of the seventh attempt in a series of experiments to create an
> artificial consciousness. For each attempt the scientists raise a
> group of clones. These clones are kept isolated and raised to believe
> that they will be the crew of a spaceship that will colonize a planet
> in the Tau Ceti solar system (Tau Ceti has no habitable planet; its
> choice - should they manage to reach it - is part of the planned
> frustration of the crew). The spaceship will take hundreds of years to
> reach the system and the crew will spend most of their time in
> hibernation. Along with the crew of six, the ship carries thousands of
> other clones in hibernation, intended to populate the new colony and,
> if necessary, provide replacements for any crew members who die along
> the way.

Per [this summary][2]:

>! The ship’s chaplain, though, is aware that this is really an experiment in high-pressure environments to create brilliance. 

  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destination_Void
  [2]: http://bestsciencefictionbooks.com/best-artificial-intelligence-science-fiction-books.php#24