AI theology
02 - 06/26 /16:13
AI can be a remarkable tool for synthesizing 2,000 years of Christian theology and writings. Chatbots can compile in seconds what myriad theologians wrote about scripture. Believers and the theologically curious are now engaging with apps in the belief that AI faithfully presents Christian theology.
Text With Jesus offers round-the-clock spiritual guidance, even simulated conversations with anyone from Jesus to the apostles. Chatting up Satan requires a premium subscription.
Text With Jesus offers round-the-clock spiritual guidance, even simulated conversations with anyone from Jesus to the apostles. Chatting up Satan requires a premium subscription.
The Catholic prayer app Hallow, financed by tech start-up financier Peter Thiel and VP JD Vance, adds celebrity glam to guided prayers. The co-founder of Hallow says his app intends to serve as a “quick hook” to get users to spend more time with the Lord … when it fits their schedule.
App developers and some pastors see these platforms as vehicles that can keep Christianity relevant while combating a decades-long decline in church participation.
“AI has huge potential for Christian evangelization and to answer questions posed by a secular culture,” says the Rev. Robert Spitzer, developer of the chatbot MagisAI, a tool to educate about Catholicism. Trained on source data ranging from social science to scripture, the app aims to offer rational answers to serious questions such as “What’s the evidence of life after death?”
Father Spitzer claims MagisAI feels like a pastoral counselor. “You can argue with it. You can dialogue with it, for sure. But we just wouldn’t call it Jesus. I wouldn’t even want to try to do that, because it would be woefully inadequate.”
Yet with any app, users typically become more dependent on it over time, not less. Chatbots are especially addictive for teenagers and the lonely—people who most need in-person Christian community.
AI has enormous potential as resource for people of faith and those searching for faith.
AI also has enormous potential to become a technology employed by the anti-christ to usher in the apocalyptic deception prophesied in the Bible.
To the degree AI technology gains acceptance as a type of prophetic voice people rely on, AI could become the idolatry the Bible warns against—only in code. A Catholic priest warns, “If computers become godlike things to which we look for truth or goodness, then we are projecting onto them attributes that belong properly to God.”
The apostle Peter explained that Christians have been given “everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him … so that you may participate in the divine nature.”
The advantage of AI is that it gives answers in seconds. The disadvantage of AI is that it gives answers in seconds. No need for the Holy Spirit. No need for human interaction. No need to wait upon God. ~
Blessings,
Dan Nygaard