Lots of people are concerned about AI -- artificial intelligence. It's everywhere. It's trying to mimic real humans. And it's not doing well. My newsfeed likes to see what I'm searching for and start to feed me appropriate news items in accordance with what I'm looking for. It's a form of AI. That is, it's an algorithm that thinks it can figure out my motives and give me what I want. It's wrong ... really, really wrong. Obviously I search for things related to Scripture and the like, so in today's feed (for instance) they gave me (and I won't link to any of them) titles like, "15 Hard Questions Atheists Wish Christians Would Answer" and "Why people are leaving the church" and "America's Spiritual Revolution: Turning Away from Christianity to Embrace Alternatives." Thanks, AI, but you are so confused.
I like that last one about embracing alternatives. It wasn't some wild religious nut who said it; it was Jesus. He's the one who said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me" (John 14:6). "Are you saying that Christianity is the only valid religion?" No ... no, I'm not. Jesus is. His disciples understood that. On trial before the Council, Peter boldly declared, "There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). "Alternatives." Right. If people are embracing "alternatives" (which are not alternatives), we can come to a variety of conclusions, but one that is not possible is that they are leaving Christianity. John wrote, "They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us" (1 John 2:19). No genuine Christian ultimately walks away from Christianity. No other "alternative" is a viable alternative.
But here we have some programmed system that is suggesting to me that I should consider myself wrong for following the Christ, the Son of God, the only means of salvation. I should consider "alternatives." What, like pink unicorns and fairies? (They don't exist, either.) Because no alternatives exist that have any semblance of truth. And if programmers are going to offer this as "artificial intelligence," I think there's not much to fear. Of course, artificial insanity might be a little scary ...
20 comments:
I saw something the other day that I wish I'd saved that speaks to this. The point being made was not that the US was becoming less religious, it's that other movements have filled the role that religion/Christianity filled in the past. That people find the same fulfillment (not the point, I realize) in their commitment to climate activism as believers find in religion. I'm probably expressing this badly, but I think there's some Truth to the notion that we as a nation are just as religious as ever, we just have a bunch of new religions to follow.
It is odd that we are pushing so hard for the "singularity", when every story we write about it turns out poorly for us. However, we simply aren't smart enough to create a new, independent thinking "being". In every news story about our current AI, we can clearly see the bias of the programmers. We may get to a point where we delude ourselves into thinking it is a real intelligence, but that's our shortcoming, not it's advancement.
Deconstruction is the new "in" thing going around. But all it tells me is that those people never really got to know what God says about Himself.
Craig, I believe that humans, as a race, are all innately religious -- even those who run from it. We all have that recognition of something bigger than ourselves and fill it with the One who is the biggest or whatever else comes to hand (climate activism, liberalism, conservatism, Dem or GOP, SJW, atheism, science ... a long, long list).
David, I can't imagine why the programmers are all declaring "AI will save us" when all the rest of us know that AI is simply the extension of programmers and, as such, has the ultimate power to destroy us. Which is another reason I'm so I have a Sovereign God and don't have a clue what others do without Him.
I think the danger in AI lies not in AI, but in our giving it moral authority it cannot possess.
David, the bias of the programmers seems inextricably linked to how the AI responds, the fact that some are unwilling to accept this is merely choosing to blind themselves for the sake of "progress".
Stan, absolutely. It's the "god shaped hole" Lewis wrote about. People will fill that hole with anything to avoid coming to grips with the God that created them and created that desire.
Absolutely.
I too get suggestions from the Internet for “You might like this” or “Based on your browsing history.” It can be helpful when Amazon does this, but YouTube oftentimes gets it so wrong that I often remark, “Your algorithms clearly don’t know me at all.” I have noticed in recent months that many of my Google searches are answered by “AI Overview.” They are basically helpful but often overly generic--at least on “religious” topics. Of course, AI doesn’t have the discernment I wish it had. It’s not too hard to see how this technology might play a huge role in future events, i.e. the massive deception to come, the one-world religion, the end times Antichrist, etc.--all very scary topics.
I feel like I'm in the minority in not fearing the end times. I don't find end times project scary. Perplexing, but I don't understand Christianity's fear of Apocalypse.
I can’t speak for all of “Christianity,” but I personally don’t fear the end times either--mostly because I won’t be around still to experience the things to come at that time, which, from what I have learned on only an elementary level, contain what I would consider frightful events. In view of the post’s theme, I should have closed my comment with a confirmation that, “even still, AI doesn’t scare me.” (I’ll take this opportunity to do that.)
I also don't really fear the end times. For years I've joked about being Pan Trib, just waiting to see how it all pans out. But as I go, I realize that YHWH is working on His timetable and that I can't do anything to affect it. Worrying about it certainly doesn't help. Unfortunately I was raised in the Hal Lindsey era where this was a big topic.
My hope is that YHWH will take me before things get bad, one way or another.
I like your “just waiting to see how it all pans out” approach, Craig. To my mind, thinking about how things will unfold is pointless because (1) I’ll be long gone (and I don’t have grandkids whose futures I need fret over); and (2) I don’t see any differences regarding how I am to live as a follower of Christ based on one eschatology position or another. As you say, it’s all in God’s Hands, including how bad things will get and how soon. Happily, I’ll be watching from a safe distance. :)
Mere curiosity, Lorna. Twice you've said you'll be gone before "it all pans out" as it were. Why are you so sure we're not in the end times and we won't see these prophecies being fulfilled in our lifetime?
Lorna,
Thanks. I agree that worrying over something we can't control isn't helpful. I echo Stan's questions regarding your certainty that you'll be gone before anything happens.
I don’t believe that any of us can know for sure how close we are to the final events. I am persuaded, however, that the U.S.A. will actually cease to be a nation as we know it and will be enfolded (probably with all of North and South America) into something else entirely (perhaps a Muslim, Chrislam, or entirely new entity), as part of setting the stage for the end-times events. Since I am 68 years old, with probably ~20 years left on earth, it’s not likely I will live to see that--or any major global development--occur. Also, I am sure that life during “the end times” will look a whole lot different from our current state of things and that it will reasonably take much time (more than, say, 20 years) for things to change fully to that point.
This is really all I had in mind when commenting as I did; mostly I was speaking from an awareness of being in my “golden years” rather than anything much deeper than that. Full disclosure: I don’t have a strong interest in (or knowledge of) prophesy (even though I read a blog called “The End Time” every day!); I’ve never studied the various eschatological positions and then settled on one of them as my view (it never seemed necessary, as I said earlier), but I am familiar with the gamut of them.
Just to make clear: My comments about being gone for the end times were NOT based on an expectation of being raptured away before then, i.e. a Pre-Trib position--just in case either of you were thinking that. And also not, thankfully, because of any sad personal situation, such as knowing I have a short time left due to a terminal illness, etc. (Those might be the two most obvious reasons someone might comment as I did but were not the case.)
Thanks, Lorna. I understand now. (But I will be doing one on the pre-Trib rapture later.)
OK, great. And now I am curious about what prophesies you feel will be fulfilled in our lifetime. Perhaps that could be the topic of a future post as well.
Don't hold your breath on the prophesies I feel will be fulfilled in our lifetime. The disciples had been taught their messianic prophecies and didn't understand their fulfillment as it was in progress before their very eyes. I don't consider myself a special seer (see-er?) of prophecy. I've read the Revelation but don't claim to grasp it clearly. I can see that Paul talks about a "Rapture" but the prophecy I understand best about it is Christ's -- "like a thief in the night." Nope, I won't be going there. Too speculative, especially when the "abundantly clear" provokes so much doubt.
Well, that is how I feel too; I guess I was confused by your earlier question to me (“why are you so sure…we won’t see these prophesies being fulfilled in our lifetime?”). I mistook that to mean that you thought we would. Sorry to misunderstand! (Yes, end-times discussions can be perplexing; I don’t mind not “going there.” :)
I often ask questions for ... you know ... information. As for when it all will happen, given the repeated biblical injunction that it will be "soon" and the habit of believers down through the ages to believe that His return was imminent, I figure I'll take that perspective, too.
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