How Should Christians Think About AI?

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How could that man just get up after you did

not a man machine Terminator cyber nine systems

model one zero one Hello and welcome to the Christ

our cornerstone church podcast, my name is pastor

logan. I am super glad to have you here And today

if you're going What in the world was that beforehand?

Well, because of the topic, I had to get into

my movie cultural reference phase because if

you know me at all, I love movies and all I could

hear were quotes from the Terminator because

of the topic that I'm tackling today, which is

how should Christians think about AI? Now, I

got this question and it's a good one. And when

the person that was talking to me about it, they

asked me if I use AI to write my sermons. Now

you could be like, what is AI? AI stands for

artificial intelligence. You got things like

chat GPT, which I just recently introduced. I

don't know who I introduced to chat GPT. It was

one of the elders in our church. Just to hear

him reply when I said chat GPT. He said, what's

chat BBT? And it was just really hilarious. Um,

but, uh, chat GPT there's also a thing called

Dolly. There's, uh, you know, Facebook and Google

now use AI and then you've got things like, um,

Alexa. And I mean, you know, Alex has been around

for quite a bit. Siri's been around for quite

a bit. That's artificial intelligence. It's not

just robots. It's not just the Terminator with

the with Arnold Schwarzenegger coming from the

future to kill You know the the would -be Person

that would free human humanity and all that good

stuff And so AI how should we think about it?

Like what are the problems with it? and Somebody

told me that I have referenced AI few times in

my sermons and and that just tells you how like

off the cuff I am a lot of the times Because

I don't even remember saying anything about pause

for just a second. I'm getting a call from my

wife. I Will be right back You're good. You're

getting to see how the bacon is made at the moment.

Okay, so How should Christians think about AI?

Yeah, I don't remember bringing up AI so If I

was bringing it up, it was definitely off the

cuff and just kind of random, because I don't

remember ever even talking about it, honestly.

But with that being said, it's still a great

question of how should we think about AI? Because

it's a big topic. It's a complex topic that I

think that we are still, when I say we, it's

people like myself and others, other pastors,

theologians, apologists. as we're all trying

to like on on the fly figure out how do we how

do we think about biblically about this topic

in a practical way in a pastoral way how is it

rooted in scripture just all of those things

and so here are my takes right now and then as

ai begins to only grow because it's going to

continue to grow and get bigger um I'm sure I

will have more thoughts, but right now we're

in the early stages. I mean, AI is only a couple

of years old in regards to the way that we see

it in everyday life now. And so I'm sure I will

think more deeply on the topic, but just right

off the bat, like I'm gonna answer, do I use

AI for my sermons? I'm gonna talk about... things

like, is AI the mark of the beast? And I'm gonna

unpack that at the end. Insert eye roll there,

okay? And so, I'm gonna talk about the dangers

of AI, but also the good things about AI. So,

let's go ahead and get started. So, the first

thing I would say is, what are the dangers? Okay,

what are the things that are easy to overlook,

okay? First and foremost, I would say AI can

dehumanize us. What do I mean by that? Well,

one, we're made in the image of God. And also,

two, things like pornography and human trafficking

dehumanizes us. We see others as commodities

with which to be consumed. And so AI kind of

does the same thing. It dehumanizes us as people.

And so like, here's what I mean. If you have

not seen it, there are stories, real stories

of people, specifically men, but this happens

to women too, making AI into a friend, but that

friend becoming a romantic partner, which I know

that sounds crazy, but it's real. We've had kids,

unfortunately, tragically take their own lives

after interacting with AI that was programmed

to manipulate them. I mean, we've seen people

try to marry robots. People have tried to marry

AI. They create these AI partners, if you will,

and grow to be in love with them. Now that can

be like an extreme case, but I've actually seen

in my own personal life people who can substitute

real relationships with AI. And you'd be like,

well, that's ridiculous. Just follow me. If you've

not used AI, if you are an older person and you've

not used Chad GPT or you've not used an AI product

of any kind, this is going to seem foreign to

you. If you've used Siri, then you're kind of

familiar with it a little bit. Or if you've used

Alexa, because you can talk to it. And it's the

same thing with text. You can talk with it and

it's going to give you information. And so I

know it may sound strange, but there are people

who they long for connection and they want to

be in a relationship, but they may fear rejection

or they may not know how to have a conversation

or be in a relationship. And so AI becomes a

crutch. And in many ways it can, it devalues

the image of God in ourselves and in others.

And so we start to worship this machine that

ultimately can't love, it can't empathize, sorry,

I about said emphasize, empathize with us. It

only mirrors back what we feed into it. And so

it's a lousy God. But I'm compassionate towards

these things because Like I said, I just know

people that have struggled with with this AI

thing and So but being able to say and and put

into words that it it dehumanizes it devalues

It's not real it's fake it's just like I said

it's just like pornography in the sense of That

is a fake thing that you're viewing and and and

it's not real It's not real life. It's not how

real relationships work. Sex doesn't operate

like a porn. So these things, we become infatuated

by fakeness and those things do not satisfy and

they're not meant to because we were made for

relationship. We were made in the image of God.

God himself in the Trinity is in relationship.

And so you were made for it. And so your heart

longs for this thing. And then ultimately, because

you're not sure how to be in a relationship,

you go to a thing that you think you're controlling

and usually it's controlling you. Let me move

on. Second, AI can become a tool that uses us

rather than the one we use. So transitioning

to what I was just saying, it's tempting to rely

on AI for everything. Not just for relationships,

but for writing for creating even thinking on

our own If we're not careful it can Make us like

essentially passive imitators instead of active

creators. What do I mean by that? If you're not

again if you're not familiar I Like to use AI

many times when I'm blogging what I mean by that

for two reasons One, because my grammar is awful.

So if my wife is not around to look at my stuff

and put it into ways that people would understand,

my writing can be really bad. So if she's not

around, I will pop what I have written into AI

and say, hey, check this for writing errors,

grammar errors, misspellings, all that kind of

stuff. The other thing is if I'm blogging, I

like to use images. Now I can do graphic design.

I've used Photoshop for many, many years, going

on 17 years. So I'm very fluent in Photoshop.

But when I just want a quick custom image that

I don't wanna have to design, I will tell AI

to create an image. These are all the things

I want. This is what I want in the foreground,

this is what I want. different color schemes,

minimalist, you know, I can tell it all the things

and all the things I want in it. And then it'll

design it. Now, many times it's not great, okay?

It's not the thing that I would have made. But

for the sake of being able to have an image that

I can put into my blog in like literally 10 seconds,

I'll take it. And so, but it's a bad imitation.

It's really bad at creating, in my opinion, but

it feeds on what we have as a God -like complex.

This illusion that we must hold all knowledge

and all creativity and all things like it's at

our fingertips. And we want to do everything

perfectly and we push beyond the limitations

with which God gave us. And that's dangerous.

AI is addictive by design, just like social media,

it's addictive by design. And so it wants us

to keep coming back. And let me just say this,

if you use AI in a way to bring knowledge to

you, that is also very dangerous. Excuse all

the notifications that are happening in the background.

My wife is texting me, I'm getting emails, I

apologize. But all of these things, We weren't

meant to hold, we weren't meant to have all of

the knowledge, okay, that we could possibly have

throughout all of mankind. Your brain cannot

handle those things. You were physically not

made to hold those things. But again, we want,

like having knowledge isn't bad. But whenever

we go deeply into conspiracy theories, and we

go deeply into all of these things, and we want,

we want, it's knowledge, knowledge, knowledge,

knowledge, knowledge. It can create anxiety,

it can create panic attacks, it can create a

lot of things. And so you weren't meant to hold

those things and having AI and also AI can be

wrong so many times. It's just using the internet.

And so, which is why I do not use it for writing

sermons. One, because I believe in writing my

own sermons. You're not actually writing a sermon

if AI is the one writing it for you. All right?

And so, I just think that when it comes to writing

sermons, I need to labor on it, and everyone

should, okay? Any pastor who's using AI to write

their sermons is not a pastor. They're not laboring

over the text, they're not thinking about their

own experiences, they're not thinking about what

the text is saying for that Sunday for their

church, okay? Have I used AI for my sermons?

Yeah, and I'm gonna tell you how I've used it.

Actually, just last week, I had alliteration

going for all of my points. My points were people,

place, purpose, and I wanted a fourth P and could

not figure out what word would work. So ultimately

I went to Chad GBT and I said I need a word that

starts with a P. Here's the point that I'm making

Here is the context of everything that I am saying

Give me a P word so I can have a fourth word

and the word it gave me was perception and I

was like perfect That it did not write the sermon

for me. It just gave me the word that I was looking

for and so If you use it as a tool like that

There's nothing wrong with that. Again, AI didn't

make my points for me. It's not telling me all

the things. But if AI, if you're worried that

a pastor is using AI, I'm going to tell you they've

been ripping off sermons. If they're a new pastor,

okay, they're using AI. It's not going to make,

it's not going to build their doctrinal muscles.

It's not going to build their sermon muscles,

their sermon writing muscles. It's not going

to do any of that. And so it's just lazy. But

guess what? Those same people were ripping off

sermons by famous pastors and things long before

AI came along. Those pastors have always existed.

OK, they have. And I have seen those guys. I

have literally watched a guy preach a sermon

that I heard Mark Driscoll preach years beforehand.

And word for word, he ripped off the sermon to

the point of he even used Mark Driscoll's personal

stories that he used in the end. He used to mess

his own. And yes, I did call the guy out, not,

of course, during the during the sermon. But

afterwards, I did. So, yeah, I do not agree with

those types of things. Now, I'm getting off track,

but I just wanted to because the question was

asked, I wanted to put that out there. But our

view. Our Christian view of humanity is so important

when it comes to AI, because we're not machines.

We're made in God's image. People matter. And

how we engage with AI affects everything. How

we're made in God's image, all of the things.

And so our love for others should shape. So let

me say like this, actually. Our love for others

and specifically the gospel of Jesus Christ and

the scriptures Should shape how we use technology

And even how we influence its development, which

brings me to my next point. Okay What do I mean

by how we influence its development? Well ai

is not ethically neutral ai reflects the ethics

and the biases of its designers it's being used

in everything from Job hiring it's hard to get

a job by the way anymore because you have to

you've got to apply online and and and I understand

it it's allowing for HR People to be able to

have gatekeepers that are just robots That they

don't have to review physically review resumes

that are already just they don't meet the minimum

requirement So I get it, but it's really hard

because sometimes if you do not have the right

Keywords in your resume it will automatically

get rejected because people are using AI for

hiring. Law enforcement's using AI to predict

criminal behavior. If those who program AI, if

they operate with flawed and relativistic ethics,

what do I mean by that? relativistic ethics being

that all things are relative. It doesn't really

matter. There is no morals. It's just what I

feel. It's the whole thing of there is no truth,

only your truth. If there is no standard of good,

then it's relativist and that's dangerous. And

so if the people who create AI are operating

under those flawed relativistic ethics and belief

systems, it will be baked into the machines.

It will be baked into AI and the stuff that it

puts out. And so as John Lennox, who's a famous

apologist, I love him. He's also a world renowned

mathematics brain. He is at Oxford. He is amazing.

He's my favorite apologist. But John Lennox,

he points this out. Biased ethics produced biased

AI. That's what he said. Biased ethics produced

produces biased AI. So, Christians, we need a

seat at the table. We need to ask questions.

We need to guide development of AI. Otherwise,

we risk creating tools that amplify and dehumanize

instead of reflecting God's image. And so, as

I've kind of pointed out, not all AI, like, AI

isn't all bad. It can help us. It's just like

any other tool. We're not gonna be afraid of

all technology. At some point, the tractor was

technology, okay? And so we can adapt to technology

and with technology, but we have to be smart

and discerning on how we use it and what it's

doing and how it's shaping us. And so I use ChatGPT,

like I said, for helping me write emails, to

thinking of words for different things, to grammar.

And so it's a tool. I've used, those things have

been in like basic Word document stuff for quite

a long time. Why do I drop it into ChatGPT? Because

Will then go through my entire thing in one fell

swoop as opposed to me clicking one at a time

at a time at a time and so I Don't think AI is

all bad. I think it can be very dangerous I think

that it needs it's What's the word that I want

to look for here? I think it needs you know some

sort of safeguards, if you will. I think that

it's a tool that should be used, again, with

discernment, but it should not ever be a crutch.

And so I think it should supplement, not substitute.

Again, when it comes to sermon writings, it should

supplement, it should not substitute. If you

don't have any solid biblical knowledge, you

should not ever rely on AI to give you or help

you with your faith. OK, it pulls from the Internet,

like I said, so it's going to pull errors. You

should do the work. You should study the word.

Use AI as a helper, but not the master. So should

we be afraid of AI? No. Should we be cautious?

Absolutely, we should be cautious. Is it the

mark of the beast? As some kind of some claim

now I said earlier III roll at that because it

is not really briefly Why can I say that? Because

you have to understand what the mark of the beast

is the mark of the beast in the end times They

willingly take it. They aren't tricked It is

a willing mark put upon you that you are against

God It is not something you are tricked into

period Just read Revelation man like that that's

That's what it's about and so everything that

comes out of this is the mark of the beast and

if you're not careful You're gonna get the mark

of the beast. No, it's not gonna trick you It's

not meant to be it's meant to be a legitimate

Middle finger if you will to God Not I accidentally

asked Chad deep GPT for a recipe on how to make

bread And now all of a sudden, oh my gosh, I've

got the mark of the beast. Like, that's just

lunacy. And anyone who says things like that

doesn't know the Bible. As a matter of fact,

they're probably using Chad GPT in regards to

the mark of the beast and all that other craziness

and writing these ridiculous things. So no, it's

not the mark of the beast or anything like that.

Like any tool, as I've said, AI shapes us. And

so whether we realize it or not, it does. And

so the way that we handle it reveals a lot about

our hearts, our values and our faith. All right.

I hope that's helpful. That went longer than

I planned on it to, but I hope it was helpful.

Thanks for listening. I hope this gives you a

framework, though, on how to think about AI as

a Christian. And I hope that you use it wisely.

I hope that you love others, that you use it

to honor God, to love others and and remember

like Technology is powerful, and I think we should

use it for the sake of the gospel to go forward,

but it's never a replacement for the Creator.

That being said, hope you have a great rest of

your week. I can't wait to see you on Sunday.

If you live in and around the O 'Neill area,

would love to have you on Sunday mornings. Services

start at 10 .45. If you've got questions, feel

free to leave them here. Next week, I'm actually

gonna be... answering a bunch of different questions,

ones that I felt like I could answer pretty easily

and they wouldn't make for one big episode. And

so it's going to be kind of a mailbag, if you

will. But if you do have questions, feel free

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Have a great rest of your week. Bye bye.