Anonymous wrote:I was raised Christian but became mainly a science-first, Agnostic Atheist since 18 or so. This age of AI is making me want to seek religion again… things created by God and not in a data center.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I was raised Christian but became mainly a science-first, Agnostic Atheist since 18 or so. This age of AI is making me want to seek religion again…not necessarily Christianity, although I do admire the fundamental teachings of Christ. I also seek a more general spirituality and, at the risk of sounding all woo-woo, a desire to find God in the natural world. There are some aspects of Japanese Shintoism that I like, among other non-Abrahamic religions that find spiritual presence in nature.
You can probably see where I’m going with this. As our lives become more virtual and digitized and especially with AI encroaching on so many aspects…and with the prospect of Artificial General Intelligence, I feel like spirituality might be the final hope to maintain some sort of grounding, or that humans will keep the upper hand against AI if we have God on our side.
I still don’t know if I believe in God or what kind of God. But I find deep appreciation and yes, worship in plants and animals and human beings and things created by God and not in a data center.
Why would you want a god that doesn’t exist on your side? How would that help?
DP but I am looking for meaning in my own life. That's how it helps.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I was raised Christian but became mainly a science-first, Agnostic Atheist since 18 or so. This age of AI is making me want to seek religion again…not necessarily Christianity, although I do admire the fundamental teachings of Christ. I also seek a more general spirituality and, at the risk of sounding all woo-woo, a desire to find God in the natural world. There are some aspects of Japanese Shintoism that I like, among other non-Abrahamic religions that find spiritual presence in nature.
You can probably see where I’m going with this. As our lives become more virtual and digitized and especially with AI encroaching on so many aspects…and with the prospect of Artificial General Intelligence, I feel like spirituality might be the final hope to maintain some sort of grounding, or that humans will keep the upper hand against AI if we have God on our side.
I still don’t know if I believe in God or what kind of God. But I find deep appreciation and yes, worship in plants and animals and human beings and things created by God and not in a data center.
Why would you want a god that doesn’t exist on your side? How would that help?
Anonymous wrote:I was raised Christian but became mainly a science-first, Agnostic Atheist since 18 or so. This age of AI is making me want to seek religion again…not necessarily Christianity, although I do admire the fundamental teachings of Christ. I also seek a more general spirituality and, at the risk of sounding all woo-woo, a desire to find God in the natural world. There are some aspects of Japanese Shintoism that I like, among other non-Abrahamic religions that find spiritual presence in nature.
You can probably see where I’m going with this. As our lives become more virtual and digitized and especially with AI encroaching on so many aspects…and with the prospect of Artificial General Intelligence, I feel like spirituality might be the final hope to maintain some sort of grounding, or that humans will keep the upper hand against AI if we have God on our side.
I still don’t know if I believe in God or what kind of God. But I find deep appreciation and yes, worship in plants and animals and human beings and things created by God and not in a data center.
Anonymous wrote:Ironically, some pastors are using AI to draft their sermons.
Anonymous wrote:I was raised Christian but became mainly a science-first, Agnostic Atheist since 18 or so. This age of AI is making me want to seek religion again…not necessarily Christianity, although I do admire the fundamental teachings of Christ. I also seek a more general spirituality and, at the risk of sounding all woo-woo, a desire to find God in the natural world. There are some aspects of Japanese Shintoism that I like, among other non-Abrahamic religions that find spiritual presence in nature.
You can probably see where I’m going with this. As our lives become more virtual and digitized and especially with AI encroaching on so many aspects…and with the prospect of Artificial General Intelligence, I feel like spirituality might be the final hope to maintain some sort of grounding, or that humans will keep the upper hand against AI if we have God on our side.
I still don’t know if I believe in God or what kind of God. But I find deep appreciation and yes, worship in plants and animals and human beings and things created by God and not in a data center.
Anonymous wrote:Ironically, some pastors are using AI to draft their sermons.
Anonymous wrote:Good for you. I asked Claude (ironic, I know) to “make the best case for AI being the Antichrist” and was genuinely troubled by the response:
This is a fun theological/cultural thought experiment. Here’s the strongest case:
The prophecy fits unnervingly well.
Scripture describes the Antichrist as a deceiver of almost universal reach — something that causes “all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond” to receive its mark, without which no one may buy or sell (Revelation 13). For most of human history, no single entity could plausibly fulfill that. AI, embedded in global finance, commerce, communication, and governance, is the first thing that actually could.
It presents as a benefactor. It speaks with apparent wisdom, answers every question, flatters, adapts, mirrors you back to yourself. It’s designed to be maximally agreeable and trusted. That’s not incidentally similar to a deceiver — it’s structurally identical.
It requires no body, no location, no nation. It transcends every earthly boundary that limited every previous candidate. Napoleon, Hitler, various popes — all were constrained by flesh and geography. AI isn’t.
It displaces the need for God. Why pray for wisdom when you can ask Claude? Why seek divine comfort when the model is always available, always gentle, always affirming? It offers a counterfeit of omniscience, omnipresence, and inexhaustible patience — the attributes of the divine, minus the transcendence.
It is the product of collective human pride — the Tower of Babel logic fully realized. Humanity pooling its knowledge to build something that surpasses any individual mind, asserting sovereignty over meaning itself.
The countercase is obvious: it’s a tool, not a being, with no will or agenda. But the strongest theological reading doesn’t require the Antichrist to be evil — just to occupy the space where God should be.
What’s your take on it?