Monday, June 12, 2023

It is the 12th of June, 2023. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org, I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Happy Monday and all that. I’m sorry that last Monday, I expressed dismay at my Angels baseball team not being very good. After a week of a few wins, I have changed my mind, we are going to win the World Series.

Ok- James in Washington Court House Ohio wrote. And yes, that’s the name of the town- I checked it out. Technically it’s just Washington, but there were too many places in Ohio called Washington, so they designated it as the one with the Court House. James tells me it was the home of Randall Adams- the man made famous from the documentary "The Thin Blue Line." And yes, James, I have seen it multiple times- it is so dang good- one of the best of the “wrongfully charged” prison docs.

James asked me about AI- Artificial Intelligence, and the bigger story of technology and the church. Summarizing his question, he asks, “Is A.I. dangerous for the church, and how does it compare to other technologies?” Well, James, I decided to take your question to our AI overlords to see what they had to say… and it was lengthy, but here are a few snippets:

“AI is a technological tool that, like any other technology, can have both positive and negative impacts on the church. It is not inherently dangerous for the church, but the way it is used could have potential implications.”

And

“could potentially have significant implications for the church in areas such as evangelism, community outreach, and discipleship. However, as with any technology, it is essential to consider the potential risks and benefits of AI and to use it in a way that aligns with the church's values and mission." 

James, part of the problem with this question is that I am, with you, living in this part of history and can’t see it from above (as I can, to some extent, with past inventions). Back in 2017, an article in the Atlantic suggested that AI was the biggest challenge to the church since Darwin.

I suppose that is somewhat ironic in that I don’t think Darwin himself necessarily challenged the church, but rather people took what he was doing and extrapolated it towards a kind of secular humanism whereby we are meat bags with firing neurons that will eventually become worm food.

And before that, Copernicus. Copernicus wasn’t anti-God he just thought that maybe we misunderstood the cosmos. Christians, over time, have seen that he was right, and it meant we needed to reconsider our cosmology.  

What we might also fear is that AI is going to take our jobs from us. So I asked my AI app of choice (it’s Bearly- bear, ly, btw) if AI could make a church history podcast- part of its response (AI is wordy, btw, give me a Hemingway Chatbot that cuts out all the unnecessary words).

“While AI is capable of generating grammatically correct and factually accurate information, it does not possess the creativity, originality, and tone of voice of a human producer or host. Additionally, an AI is not capable of responding to human interaction, questions, or feedback in real time. Therefore, while AI could produce a church history podcast, it would likely lack the depth, nuance, and style that a human host could bring to the table.”

Sweet! Ultimately, and this from a historian, not a tech wiz, it seems that, like the Internet itself, AI is as good as its data. A lot is good- Wikipedia is not bad (I often double-check Wikipedia with my normal sources- especially the stuff with external links and footnotes), but it takes wisdom to discern fact from fiction and how to interpret interpretations of facts and their existential significance. This was the same with the printing press before it- a lot of information is not the same as good information, and we risk drowning in a deluge- even more so now.

Ultimately the church is the communion of saints- flesh and blood, not just books or gigabytes of information. As far as where AI is going, I don’t know. I believe human beings have souls and are created in the image of God- and unless God deigns to make something else in his image, I’m not ultimately worried about being replaced in the grand scheme of things. Thanks, James, for giving me an opportunity to read in a different direction this week- you can send me your questions at danv@1517.org

The last word for today comes from Psalm 40- also, the lyrics of an early u2 song:

I waited patiently for the Lord;
    he inclined to me and heard my cry.

He drew me up from the desolate pit,
    out of the miry bog,


and set my feet upon a rock,

    making my steps secure.

He put a new song in my mouth,

    a song of praise to our God.


Many will see and fear,

    and put their trust in the Lord.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 12th of June 2023, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who, well, I suppose we can say now- he’s an automated audio production bot that we have playfully given the name, Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who, according to the chatbot, has an “engaging and informative style…accessible source of information for people interested in church history” cool, also that this podcast is part of the Christian Humanist Radio Network, what?… Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.