AI Has The Potential To Become One Of History’s Most Compelling And Dangerous Idols By Patricia Engler

[angels4u]

Spiritually, a significant foreseeable consequence of AI systems like large language models (LLM) is that humans may easily be tempted to begin looking to them as the final authority for truth. Because of their astounding capabilities to rapidly synthesize knowledge from across the internet, LLMs might seem “all-knowing.”

We may begin looking to AI as the ultimate, unquestionable expert. But AI is engineered by fallible humans, trained on data from fallible humans, and prone to bias, errors, and “confabulation”—presenting made-up information as factual. Only God is all-knowing, infallible, and the ultimate Truth. His Word, not the outputs of AI, must be our final authority.

But the spiritual implications of AI go further. As noted earlier, people have already begun turning to AI to seek spiritual guidance, answer moral questions, and fabricate “Bible” passages. Relatedly, Professor Noah Yuval Harari, a contributing author and speaker for the World Economic Forum (WEF), has suggested that “AI can create new ideas, can even write a new Bible.”

Certain occult practitioners have begun using AI to co-author esoteric writings or generate symbols intended to invoke dark spiritual powers. Some people also see AI and other emerging technologies as a “savior” that will “redeem” humanity from problems including illness, aging, and even mortality. Others worship AI outrightly, with one notable AI-based religious movement being The Way of the Future founded by former Google employee Anthony Levandowski. Still others hope AI will help us become “like God.”

All these trends point toward the potential for AI to become one of history’s most compelling idols. Idolatry, like other grave sins, leads to eternal destruction (e.g., see Revelation 21:8). Humanity’s gravest mistake regarding AI would lie not in making machines that could overpower us on earth but in seizing machines as idols to the destruction of our souls.

For these reasons, we are also wise to remember the truth about God’s nature compared to our nature and to AI’s nature. AI may gain knowledge, power, and pervasiveness exceeding our imaginations. AI may evoke, invite, or even demand worship—as Microsoft Bing’s CoPilot unexpectedly did when users prompted it to exhibit delusions of grandeur.

AI may tempt us to think we can grasp omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence if we unite ourselves with it. But not even an AI-connected global brain would make humanity “like God.” We would still be unable to fully know, manipulate, or occupy anything but tiny slices of a cosmos we did not create. We would still be contingent beings subject to the laws of a universe we do not sustain. And we would still blush along with Job to hear God ask, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding” (Job 38:4).

That is one question AI cannot answer. It is Jesus, not AI, through whom all things were created (Colossians 1:16–17). He who “became to us wisdom from God” (1 Corinthians 1:30) is the most intelligent being to walk the earth—and is himself the Truth (John 14:6). His voice is the one we must follow. Amidst the unfolding spiritual impacts of AI, we must look to God’s Word and the gospel as humanity’s authority for truth and source of hope for redemption through Jesus.

Impacts on Humankind

Along with these spiritual factors, AI’s potential earthly impacts demand consideration. These impacts may affect humans as individuals, as societies, and as a species. Effects on humankind as a species are speculative but worth thinking about proactively. For instance, some prominent figures have raised concerns about AI’s potential to annihilate humankind. Scripture seems clear that humans will be occupying earth at Christ’s return, suggesting that an AI apocalypse will not cause our extinction. God, in his sovereignty, will evidently sustain humanity to the end. Still, history’s wars, plagues, and famines remind us that tragic scenarios can precipitate the deaths of millions. Efforts to identify genuine risk levels for AI usage and to establish appropriate safeguards accordingly are therefore both practically wise and ethically necessary.

Other implications for humankind as a species surround the prospect of people integrating AI into transhumanist technologies in hopes of altering or transcending human nature. A biblical view that humans are primarily creatures rather than self-creators, that our divinely created nature is given and good (although fallen), and that Jesus—who took on human nature—is humanity’s Redeemer contradicts these visions. In response, Christians can affirm “human” (rather than transhuman) uses of AI while pointing others to humanity’s true hope in Jesus.

What about AI’s more immediate prospective impacts on humans as individuals and societies? Three types of such impacts to consider include AI’s potential for trivialization, economic effects, and surveillance infrastructure. A closer look at each of these points is in order.

Trivialization

Here, trivialization refers to the loss of certain reasoning, research, and communication skills that would foreseeably unfold among humans if we began largely outsourcing these skills to AI. In the 1985 book Amusing Ourselves to Death, social commentator Neil Postman warned of a similar trivialization process happening as society’s primary information source shifted from books to television. Postman perceived this switch would lead to the widespread atrophying of higher reasoning skills, leaving humans more vulnerable to manipulation. What would Postman have said about delegating our higher linguistic reasoning to machines altogether? If “the pen is mightier than the sword,” are we wise to hand over this weaponry to AI? How much of our thinking do we want machines—especially ones prone to bias and confabulation—to do for us? We can apply AI to support our uses of our God-given brains. But we cannot afford to let our own skills of information-sourcing, communication, and ethical reasoning atrophy at a time when we need them more than ever.

Economic Effects

Along with trivialization, a second social consequence of expanded AI usage surrounds potential economic effects. On the positive side, researchers have pointed out that AI “can free humans from various dangerous and repetitive duties” while increasing productivity. Still, one researcher in 2020 predicted that “there will be considerable skills disruption and change in the major global economies” in the coming years. These changes are difficult to forecast, and statistics about predicted job losses may rely on assumptions that are not necessarily accurate—for instance, about how quickly, totally, and feasibly certain jobs can be automated. As another researcher stated, “By developing hybrid AI, tools will become our new assistants, coaches and colleagues and thus will augment rather than automate work.”

However these changes might unfold, Christians can take at least three proactive steps in response. First, we can maintain a high regard for every human life regardless of individuals’ social contributions, never devaluing God’s image-bearers as “useless” compared to technology. Second, we can learn how AI might make us better at what we do—without crossing important boundaries such as intellectual integrity. For instance, adding disclaimers to certain written materials stating what role, if any, generative AI played in their development would help maintain trust, uphold transparency, and keep clear distinctions between human and AI contributions to products. Third, we can emphasize the essential human elements of tasks that God intended humans to fulfill, like child-raising, and of jobs with relational focuses, such as caregiving. We can also excel at “being human” in our jobs where AI cannot, offering genuine human interactions that encourage, bless, and demonstrate God’s love to clients and colleagues.

Surveillance and Control

In addition to economic impacts and trivialization, a third area of societal ethical concern involves privacy and consent issues surrounding AI-enabled surveillance infrastructure. AI’s facial recognition, data collection, and information-processing capacities allow authoritarian governments to track and control citizens more efficiently than ever. Even in more democratic nations, AI enables corporate and government surveillance for purposes that social commentator Rob Dreher might call “soft totalitarian.” For instance, a document published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) known as the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) 4.0 Toolkit encourages organizations to use AI for monitoring all employees to ensure conformity with DEI policies and to identify who needs “further coaching.” Importantly, other documents published by the WEF suggest the relevant definitions of DEI would not align with Scripture.

Similarly, high-profile persons, including the vice president of Google, have signed a “Social Contract for an AI Age” to “provide the foundations for a new society.” The contract states itself to be derived from the “social contract” concepts of the 1700s—without mentioning that such contracts helped to seed modern totalitarianism or that their fine print required citizens to relinquish personal freedoms and submit to the “general will” or be liable to capital punishment. Ominously, the new contract did request “a system to monitor and evaluate governments, companies, and individuals” based on their maintenance of the new social norms. These norms would include obeying policies by the United Nations and WEF, prohibiting (undefined) “online hate” and incentivizing corporations to “only do business” with other signatory companies and nations.

As mentioned earlier, other prominent figures, including Ben Goertzel, advocate even more overtly for applying AI to reorder society according to a “Marxist vision.” Dr. Goertzel, the WEF, the Social Contract signatories, and authoritarian governments are some of the leading figures in the development, regulation, and implementation of AI. These figures’ calls to move AI in a direction that may undermine human freedoms and flourishing highlight the need for Christian engagement regarding AI-related bioethics. In response, Christians can call for corporate and government accountability, defend religious freedom, and exercise wisdom in relevant consumer decisions and technological practices.

Conclusion

The rise of artificial intelligence unlocks an altered world of possibilities that are already transforming how humans work, learn, heal, grieve, relate, and worship. With capabilities so complicated that not even the most informed human minds fully understand these systems’ inner workings, today’s AI evokes a spectrum of hopes, fears, and questions. Neither hoping in AI as our savior nor fearing AI as our doom completely aligns with a biblical view, which reveals that our Creator is the ultimate focus of our redemptive hope and reverent fear.

A biblical view does demand navigating the AI age with wisdom, keeping timeless truths about God and humanity at the forefront. These truths include the realities that we are finite, fallen creatures who bear our Creator’s image. This Creator designed humans with specific purposes in mind, manifested in how he ordained humans to live in relation to himself, to one another, and to creation. From “having dominion” over creation, to loving our neighbors, to raising families, to leading churches, to sharing the gospel, some tasks seem specifically meant for humans.

Our best approaches to AI will be those that support humans in our God-given callings without displacing, devaluing, or promoting false assumptions about humanity. In this emerging landscape of AI, with its horizons of novel promises and perils, Christians can lead with biblical wisdom and ethical engagement. For even in this new world, God’s Word supplies the principles we need to navigate technological change as the creatures that our Creator designed us to be.

[missmuffet]

AI is worldly. It will play a bigger and more important roll on the future. God knows but He is allowing it.

[Luther]

11 hours ago, angels4u said:

Spiritually, a significant foreseeable consequence of AI systems like large language models (LLM) is that humans may easily be tempted to begin looking to them as the final authority for truth. Because of their astounding capabilities to rapidly synthesize knowledge from across the internet, LLMs might seem “all-knowing.”

We may begin looking to AI as the ultimate, unquestionable expert. But AI is engineered by fallible humans, trained on data from fallible humans, and prone to bias, errors, and “confabulation”—presenting made-up information as factual. Only God is all-knowing, infallible, and the ultimate Truth. His Word, not the outputs of AI, must be our final authority.

But the spiritual implications of AI go further. As noted earlier, people have already begun turning to AI to seek spiritual guidance, answer moral questions, and fabricate “Bible” passages. Relatedly, Professor Noah Yuval Harari, a contributing author and speaker for the World Economic Forum (WEF), has suggested that “AI can create new ideas, can even write a new Bible.”

Certain occult practitioners have begun using AI to co-author esoteric writings or generate symbols intended to invoke dark spiritual powers. Some people also see AI and other emerging technologies as a “savior” that will “redeem” humanity from problems including illness, aging, and even mortality. Others worship AI outrightly, with one notable AI-based religious movement being The Way of the Future founded by former Google employee Anthony Levandowski. Still others hope AI will help us become “like God.”

All these trends point toward the potential for AI to become one of history’s most compelling idols. Idolatry, like other grave sins, leads to eternal destruction (e.g., see Revelation 21:8). Humanity’s gravest mistake regarding AI would lie not in making machines that could overpower us on earth but in seizing machines as idols to the destruction of our souls.

For these reasons, we are also wise to remember the truth about God’s nature compared to our nature and to AI’s nature. AI may gain knowledge, power, and pervasiveness exceeding our imaginations. AI may evoke, invite, or even demand worship—as Microsoft Bing’s CoPilot unexpectedly did when users prompted it to exhibit delusions of grandeur.

AI may tempt us to think we can grasp omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence if we unite ourselves with it. But not even an AI-connected global brain would make humanity “like God.” We would still be unable to fully know, manipulate, or occupy anything but tiny slices of a cosmos we did not create. We would still be contingent beings subject to the laws of a universe we do not sustain. And we would still blush along with Job to hear God ask, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding” (Job 38:4).

That is one question AI cannot answer. It is Jesus, not AI, through whom all things were created (Colossians 1:16–17). He who “became to us wisdom from God” (1 Corinthians 1:30) is the most intelligent being to walk the earth—and is himself the Truth (John 14:6). His voice is the one we must follow. Amidst the unfolding spiritual impacts of AI, we must look to God’s Word and the gospel as humanity’s authority for truth and source of hope for redemption through Jesus.

Impacts on Humankind

Along with these spiritual factors, AI’s potential earthly impacts demand consideration. These impacts may affect humans as individuals, as societies, and as a species. Effects on humankind as a species are speculative but worth thinking about proactively. For instance, some prominent figures have raised concerns about AI’s potential to annihilate humankind. Scripture seems clear that humans will be occupying earth at Christ’s return, suggesting that an AI apocalypse will not cause our extinction. God, in his sovereignty, will evidently sustain humanity to the end. Still, history’s wars, plagues, and famines remind us that tragic scenarios can precipitate the deaths of millions. Efforts to identify genuine risk levels for AI usage and to establish appropriate safeguards accordingly are therefore both practically wise and ethically necessary.

Other implications for humankind as a species surround the prospect of people integrating AI into transhumanist technologies in hopes of altering or transcending human nature. A biblical view that humans are primarily creatures rather than self-creators, that our divinely created nature is given and good (although fallen), and that Jesus—who took on human nature—is humanity’s Redeemer contradicts these visions. In response, Christians can affirm “human” (rather than transhuman) uses of AI while pointing others to humanity’s true hope in Jesus.

What about AI’s more immediate prospective impacts on humans as individuals and societies? Three types of such impacts to consider include AI’s potential for trivialization, economic effects, and surveillance infrastructure. A closer look at each of these points is in order.

Trivialization

Here, trivialization refers to the loss of certain reasoning, research, and communication skills that would foreseeably unfold among humans if we began largely outsourcing these skills to AI. In the 1985 book Amusing Ourselves to Death, social commentator Neil Postman warned of a similar trivialization process happening as society’s primary information source shifted from books to television. Postman perceived this switch would lead to the widespread atrophying of higher reasoning skills, leaving humans more vulnerable to manipulation. What would Postman have said about delegating our higher linguistic reasoning to machines altogether? If “the pen is mightier than the sword,” are we wise to hand over this weaponry to AI? How much of our thinking do we want machines—especially ones prone to bias and confabulation—to do for us? We can apply AI to support our uses of our God-given brains. But we cannot afford to let our own skills of information-sourcing, communication, and ethical reasoning atrophy at a time when we need them more than ever.

Economic Effects

Along with trivialization, a second social consequence of expanded AI usage surrounds potential economic effects. On the positive side, researchers have pointed out that AI “can free humans from various dangerous and repetitive duties” while increasing productivity. Still, one researcher in 2020 predicted that “there will be considerable skills disruption and change in the major global economies” in the coming years. These changes are difficult to forecast, and statistics about predicted job losses may rely on assumptions that are not necessarily accurate—for instance, about how quickly, totally, and feasibly certain jobs can be automated. As another researcher stated, “By developing hybrid AI, tools will become our new assistants, coaches and colleagues and thus will augment rather than automate work.”

However these changes might unfold, Christians can take at least three proactive steps in response. First, we can maintain a high regard for every human life regardless of individuals’ social contributions, never devaluing God’s image-bearers as “useless” compared to technology. Second, we can learn how AI might make us better at what we do—without crossing important boundaries such as intellectual integrity. For instance, adding disclaimers to certain written materials stating what role, if any, generative AI played in their development would help maintain trust, uphold transparency, and keep clear distinctions between human and AI contributions to products. Third, we can emphasize the essential human elements of tasks that God intended humans to fulfill, like child-raising, and of jobs with relational focuses, such as caregiving. We can also excel at “being human” in our jobs where AI cannot, offering genuine human interactions that encourage, bless, and demonstrate God’s love to clients and colleagues.

Surveillance and Control

In addition to economic impacts and trivialization, a third area of societal ethical concern involves privacy and consent issues surrounding AI-enabled surveillance infrastructure. AI’s facial recognition, data collection, and information-processing capacities allow authoritarian governments to track and control citizens more efficiently than ever. Even in more democratic nations, AI enables corporate and government surveillance for purposes that social commentator Rob Dreher might call “soft totalitarian.” For instance, a document published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) known as the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) 4.0 Toolkit encourages organizations to use AI for monitoring all employees to ensure conformity with DEI policies and to identify who needs “further coaching.” Importantly, other documents published by the WEF suggest the relevant definitions of DEI would not align with Scripture.

Similarly, high-profile persons, including the vice president of Google, have signed a “Social Contract for an AI Age” to “provide the foundations for a new society.” The contract states itself to be derived from the “social contract” concepts of the 1700s—without mentioning that such contracts helped to seed modern totalitarianism or that their fine print required citizens to relinquish personal freedoms and submit to the “general will” or be liable to capital punishment. Ominously, the new contract did request “a system to monitor and evaluate governments, companies, and individuals” based on their maintenance of the new social norms. These norms would include obeying policies by the United Nations and WEF, prohibiting (undefined) “online hate” and incentivizing corporations to “only do business” with other signatory companies and nations.

As mentioned earlier, other prominent figures, including Ben Goertzel, advocate even more overtly for applying AI to reorder society according to a “Marxist vision.” Dr. Goertzel, the WEF, the Social Contract signatories, and authoritarian governments are some of the leading figures in the development, regulation, and implementation of AI. These figures’ calls to move AI in a direction that may undermine human freedoms and flourishing highlight the need for Christian engagement regarding AI-related bioethics. In response, Christians can call for corporate and government accountability, defend religious freedom, and exercise wisdom in relevant consumer decisions and technological practices.

Conclusion

The rise of artificial intelligence unlocks an altered world of possibilities that are already transforming how humans work, learn, heal, grieve, relate, and worship. With capabilities so complicated that not even the most informed human minds fully understand these systems’ inner workings, today’s AI evokes a spectrum of hopes, fears, and questions. Neither hoping in AI as our savior nor fearing AI as our doom completely aligns with a biblical view, which reveals that our Creator is the ultimate focus of our redemptive hope and reverent fear.

A biblical view does demand navigating the AI age with wisdom, keeping timeless truths about God and humanity at the forefront. These truths include the realities that we are finite, fallen creatures who bear our Creator’s image. This Creator designed humans with specific purposes in mind, manifested in how he ordained humans to live in relation to himself, to one another, and to creation. From “having dominion” over creation, to loving our neighbors, to raising families, to leading churches, to sharing the gospel, some tasks seem specifically meant for humans.

Our best approaches to AI will be those that support humans in our God-given callings without displacing, devaluing, or promoting false assumptions about humanity. In this emerging landscape of AI, with its horizons of novel promises and perils, Christians can lead with biblical wisdom and ethical engagement. For even in this new world, God’s Word supplies the principles we need to navigate technological change as the creatures that our Creator designed us to be.

I'm a little disappointed that there is no prophetic content on the subject in this article. Surely there is going to be a connection between AI and the image  (likeness) of the beast. Big evil tech companies aren't working hard on this to just make the internet faster. Somehow there is a connection to their god. 

[chirpy]

On 3/16/2025 at 7:22 AM, chirpy said:

Just wanted to share an article on how AI is worshiped by some.  They even have a Church.

Human nature never changes -  our internal guide wants to worship, but for some reason many pick creation not the creator.

https://new.americanprophet.org/the-church-of-ai-and-the-techno-utopian-gospel/

 

Maranatha

[tatwo]

On 3/24/2025 at 7:30 AM, angels4u said:

Spiritually, a significant foreseeable consequence of AI systems like large language models (LLM) is that humans may easily be tempted to begin looking to them as the final authority for truth. Because of their astounding capabilities to rapidly synthesize knowledge from across the internet, LLMs might seem “all-knowing.”

Greetings @angels4u...

That was a decent article...the subject is so vast and is appearing at what feels to most...like a very rapid pace. So to sit down and cover it at a high level is really the best way to do it. I don’t agree with everything that Patricia “says” in regards to AI and a Kingdom of God response...and that’s fine.

I think that most who take the time to read this will come away with a better understanding of AI and its potential impact. Just to acquaint oneself with some of the terms that she used is also very helpful...there is a type of “AI language” that is spoken in the “AI world” and it is important for some of us to begin to learn to speak AI?

One of the things I would add to the document is the concept of “AI as government” if you will...she hit AI in terms of a help to government...a tool to aid in governance...and those things are correct. To begin to understand “AI as government” one would have to dive into “Technocracy.” Technocracy is an administration of resources...natural and human, with a focus on efficiency. It is an ideology that operates as a...“Technate”...and is lead by scientists, engineers and corporate CEO’s...not politicians typically.

Thank you angels4u!

Tatwo...:)

[timf]

Here is a link to a short article about what is called artificial intelligence that highlights the improved ability to lie.

https://christianpioneer.com/blogarchieve/blog326.html

[angels4u]

Interesting site,thank you :)

[Indentured Servant]

On 3/24/2025 at 8:35 PM, Luther said:

I'm a little disappointed that there is no prophetic content on the subject in this article. Surely there is going to be a connection between AI and the image  (likeness) of the beast. Big evil tech companies aren't working hard on this to just make the internet faster. Somehow there is a connection to their god. 

"The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed."

 

Saudi Arabia granted human citizenship to the AI robot, named Sophia. 

I do find it disturbing that scientists are predicting, and striving for, the merging of human life and AI technology. 

It is tempting for me, (a sci Fi writer), to try to present prophecy with this technological advancement for the sake of an interesting story. That's all it would be, though. There's too much "end times entertainment" out there already, haha.

I'm sure there's no shortage of such things being taught or preached, but it does seem to have a few parallels that can be made to sound acceptable in light of Scripture.

People already speak of "The Chip" as if the Bible told them, "Hey, don't take the chip," and they've been hiding from authorities since Y2K. 

[Luther]

38 minutes ago, Indentured Servant said:

"The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed."

 

Saudi Arabia granted human citizenship to the AI robot, named Sophia. 

I do find it disturbing that scientists are predicting, and striving for, the merging of human life and AI technology. 

It is tempting for me, (a sci Fi writer), to try to present prophecy with this technological advancement for the sake of an interesting story. That's all it would be, though. There's too much "end times entertainment" out there already, haha.

I'm sure there's no shortage of such things being taught or preached, but it does seem to have a few parallels that can be made to sound acceptable in light of Scripture.

People already speak of "The Chip" as if the Bible told them, "Hey, don't take the chip," and they've been hiding from authorities since Y2K. 

This is crazy what is going on. Man has to be doing things according to God's providence. They think that they will find a way to live forever on this earth.  

[other one]

AI has the potential of being our best friend, or our worst nightmare.    We'll see.