I am currently in a doctoral program, studying semiotics—cultural symbols—which requires a great deal of reading. Probably the greatest benefit of an education is the wise guide (teacher) who can give a curated tour of the best there is in any given subject, and such is the case with this program. Dr. Leonard Sweet has opened the door to an entire world of scholars and theologians who look beneath the surface of things and reveal mysteries. Now I would like to open that world to you.
One of the really wonderful advances of science is the concept of the laboratory. This is the place for questions, for experimentation, for rejoicing over mistakes as well as successes, because it is all new data. New data informs. The Church does not have a laboratory mentality even though this was Paul’s very instruction. So much for the literal reading of the scriptures, huh?
“Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged”
1 Corinthians 14:29-31 NIV (italics added)
Everyone gets to speak—ask questions, offer insights, prophesy, pontificate, you name it—and the others weigh, carefully, all that is said. In this way, everyone is instructed, and everyone also encouraged.
Everyone.
Those who ask, and those who answer. If the Church is not like this, then the Church is not carrying on in Paul’s tradition.
Set Apart
My first, visceral, reaction is that the early church abstained from quite a bit of their culture’s activities, in fact insisted upon it to all would-be Christians, but they went in deep to minister to those caught up in the wreckage of their culture’s ways.
Celibacy
They were not sexually profligate, quite the opposite, as celibacy really took off among Christians. But they took in everyone tossed to the curb by sexual profligacy—the unwanted babies, the sex workers, the enslaved.
Pacifism
Christians literally turned the other cheek so hard they routinely ended up in prison or the arena. They were not investing in the latest weapon technology or flocking to self-defense classes. In fact, nonviolence was one of their signatures. But they did visit those in prison, mended those who had been violently assaulted, and cared for the sick and dying, even when every other sensible person in their culture left such for dead.
Asceticism
Christians in the first three centuries did not pursue wealth, they sold themselves into slavery to help feed, clothe, and shelter the brethren and sistren. If they had wealthy, they famously gave it all away.
Set Apart and AI
As a Christian, as a primitive restorationist in some ways, that is my current stance on AI. I do use it, as everyone who uses a computer must. I have autocorrect, I search for information online, I use Word’s dictate, and I have even asked Canva to create a number of images for me. But I draw a very conservative line when it comes to engaging with AI. I prefer to be there as a lay counselor to men and tend to those who find themselves in the wreckage of lost or strained relationships, identity dysphoria, and obsessive relational intimacy with their AI avatar.
I am actively, consciously seeking to remain as neutral as I can be on others’ choice to engage at higher levels with AI. Why create whole new categories for sin? We have a hard enough time dealing with all the categories for sin we already have. I can love people who are enamored with AI and think it is the next best thing since sliced bread (which, seriously, was apparently a cultural game-changer. Who knew).
I accept that my age, and therefore my years of experience living in a world without AI, or cell phones, or laptops and Ebooks and iPads, and so on was like.
- I remember when people had to engage with each other when standing in a line, or when people created cult happenings around beloved movies which they all had to travel to the local theater to enjoy.
- I remember when “going to church” meant traveling in real time to an actual location to worship with other people.
- I remember when getting a phone call happened in one’s home, and only when someone else was not already on the phone. Message machines came later.
- The television was a family appliance, and required negotiation to view one’s favorite show. For which one had to be at home at the proper time to see. Taping a show came later.
- Buying a vinyl record album was a Big Deal.
- Picture albums contained actual photographs that had been processed at the local drugstore. I was twelve when the first Polaroid instant film camera rolled off the assembly line.
So, my perspective sees AI as having the potential of a combination of Hal (Space Odyssey: 2001) and the serpent of Genesis 1, with maybe a healthy dollop of Genesis 11’s Tower of Babelthrown in. Human beings were created for relationship. Our highest calling is to be the display of God’s glory and to be fully enjoyed by God, which we were, however briefly, in Genesis 2, and are now being reclaimed, redeemed, and reformed to be forever.
You are Loved, No Matter What
So the first sentence the church needs to learn to say is “You are loved, no matter what.” The second sentence is “We will be here with you and for you, as the expression of God’s love.”
If an avatar outgrew my beloved, I would bury it with my beloved. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is a sweet love story, in its way, but a tragic one, too. That is not living right here, right now, on this earth with all its inhabitants. That is living forever in the the world of imagination to the exclusion of physical life.
Every introvert thinks that would be the best ever. It is not.
One of the themes throughout this book that came unexpectedly for me, that of love. I have begun saying to people “God is love. and the nature of love is not exclusive but inclusive.” Any person who has ever loved knows this intuitively. So if a person loves science and loves scripture (I love both), then they will be inclusive, not exclusive, in their approach to both. They will be a family.
Solving the World’s Problems
One member of my cohort wrote: “a lot of confusion comes from trying to force one domain to solve the problems of another.”
Maybe, sometimes, we can get wonderful discoveries from that sort of cross pollination, but we keep in mind that neither is meant to focus on the other. Yes, the authors introduced a great metaphor, kind of a Romans 1 metaphor, that we have two books about God in the Bible and in nature. They cover two different subjects, but the truths they contain will harmonize. Thing is, we do not have all the pages read of the book of nature, and we do not have all the pages fully understood in the Bible. So, it stands to reason, they are not always going to make sense together for us.
