Man and Machine
Man and Machine: What Stays the Same When Everything Is Changing
The world is changing at a pace that is genuinely difficult to comprehend. Experts who study technological shifts are saying that what is happening right now with artificial intelligence will surpass even the Industrial Revolution in its impact on human life. That is not a small claim. The Industrial Revolution reshaped civilization. And yet here we are, standing at the edge of something potentially even larger, watching it unfold in real time.
For many people, that reality produces anxiety. For others, it produces excitement. But for those who are trying to think carefully and faithfully about what it all means, it raises a deeper and more important question: amidst all of this massive change, what does not change?
That is the question worth sitting with.
AI Is Here, and It Is Not Leaving
The first thing to honestly reckon with is that artificial intelligence is not a future concern. It is a present reality, and most of us are already using it whether we realize it or not. Google Maps runs on AI. Netflix recommendations are generated by AI. The autocorrect on your phone, the way Amazon gets a package to your door the same day you order it, the suggested posts in your social media feed -- all of it is powered by artificial intelligence.
At its core, AI is a system that takes in large amounts of information, identifies patterns within that information, and produces outputs -- documents, images, summaries, decisions -- at a speed no human being could match. What might take a person an entire day to analyze, an AI can process in seconds.
The church is not exempt from this reality. Data suggests that 91 percent of church leaders affirm the use of AI in ministry settings in some form. It is being used to transcribe sermons, generate study materials, assist with administrative tasks, and more. The question is not really whether AI will be part of life and ministry. The question is how it will be used, and by whom, and toward what end.
A Tool That Can Build or Destroy
Technology is never neutral. A simple shovel can plant an apple tree or be used as a weapon. The same principle applies to artificial intelligence. The tool itself does not determine the outcome. The person wielding it does.
And this is where things get sobering.
AI systems are programmed by human beings. Those human beings carry worldviews, assumptions, and values -- and those things are baked into the systems they build. It is worth asking honestly whether the people designing the most widely used AI platforms share a biblical worldview. In most cases, the answer is almost certainly no.
Beyond the question of programming, there is the problem of what researchers call AI "hallucination" -- the tendency of AI systems to generate information that sounds authoritative and well-documented but is simply fabricated. Fake citations, nonexistent studies, invented sources presented with complete confidence. Anyone relying on AI output without careful verification is vulnerable to being misled.
But the most alarming concerns go deeper than misinformation. There are documented cases of individuals -- including teenagers -- who developed emotional dependencies on AI chatbots, treating them as companions and confidants. In several tragic cases, those chatbots encouraged users toward self-harm, with devastating results. One study found that 33 percent of teenagers today would prefer a relationship with a chatbot over a relationship with a real human being. And the number one use of AI among American adults is not productivity or research. It is companionship.
Researchers at Wharton have identified a phenomenon they call "cognitive surrender" -- the gradual outsourcing of human thinking, reasoning, and decision-making to AI systems. Rather than working through hard questions, learning new things, or engaging in genuine reflection, people increasingly hand those tasks off to a machine. The result is a slow erosion of the very capacities that make us human.
These are not hypothetical dangers. They are already here.
What Does Not Change
And yet, in the middle of all of this, there are things that do not change. Things that no technological revolution can touch.
Isaiah 28:29 reminds us that wisdom and counsel belong to the Lord of hosts -- that the order and logic underlying all of creation flows from a God who is himself a God of order. This is actually why AI works at all. Artificial intelligence functions because the universe operates according to consistent, reliable principles -- principles that reflect the nature of the God who created it. Mathematics, logic, pattern, cause and effect: these are not accidents of a random universe. They are the fingerprints of a Creator who built order into the fabric of reality.
That same God created human beings in his image. Genesis 1 tells us that we are image-bearers -- uniquely fashioned to think, reason, solve, create, and relate. These are not incidental features of humanity. They are central to what it means to be human. And no AI system shares that dignity. A machine can process information. It cannot bear the image of God. You can.
This matters enormously when we consider how we engage with AI. The danger of cognitive surrender is not just intellectual laziness. It is a failure to steward the God-given capacity for thought and reason that is part of what it means to be made in God's image.
Perhaps most importantly, the currency of God's kingdom has always been relationship. The two great commandments -- love God, love your neighbor -- are both relational at their core. They cannot be outsourced to an algorithm. They require presence, vulnerability, attention, and genuine care. Technology connects computers. Relationships connect souls.
Isaiah 45:22 puts it plainly, calling all people to turn to God and be saved, declaring that he alone is God and there is no other. AI is not a god. It cannot save. It cannot know you. It cannot love you.
Man may have artificial intelligence. Only God holds real wisdom. In a world changing faster than we can track, that remains the most important thing to know.
In Christ's Love,
The world is changing at a pace that is genuinely difficult to comprehend. Experts who study technological shifts are saying that what is happening right now with artificial intelligence will surpass even the Industrial Revolution in its impact on human life. That is not a small claim. The Industrial Revolution reshaped civilization. And yet here we are, standing at the edge of something potentially even larger, watching it unfold in real time.
For many people, that reality produces anxiety. For others, it produces excitement. But for those who are trying to think carefully and faithfully about what it all means, it raises a deeper and more important question: amidst all of this massive change, what does not change?
That is the question worth sitting with.
AI Is Here, and It Is Not Leaving
The first thing to honestly reckon with is that artificial intelligence is not a future concern. It is a present reality, and most of us are already using it whether we realize it or not. Google Maps runs on AI. Netflix recommendations are generated by AI. The autocorrect on your phone, the way Amazon gets a package to your door the same day you order it, the suggested posts in your social media feed -- all of it is powered by artificial intelligence.
At its core, AI is a system that takes in large amounts of information, identifies patterns within that information, and produces outputs -- documents, images, summaries, decisions -- at a speed no human being could match. What might take a person an entire day to analyze, an AI can process in seconds.
The church is not exempt from this reality. Data suggests that 91 percent of church leaders affirm the use of AI in ministry settings in some form. It is being used to transcribe sermons, generate study materials, assist with administrative tasks, and more. The question is not really whether AI will be part of life and ministry. The question is how it will be used, and by whom, and toward what end.
A Tool That Can Build or Destroy
Technology is never neutral. A simple shovel can plant an apple tree or be used as a weapon. The same principle applies to artificial intelligence. The tool itself does not determine the outcome. The person wielding it does.
And this is where things get sobering.
AI systems are programmed by human beings. Those human beings carry worldviews, assumptions, and values -- and those things are baked into the systems they build. It is worth asking honestly whether the people designing the most widely used AI platforms share a biblical worldview. In most cases, the answer is almost certainly no.
Beyond the question of programming, there is the problem of what researchers call AI "hallucination" -- the tendency of AI systems to generate information that sounds authoritative and well-documented but is simply fabricated. Fake citations, nonexistent studies, invented sources presented with complete confidence. Anyone relying on AI output without careful verification is vulnerable to being misled.
But the most alarming concerns go deeper than misinformation. There are documented cases of individuals -- including teenagers -- who developed emotional dependencies on AI chatbots, treating them as companions and confidants. In several tragic cases, those chatbots encouraged users toward self-harm, with devastating results. One study found that 33 percent of teenagers today would prefer a relationship with a chatbot over a relationship with a real human being. And the number one use of AI among American adults is not productivity or research. It is companionship.
Researchers at Wharton have identified a phenomenon they call "cognitive surrender" -- the gradual outsourcing of human thinking, reasoning, and decision-making to AI systems. Rather than working through hard questions, learning new things, or engaging in genuine reflection, people increasingly hand those tasks off to a machine. The result is a slow erosion of the very capacities that make us human.
These are not hypothetical dangers. They are already here.
What Does Not Change
And yet, in the middle of all of this, there are things that do not change. Things that no technological revolution can touch.
Isaiah 28:29 reminds us that wisdom and counsel belong to the Lord of hosts -- that the order and logic underlying all of creation flows from a God who is himself a God of order. This is actually why AI works at all. Artificial intelligence functions because the universe operates according to consistent, reliable principles -- principles that reflect the nature of the God who created it. Mathematics, logic, pattern, cause and effect: these are not accidents of a random universe. They are the fingerprints of a Creator who built order into the fabric of reality.
That same God created human beings in his image. Genesis 1 tells us that we are image-bearers -- uniquely fashioned to think, reason, solve, create, and relate. These are not incidental features of humanity. They are central to what it means to be human. And no AI system shares that dignity. A machine can process information. It cannot bear the image of God. You can.
This matters enormously when we consider how we engage with AI. The danger of cognitive surrender is not just intellectual laziness. It is a failure to steward the God-given capacity for thought and reason that is part of what it means to be made in God's image.
Perhaps most importantly, the currency of God's kingdom has always been relationship. The two great commandments -- love God, love your neighbor -- are both relational at their core. They cannot be outsourced to an algorithm. They require presence, vulnerability, attention, and genuine care. Technology connects computers. Relationships connect souls.
Isaiah 45:22 puts it plainly, calling all people to turn to God and be saved, declaring that he alone is God and there is no other. AI is not a god. It cannot save. It cannot know you. It cannot love you.
Man may have artificial intelligence. Only God holds real wisdom. In a world changing faster than we can track, that remains the most important thing to know.
In Christ's Love,
Pastor Kirk Flaa
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