Artificial Intelligence Is a Tool, But Care Must Be Taken

In a recent article, you pointed out that religion is not immune to technology. How do you think AI could affect people’s faith and what consequences this would have on their lives?

The issue is not going to be faith. Either people have faith or they lack it. Rather, the issue is going to be institutionalized religion. Whether Judaism, Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, or Orthodoxy, artificial intelligence is going to challenge religious hierarchies. Already, populism is a problem, especially in Islam and non-Orthodox Christianity as believers without learning assert and promote theories without the rigor of study or training. Within Islam, this leads to militancy and within Christianity, it has sparked a number of small, radical Protestant sects, mostly in America. Artificial Intelligence will create a different problem: If most religious texts dating backs centuries if not millennia are digitized, laypeople may be able to query computers for interpretations and bypass the local church. Ultimately, this might cause a financial hit as some believers not attached to the community aspect of church ask why they should donate to support an institution when they can gain what they believe to be religious knowledge absent any church guidance.

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