OPINION:
An artificial intelligence chatbot just served as preacher to a congregation of 300 or so churchgoers at a Lutheran service in Germany.
And away we go. A false god of end times has been given a face.
If religion, as Karl Marx wrote, is the “opiate of the masses,” then religious ceremonies overseen by technological creations are a dangerous tool for the devices of demons, indeed.
In Fuerth, Germany, what just transpired at St. Paul’s church was this: A computerized face of a bearded Black man stood at the altar and told the packed facility to not fear death. How would an avatar know? But this was just one of four different avatars that led that day’s sermons.
“There was no heart and no soul,” said Heiderose Schmidt, to The Associated Press, about the service. “The avatars showed no emotions at all, had no body language and were talking so fast and monotonously that it was very hard for me to concentrate on what they said. But maybe it is different for the younger generation who grew up with all of this.”
That’s an important distinction.
The younger generations, the ones polls in America show are less and less inclined to believe in God and less and less driven to attend church at all — these younger generations, who grew up with smartphones in their cribs and social media as their main tools of communication, are all too accepting of computerized imagery and messaging.
Their public schools train them to hate America as inherently racist, detest capitalism as inherently unfair, mock the Bible and biblical teachings as out-of-date and inherently intolerant — and to trust the government, love the government and obey the government in all things. The free market is a tool for social justice, not money-making or entrepreneurial creation; God-given individualism is rapidly being supplanted by government-fueled collectivism. It’s the masses, they’re told, that matter more than the individual. It’s the interests of the state, they’re taught, that take highest priority, even — especially — over that of the individual.
No wonder God is becoming meaningless too many in modern society.
Where’s the one-on-one relationship with Jesus? Absent. Gone. Tossed to the wind.
It’s rapidly becoming all about the government. And that means it’s becoming less about God. That’s a dark communist way of living, when individuality no longer matters and one’s mission in life is not about fulfilling God’s purpose but rather serving the stage.
Traditionally, historically, church and faith and belief in God have stood in the way of communists’ ability to steal all the power and control from the people. Well, times are changing. Times are growing more secular.
Now comes the artificial intelligence preacher — preaching an artificial intelligence Bible. Next up? An artificial god that can be whatever its data creator wants it to be.
“A.I. can create new ideas,” said Yuval Noah Harari, one of the World Economic Forum’s most influential, in a recent public address.
“Throughout history,” Harari went on, The Blaze reported, “religions dreamt about having a book written by a superhuman intelligence, by a non-human entity … [and] just think about a religion whose holy book is written by an A.I. That could be a reality in a few years.”
Think of the possibilities — for population control, that is.
Think of the endless myriad list of ways those with nefarious designs, those with wicked hearts, those with demonic possessions, those of utter evil stock — think of all the ways these cockroaches of the human race might use and exploit A.I. to run roughshod over true, truthful biblical teachings.
That wouldn’t only be the end of the God-given liberty in America — because you can’t have God-given, if you remove God.
But it would basically be the end of humanity because it would be the introduction of a mighty powerful false god.
From preacher to deity, artificial intelligence can be what the data inputter makes it to be. Youth conditioned to trust computer screens won’t know the difference; secular society untrained in the truths of the genuine Bible won’t know the difference; naysayers and protesters, in this growing surveillance society soon to be dominated by Chinese communist influences, will be easy to shut down and shut up — and removed in the dead of night.
Today’s AI curiosity is tomorrow’s normalized way of living.
Once upon a time, iris-scanning technology, chips beneath the skin of palms to wave as a means of paying for products and facial recognition cameras mounted on traffic lights and street lamps were all the stuff of science-fiction fancy.
For the Bible and for Bible preachers, that’s how it should stay.
No good can come of AI preaching from AI-generated Bibles. The world should stop now before it’s too late.
America, meanwhile, needs a massive spiritual reawakening to the true God. It’s the only way to hold off the evils that come dressed as good.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.