If God Gave Us Minds, Did He Give Us AI Too?

Faith, Technology, and Why the Panic Isn’t as New as You Think

We’ve Been Here Before

The first time we harnessed electricity, people were convinced it would summon demons, or at the very least, burn down the neighborhood. When the printing press was invented, some thought it would corrupt society by making information too accessible. The same hand-wringing happened when we taught machines how to fly, split the atom, and put satellites into orbit.

Each leap forward in human innovation has been met with its own choir of “this is the end.”

And let’s not forget how people once feared the microscope and telescope, tools that dared to show us a world beyond what the eye could see. Heresy, some said. Dangerous, others claimed. And yet, those "dangerous" discoveries became foundations for modern science.

And remember when people thought barcodes were the mark of the beast? Every generation has its tech scapegoat.

Now it’s AI’s turn in the crosshairs.

The faith-based community is nervously watching ChatGPT craft sermons and assist in music production, sometimes even helping complete an artist’s creative vision. Meanwhile, the secular world is panicking over deepfakes, art theft, and whether their next favorite movie will be written and animated by a sentient toaster.

Different beliefs. Same existential dread.

As Ecclesiastes 1:9 puts it:
“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”

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“If It Doesn’t Come From a Soul, Is It Still Real?”

That’s the ghost in the machine. That’s the thing making everyone sweat, even if they don’t know how to say it.

For people of faith, the question sounds like:
“Can something artificial ever be Spirit-led?”

For creatives, it morphs into:
“Can something made by a machine even count as art?”

Strip away the spiritual language or the philosophical jargon, and what you’re left with is this gut-punch of a question:
“If a machine can do what I do… what makes me matter?”

Welcome to the theology of modern tech. It’s not just a software problem, it’s a soul problem.

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Let’s Talk Medicine for a Sec

Here’s a curveball: most of us already trust non-human processes with our lives every single day.

Medicine doesn’t come from a priest blessing a root anymore. It comes from sterile labs, chemistry, data, and machines—science in motion. It’s a blend of compounds and calculations I can’t even pretend to understand, yet somehow it wipes out viruses and saves lives.

So here’s the obvious question:

Do we call insulin evil because it was made in a lab?
Do we reject chemotherapy because it wasn’t prayed over?

Of course not. We say:
“God gave us minds. And He gave us the wisdom to use them.”

So why is machine learning different? Why does AI get tossed into the pit while biotech gets a pass?

If a synthetic process can save a body, maybe—just maybe—it can also enhance our art, our communication, our work, our worship.

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Let’s Talk Science for a Minute

Science has always lived on the edge of the mystical. Many of the technologies we now take for granted would've been labeled dark magic not even a hundred years ago. Think about it:

• Zoom calls allow us to see and speak to someone on the other side of the planet, instantly.

• WiFi transmits invisible signals through the air carrying massive amounts of data.

• Our smartphones are basically glass rectangles that let us browse vast knowledge libraries, stream live video, and track satellites in space.

Try explaining that to someone in 1920. You’d get burned at the stake, or at least written off as mentally unwell.

The truth is most of us use technology every day that we barely understand. And yet we trust it, live by it, and depend on it.

AI is just the latest in that long, weird lineage. It’s built on patterns. On algorithms. On logic and repetition, not so different from the math formulas that make GPS work or the code that runs your email.

So why does this one feel different?

Maybe it’s because it talks back. Maybe it’s because it mimics us. Writes music the way that’s familiar to our ears, or at least we recognize the style and structure patterns that we are used to hearing.

And maybe that’s exactly why it matters.

Romans 11:36 (NIV):
"For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen."

Even our technology, especially the stuff that challenges our understanding, can be part of that “all things.”

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The Unnatural vs. The Uncontrollable

Here’s where things split, but also secretly loop back together.

Faith-based communities cry out with the spiritual vocabulary:

• "Discernment"

• "Deception"

• "End times!"

Secular circles freak out with the philosophical dread:

• “What’s real when anything can be faked?”

• “Will creativity survive a world of prompts?”

• “What happens when authorship disappears?”

Different language. Same fear:
We don’t trust what we can’t control.

But here’s the thing. Fire can’t be controlled either. Neither can language. Or gravity. Or math. Stewardship is the answer, not censorship, not spiritual lockdown, not panic.

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AI Isn’t Evil. It’s a Mirror.

Look, AI isn’t a demon. But it’s not your new messiah either.
It’s a mirror. A smart, complicated mirror that reflects everything we are: flaws, fears, brilliance, and all.

It doesn’t ask to be worshiped.
It asks for a prompt. A question. A thought.

Just like fire, or language, or calculus, it’s a tool. It’s neutral until we wield it.

So maybe the right question isn’t “Is AI evil?”
It’s “What is AI revealing about us?”

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Final Thought

Discomfort isn’t the enemy. It’s a clue. It’s the little warning light on your dashboard that says, “You’re entering territory where wisdom matters more than opinion.”

The Church (and everyone else, honestly) needs to stop smacking the panic button like a broken vending machine.

Instead, let’s start asking the better, deeper questions.
Let’s get curious instead of combative.
Let’s learn to use the tools instead of fearing them.

If God gave us minds, then AI isn’t a surprise to Him. It’s not good or evil. It’s more like fire or language, it just is, waiting for us to decide what to make of it.