What affect does the AI-ification of church and education have?

You never need to not know.

This is the reality of the modern world.

All answers are now at our fingertips.

In an instant.

In AI-generated dot-point form.

Is this a good thing?

Is it good for the church?

Is it good for the classroom?

More importantly, is it good for the students?

Is it good for the congregants?

Equally, what is the cost for belief and education?

With the rise of AI, we now have access to the complete depository of human knowledge in a simplistic manner never matched previously.

But, of course, this information must be weighed wisely.

Unfortunately, with the simplicity of access, we’ve lost the ability to research. To question. To debate two points. To be able to delve deeply into a topic.

This hurts the classroom.

This hurts the church.

But, there’s a deeper loss with the emergence of AI.

The loss of patience.

The loss of wonder.

The loss of discovery.

We don’t have time to sit without knowing.

We don’t have the ability to comfortably sit with unknowing.

We don’t have the willingness to let an answer unfold periodically.

This is why we binge our entertainment.

This is why we instantly Google every question which pops into our mind.

This is why students are tempted to use ChatGPT to write their assignments.

But is it the dissipation of wonder which will haunt us the most.

Without the willingness to wrestle with a question, we get robbed of the wonder of unknowing.

Without the willingness of sit without a solution, we get robbed of the work needed to search for an answer.

Without the willingness to be in the middle of a tension, we get robbed of the ability to weigh up both sides of a contentious issue.

In many ways it’s similar to the modern raft of biblical commentaries, dictionaries and concordances and my amazement of those who could write effectively before these were readily available.

The Fathers of Church history wrote about concepts and topics, backed up with cross-references, that I couldn't imagine matching.

They knew their bibles.

They knew their history.

Without AI.

Just a desire to wrestle with the question.

Just a desire to share deep truths.

Driven by a wonder I doubt we could match today…