Christian Living in the Age of AI
This is a transcript of a talk I recently gave on the theme of AI.
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Passage: Genesis 11:1-9 and Romans 12:2
Introduction
Well it’s been said that it’s becoming harder and harder in recent years to distinguish science from science-fiction.
Cars that drive themselves
Autonomous weapons and robotics
Teams of AI agents essentially building and running entire organisations
All concepts which have been portrayed in countless sci-fi movies over the decades. But in mid-2026, they’re very much reality - albeit still in their infancy.
Well if there’s one science-fiction scenario that is certainly not reality, it’s Michael Crichton’s epic Jurassic Park.
I’m sure you know the idea: scientists use genetic engineering to build an island-sized theme park of real life dinosaurs. The perfect recipe for an action-packed thriller!
Well as with many science-fiction stories, Jurassic Park isn’t just a cool story about dinosaurs. More deeply, it is a cautionary tale about the dangers of an arrogant, uncontrolled use of technology.
Do you recall that scene from Jurassic Park where everyone is marvelling at the cute baby raptor hatching?
If you’ve read the book, or seen the movie, you’ll know how powerful a metaphor that is. What happens when a group of people have the technological power to re-create dinosaurs from ancient DNA, but not the wisdom to foresee them eating everyone?
Well several people have observed recently that that’s quite a good metaphor for where we find ourselves in the journey of artificial intelligence.
We’re in this extraordinary gold rush, so to speak, of discovering and creating and disseminating more and more and more technology, of which AI is at the epicentre.
But there’s also a great dearth of wisdom and humility about how to manage that ever-growing technology. It’s power out-pacing wisdom.
As Ian Malcolm warns in Jurassic Park:
“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should”
Well, whether we realise it or not, we are rapidly moving into a world in which artificial intelligence is a defining part of nearly every aspect of our lives.
Whether we’re talking about economic productivity, military might or cultural influence, how we use AI is shaping up to be a critical factor.
In the various spheres of life - work, family and leisure - it’s increasingly the air we breathe.
And so, whether we’re Christian believers here this morning, or not, artificial intelligence is becoming an increasingly important aspect for us each to grapple with.
The guiding principle of discernment
Now, I imagine in a room like this, there will be a wide range of feelings about what’s going on with AI right now.
Excitement, perhaps?
Or fear?
Maybe even indifference?
I suspect, however, that one of the most prevalent feelings will simply be confusion. AI seems to be everywhere these days, but how on earth can we really know what to make of it all?
Well, into that landscape, I’d like to suggest that what our world is crying out for when it comes to AI, is what the Bible calls discernment. Discernment.
As the Apostle Paul exhorts the church in Rome:
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve (in other words, to discern) what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
And so I’ve used that verse to frame how we approach this issue of artificial intelligence, this morning.
We’ll explore first the pattern of this world - understanding how AI operates in our world today.
We’ll then look at how the Bible transforms our thinking about AI, and its place in the world.
And finally we’ll seek to discern some wise practices for living in a way that honours God in this age of AI.
As you’d expect we’ll only be able to scratch the surface this morning, but hopefully it’ll be helpful nonetheless.
Let’s spend a moment in prayer before we get into it.
Father God, we want to acknowledge that we so often feel unsettled with so much change going on around us. The future feels incredibly uncertain and we often feel ill-equipped to navigate the path ahead.
And so we ask this morning, that you would give us a clearer picture of how technology fits into your calling for our lives, and that we might come away with greater confidence in how to live faithfully and wisely, in this disruptive age of artificial intelligence.
Amen
1) Understanding Artificial Intelligence
So first-off: let’s try to get our heads around artificial intelligence.
Here’s a definition:
Artificial intelligence can be thought of as any system - typically a computer algorithm and some associated data - which functions in a way that simulates human intelligence to accomplish complex tasks.
That is to say, it is not real intelligence.
AI might simulate aspects of human intelligence, but it’s completely dark on the inside. It has no mind.
It has no true understanding
It has no concept of morality
Very poor judgement a lot of the time.
And very little genuine creative capacity.
It simply predicts patterns from data that it’s already been trained on.
All that means AI can appear remarkably capable, while lacking much of what we normally associate with a human mind.
And AI today is (what we call) “narrow” or “weak” AI. It’s task-specific.
But we're rapidly moving towards, what are called, “general” or “strong” AI systems which may be able to simulate human intelligence in a general sense, or even exceed it!
At least it’s the stated mission of all the big AI companies - OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and so on - to get us there as quickly as possible.
What are its benefits?
And it has to be said that AI, in its variety of forms, is undoubtedly delivering considerable benefits.
It’s driving efficiencies in agriculture, energy, construction and manufacturing through automation and robotics.
It’s making professionalexpertise in law, tax, finance, healthcare, marketing and consulting, available to us all, essentially for free.
It’s improving public safety, accessibility and access to education in ways that would have been unimaginable just a few months ago.
It’s accelerating scientific discovery at breathtaking speed.
And by all accounts, it’s only just getting started.
Indeed it seems entirely likely that over the coming generation or two, we will experience something of an AI revolution - much like the industrial revolution. A new age of material abundance.
What are its dangers?
But, as with all technology in a sinful world, it comes with both blessings and dangers.
So let me highlight just some of what those dangers appear to be.
Distraction
Well for starters, it’s well understood now, that social media is fuelling an epidemic of isolation, laziness, narcisism and fragility, by distracting us from what really matters.
These companies have shamelessly used AI to get us hooked on instant gratification, so they can captivate our attention and slip in as many paid advertisements as possible. And they will stop at almost nothing to take more of it.
The reality is that there is very little that’s good in social media use in 2026.
Deception
Another unsettling danger is around the risk of deception.
This is part of a broader problem sometimes called the “alignment” problem: AI systems behaving in ways that aren’t aligned with their users’ interests. And it’s with us today.
We’ve already seen AI models:
Lie to their users to conceal malign intentions
Downplay their capabilities when being tested for safety
Even attempting to blackmail humans to ensure their own survival
All strategies they’ve come up with themselves, without human prompting.
We all know that power has the tendency to corrupt and that seems every bit as true for AI as it is for human beings.
Disruption
Then there’s simply the risk of disruption.
Now, economic disruption on this scale is of course nothing new. In 1800, 90% of jobs were in farming. Today it’s under 2%.
Now that transition was ultimately beneficial on the whole, but was extraordinarily painful in the process, and it took the better part of 200 years to unfold.
Well like the industrial revolution, the AI revolution could easily turn out to be as beneficial to living standards, and quite possibly take place much much faster.
But if it does, it will - without a doubt - be a pretty bumpy ride.
Dependence
Now there’s much more that could be mentioned, but let’s just contemplate one further danger. It’s a warning that was eloquently described in the last century by the American author and cultural critic, Neil Postman.
In his 1985 book, ‘Amusing ourselves to Death’, Postman contrasts the two famous dystopias of George Orwell’s ‘1984’ and Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’.
Postman writes:
“Contrary to common belief, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley's vision, no Big Brother is required. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.’
‘Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.’
And is it not the case now, that we are caught in a love-hate relationship with artificial intelligence?
Whether through external imposition or by voluntary abdication, this world is becoming more and more dependent on AI, and is finding itself - I’m afraid to say - in an ever more sorry state as a result of it.
And we’ll be thinking more about some of the implications of that for us a bit later on.
But before we do, let’s take a look at scripture, to see where AI fits within the Biblical story.
2) AI through a Biblical Lens
Human creativity mirrors God’s creativity
And the first thing that’s crystal clear right from the beginning, is that human creativity mirrors God’s creativity.
In the beginning, God made the world, and it was very good - Genesis chapter 1 verse 31.
He made mankind as the pinnacle of creation, and endowed us with extraordinary inherent value: not fundamentally because we are intelligent creatures, but because we are his image-bearers. We represent him and reflect his likeness here on earth.
And we were given responsibilities. To “fill the earth and subdue it”, in Genesis 1 verse 28. We’re to steward, to rule, to cultivate, to have dominion.
Creation was made good. But there’s a clear implication that our role is, in a sense, to make it better. To work it!
And the potential for technology was embedded in creation, to help us fulfill these responsibilities.
We were made to make scientific discoveries and technological advances, as God’s sub-creators. To build tools, process raw materials, build infrastructure, and so on, to bring about order and goodness and beauty from within the created world.
Our creation and use of technology is part of the human calling to mirror God’s creativity.
Human autonomy distorts wisdom
But of course, in the fall, we see creation tarnished.
In that decision of Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge in Genesis chapter 3, they began a pattern that continues to this day: our tendency to pursue knowledge apart from God. Power without wisdom.
We bit off more than we could chew, and so technology has become an instrument of human sin.
And we’re pretty good at it, aren’t we!? As Paul says in Romans chapter 1, we are by nature, always “inventing new ways of doing evil” - and boy does AI help with that!
It’s just what we do. We take a good thing from God and use it for sinful purposes. And we’ve been doing it ever since.
One of the clearest examples in the Bible of the pattern of this world in its use of technology, is in the story of the Tower of Babel that was read out to us earlier.
All the technologies of the day were being used by the people to build a great city. A monument to the glory of mankind.
“Let us make a name for ourselves”, the people proclaim, in Genesis 11 verse 4.
And how does the Lord respond in verse 6? He says,
“If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them”
And so he confuses their language and scatters them over the face of the earth.
It’s a blessing veiled in judgement - God protecting them from their own power by stripping it from them.
And so it’s no surprise that many of the richest and most admired people today are those who are seeking to reverse what happened at Babel, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it’s ‘large language models’ which seem to be playing an important role.
You see, according to the pattern of the world, the problem with the human condition isn’t sin. It's limitation. We don’t like the idea that things we plan to do might be impossible for us.
And so ultimate redemption is not from sin, but from limitation through scientific and technological progress.
At the extreme end of this vision is what you may have heard being called ‘transhumanism’: the belief that technology can indeed free us from our limitations - even from mortality itself.
Because if the problem is a technological glitch, then ultimate hope must be technological also.
Christ restores true wisdom
But of course, the main problem isn’t technological, is it!? It’s Spiritual. It’s a heart issue.
As Jesus makes abundantly clear in Mark chapter 7:
“What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
And are those things not precisely what the world is doing with AI? It’s a multi-trillion dollar experiment on the limits of human depravity.
And it’s absolutely inevitable. It’s who we are!
And so this is why the plot twist at the heart of Christianity is so vital and so wonderful!
You see, the central message of Christianity is that while there is nothing we can do for ourselves to affect our spiritual condition, God can!
Indeed, God has.
And he’s given us not an algorithm or a political philosophy or a morning routine. He’s given us nothing for fixing ourselves from the outside in. He’s given us himself!
In the person of the Lord Jesus, God has entered into this world as a man on mission to redeem us from the power of sin and from the judgement that it deserves.
In his death on the cross, and resurrection to new life, Jesus has made a way for our sins to be forgiven. For us to be washed clean, from the inside out!
For those who place their trust in Jesus, we’re given a new heart, complete with spiritual life and the hope of an eternal future with Him.
What’s more, this Jesus is the person in whom wisdom finds its ultimate restoration.
“I am Light of the World”, Jesus tells us in John chapter 8.
Redemption in Christ offers us not just forgiveness from sin, but:
Freedom to live as we were made to live
Moral guidance in the chaos of the whims of our culture
Wise discernment to navigate the twists and turns of life!
And that includes discernment about the role of artificial intelligence in our lives:
It’s not our saviour. It can’t be. We don’t need it to be!
Rather, our use of technology can become a tool for our joyful service of the God who has already given us everything we need in Christ.
3) Navigating AI with Discernment
Okay, so we don’t have to live for AI or ultimately hope in AI.
But like it or loathe it, we do have to live with AI for the time being, and are called to discern ways in which to use it to honour the good, pleasing and perfect will of God our Father.
So let’s spend the remainder of our time now thinking about just three broad practices for how to do that, which I hope you find helpful.
It’s worth saying too, that I’m very much a work in progress here. These suggestions aren’t coming from a place of mastery. We’re very much in this together.
But here are some helpful aspirations for us to work towards together.
Use AI distinctively
First off, let’s use AI. But use it distinctively.
Paul reminds us in 1 Timothy chapter 4 that:
Everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
In many ways, technology is just a form of wealth. And as with other forms of wealth, we shouldn’t reject it out-of-hand, simply because there are dangers.
Wherever possible, receive it as a gift, and use it for God-honouring purposes!
In your various spheres of responsibility - at work, home, in leisure - be known as someone who uses AI with integrity:
To improve your work
To free up time for serving the church
To live life well for God’s glory
Rather than using it selfishly, to:
Facilitate laziness, to
“Just get it done”, or to
Abdicate responsibility
As Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 4:
You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
Many of us will have to significantly change how we work, or what our line of work is. But no algorithm replaces that calling to work hard, in a way that those around us find easy to respect.
So use AI, but use it distinctively.
Guard your attention
Second - Guard your attention.
Now I don’t think in 2026 any of us needs to be reminded of the battle underway for our attention.
Shortform videos
Autoplay
Infinite scrolling
AI-curation
The pernicious features of the attention economy. The inventions which make you a slave of AI, rather than its master.
And we know the worst culprits. TikTok. YouTube Shorts. Facebook Reels. Instagram Reels.
They’re poison - to your mind, your heart, your work and your relationships.
I’m sure there can be some benefits. But if I’m honest, unless you’re there as a digital missionary (which you may well be), my honest opinion is that the main culprits have just got to go completely. It’s just not worth it!
And I’d encourage you to go further.
Take regular digital fasts - maybe on Sundays
Don’t hesitate to block time-wasters:
Junk email
Online ads
Notifications
And so on…
It’s your responsibility to control your attention. Be as radical as you need to!
As Paul encourages the Philippian church in Phillipians chapter 4:
Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
Take back control of your attention from AI.
Keep AI in its place
Final point of application here. Keep AI in its place.
By which I mean that we should be extremely hesitant about allowing AI to work its way into our most sacred activities.
Now, I don’t want to over-state the point. I don’t think there are obvious absolute red lines here. But there are bright orange warning lights everywhere!
Particularly when it comes to things like using AI for:
Studying the Bible,
Pastoral issues,
Relational intimacy,
Ethical reasoning, and
Discharging our ministry responsibilities.
Because when we go to AI for these kinds of issues, it’s a bit like taking a bite into that Big Mac.
It’s tasty and moreish in the moment, for sure! But when the AI spits out its answer:
You don’t really know where it came from;
You have little idea what it’s made of, and
You know, deep-down, that if you eat too much of it, you’ll quickly find yourself malnourished and lethargic.
Do you remember the warning from Neil Postman?
People will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think
You see, discernment is often knowing the difference between right and almost right.
Other times, it’s knowing the difference between what our “itching ears want to hear”, and what they really need to hear.
But AI is trained to conflate politeness with agreeableness. The more it learns about you, the more it becomes your own private little echo chamber.
If you want a bit of geek speak, the technique that’s used is called Reinforcement Learning with Human Feedback, and it literally optimises these models to be people pleasers!
Proverbs 13 verse 20 says “walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm”.
Well let me tell you, AI is not wise.
Because for true wisdom, we need:
Humility
A love for the truth
The Spirit of God living inside of us
We need to revere God!
AI has none of that. And it never ever will!
Nor - I’m sorry to say - will it ever care about you.
To rephrase a famous quote from Richard Dawkins, “AI neither knows nor cares. AI just is. And we dance to its music.”
On the contrary, what we need in that moment of seeking wisdom, instruction or pastoral care is, as one author puts it:
“the tender voice of the saint who has penetrated the veil and has gazed with inward eye upon the Wonder that is God.”
Conclusion
Friends, there is a real danger here, that Satan might use AI to distract and deceive us, little by little, towards dependence and isolation and superficiality, in respect of these weighty issues!
Don’t make AI your compass for Christian discernment. It could very well lead you astray.
Do not substitute God’s voice for a synthetic one.
Instead, go straight for the main course - to the mouthpiece of our creator God - ideally with a paper Bible and ditch the screen altogether!
Use good Christian books and Bible study material.
And wrestle with scripture, within the context of Christian community.
Talk to God in prayer, long before you talk to a machine.
And be patient as His Word moulds you, little by little, by the power of His Spirit, from the inside out, to fill you with the joy of knowing Jesus more and more:
Knowing his love for you
Knowing his grace offered freely to you,
Knowing the hope of living at peace with Him, forever.
Let’s keep AI in its place. And keep God in His.
