Could it be that Atheism and Science don’t mix, but God and science do?

I realise it’s a controversial claim in our secular age. After all, the belief that Christianity is anti-science and Atheism is pro-science is part of our cultural furniture here in the West.

But what if the opposite were true?

That’s the argument I’ve come across from several prominent thinkers and philosophers, most recently by Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University, John Lennox, in his latest book.

To be clear, Lennox is not saying Atheists can’t do science: some of the smartest scientists are Atheists. Rather, Lennox and other thinkers are critiquing the worldview, the assumptions and beliefs of Atheism, not the people who believe it.

So, here’s what Lennox means:

In order to do science, we need to believe that our minds can discern truth

Lennox points out something that is obvious once you think about it: we can only do science if we believe our brains can discern truth about the world around us:

I do not think that this is hard to deduce from the fact that science proceeds on the basis of the a priori assumption that the universe is, at least to a certain extent, accessible to the human mind. No science can be done without the scientist believing so, so it is important to ask for grounds for this belief.

In other words, our brains can make sense of the universe around us, but why? It’s an important question to ask and answer for the sake of science.

But, he argues, Atheism doesn’t provide a satisfying answer. On the contrary, Atheism posits a mindless, unguided origin of the universe’s life and consciousness. And this destroys our confidence in our brain’s ability to know the truth.

But how?

Why Atheistic Evolution is a problem for Science.

American philosopher Alvin Plantinga shows why Atheism – or more particularly, Atheistic evolution – is a ‘game over’ type problem for our brain’s ability to know truth.

He captures his argument in what he calls the ‘Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism [Atheism]’  or EAAN.

Here’s the Reader’s Digest version of his argument:

Atheism is a problem for science because evolution is based on the survival of the fittest, not the survival of the truthful. And therefore,  how can we be sure that our brains evolved to discern truth (as opposed to just helping us survive)?

(The short answer is we can’t.)

Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of the logic:

Step 1: The Starting Beliefs

We start by accepting two main ideas:

1. Atheism: The belief that there is no Creator God who designed our minds. Instead, we’re living in a random universe with only matter.

2. Evolution as the survival of the fittest: The idea that our minds (our brains) were built only through blind, random evolution by natural selection.

Step 2: Evolution by natural selection only picks winners, not truth-tellers

Evolution only ‘cares’ if your actions help you survive and reproduce. It’s all about your behaviour (does your behaviour help you survive). And not about what you believe (whether your beliefs are true or not).

Step 3: False ideas can be just as useful for survival

Because evolution by natural selection only cares about what you do, a false idea can make you act in a way that helps you survive just as much as a true idea.

For example: Running away because you believe a tiger is dangerous (True Idea) helps you survive. But running away because you believe a witch is trying to eat your soul (False Idea) also makes you run away and helps you survive just the same.

Step 4: We have a strong reason to doubt our mind’s reliability

Since evolution often rewards useful but false ideas, and there are ‘innumerable’ ways to be wrong but still survive, accepting Atheistic evolution means it is impossible to know if your brain has evolved to find truth.

Of course, if Atheistic Evolution is true (and therefore impossible to know if your mind can discern truth or not), then you’re left with a conundrum:

Step 5: Atheistic Evolution: The idea that eats itself

This realisation—that you can’t know if your brain is a truth-finder—gives you a strong reason to doubt the basic reliability of your own mind.

And if you must doubt your mind’s reliability, then you must doubt every single idea your mind produces.

Including Atheistic Evolution.

But if believing in Atheistic Evolution leads you to doubt Atheistic Evolution, then it’s an incoherent and irrational view.

Or as Atheist philosopher John Gray points out:

Modern humanism is the faith that through science humankind can know the truth – and so be free. But if Dawin’s theory of natural selection is true this is impossible. The human mind serves evolutionary success, not truth’.

Even Darwin himself saw this problem. He wrote:

‘With me the horrid doubt always arises whether the conviction of man’s mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy.’

But can’t science help us discern truth?

One counterargument is that, while our brains may be unreliable in discerning truth, modern science can help us overcome this limitation. I.e. Imperfect brains + science = truth.

But this belief relies on the assumption that our brains can reliably discern some measure of truth in the first place. But if the argument above is correct, then we have no confidence that our brains have evolved to know the truth at all (even imperfectly).

In which case, science + unreliable brain ≠ truth.

(To use an analogy, if you knew that your thermometer came from a factory where it was revealed that the thermometers were all faulty, could you ever rely on what the thermometer said?)

Another reason Atheism doesn’t make sense of our world

While there are other problems with Atheism, the fact that it destroys any reason to believe our mind’s ability to find truth is worth noting.

As Lennox points out:

It is for all these reasons that I reject atheism, and not because I believe Christianity to be true. I am a mathematician with a deep and lifelong interest in science and rational thought. How could I espouse a worldview that discredits the very rationality I need to do mathematics?

Whereas Christianity does provide a solid foundation for Science

Lennox then goes on to point out that, in contrast to the Atheistic-evolutionary view or reality,  the biblical worldview does provide reasons for believing in our mind’s ability to discern truth. Namely, being created in the image of a rational God makes sense as an explanation for why we can engage in science.

Science and God mix very well. It is science and atheism that do not mix.

Article supplied with thanks to Akos Balogh.

About the Author: Akos is the Executive Director of the Gospel Coalition Australia. He has a Masters in Theology and is a trained Combat and Aerospace Engineer.

Feature image: Canva

This story is told from the perspective of Maggie, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. She describes what it is like to be part of a caring church community while carrying the weight of deep trauma. For those who have not lived through such experiences, the thoughts and responses of survivors can sometimes seem difficult to understand.

By sharing her journey, the hope is that readers—especially Christians—might develop greater awareness and compassion for those who live with hidden wounds, and learn how to walk alongside them with gentleness and care.

*This account includes references to abuse, and some may find the content distressing. Reader discretion is advised.*

Here is Maggie’s story:

Abuse survivors and the church community are things that don’t easily sit side-by-side. The church is supposed to be a safe place, for everyone. When we hear church and abuse, there is a correlation that assumes abuse within the church. While my abuse happened both within and outside of the church, I make no distinction for the survivor in this article, as the ramifications of abuse know no boundaries.

I walk into my church service each Sunday, wondering what encouragement, song or part of a sermon will trigger me. I live in hypervigilance of something that will reignite my childhood trauma, some innocuous comment that sends me into self-protection mode.

As a survivor, I often hide in the shadows, fearful that someone will spot an erratic behaviour or ill-fashioned response and won’t understand. It’s the challenge of being in a community where God has shown us so much mercy and surrounded with His love. Because as a survivor, I lived through hell, and whether from sermons, worship, or stories that are shared about God’s mercy and love, I often feel like a failure because my history impedes my appreciation of His grace.

I have learned to manage the triggers that blindside me using techniques that get me through. I deliberately go to our church’s smaller evening service, sitting in the back, next to the aisle so that I can escape if I am triggered. Anxiously, I wait for one of my few trusted companions to arrive. They know my heart, which allows me to relax slightly, not feeling so exposed.

Inevitably, the guilt starts. Whether from being encouraged to immerse myself in God’s word or acknowledging our sin before God. The cognitive dissonance can be deafening. How do I acknowledge my sin (often maladaptive behaviours from childhood), when it is how I was raised? I always survive the service. I know the intent is well-meaning, intended to draw us closer to God. The music, the set-up, the sermon, all cater to the 70% of the congregation that didn’t come from a traumatic childhood.

I feel deflated and misunderstood most of the time.

A Few Insights 

I hope that by sharing my perspective and experience, readers might understand what life can be like as a Christian survivor. How for me at least, I reconcile my history and faith. I offer these concepts as guideposts rather than absolutes. It is about starting a conversation, not drawing a line in the sand.

1. Our brains are wired differently.

Because of what we survived, our God-given creative brains rewired us for survival.

This re-wiring is remarkably similar to those who have had a traumatic brain injury (1). There are many studies that show the effect childhood abuse has on the brains of survivors (2). From cognitive impairments and emotional dysregulation to sleeping disturbances, the list goes on. Because of our trauma, we see the world through a different coloured lens.

2. Shame can be debilitating for survivors.

This is a core part of what we struggle with in church and life.

Ashamed, we feel loathing instead of God’s love after sermons. We are ashamed of what happened to us and fear being judged. We are ashamed of the things we did to survive, knowing that many of those things, from maladaptive and addictive behaviours to sexual promiscuity, enabled our survival. The very coping mechanisms that helped us survive are condemned and cause shame. 

3. Saying “Trust God, He’ll get you through” can be unhelpful.

While well-meaning, saying ‘Trust God, He’ll get you through’ is a simplistic perspective.

We experienced betrayed trust throughout our childhood. It’s actually amazing that we believe God will carry us, when it would be easier to blame Him for how it’s all gone wrong. Trust is one of the most difficult things a trauma survivor wrestles with. To be given a pat on the back and encouraged to just trust God, when we’re overwhelmed by a trigger reinforces a sense of failure, and a torrent of shame returns. Why haven’t I healed quicker? Why is life so hard? Do I not trust God enough?

4. Ask questions.

In the intimacy of a small group (mainstays in Christian fellowship), for the survivor, it can feel like our trauma is the elephant in the room.

I have tried to provide my survivor perspective when discussing a passage of scripture, leading to an uncomfortable silence. Instead, I shut down. What I crave is someone to ask me how wrestling with this passage affects me as a survivor. Having those discussions, especially in the light of a complex diagnosis (e.g., mine with Dissociative Identity Disorder), is a breath of fresh air. It means people want to understand and provides a sense of validation and affirmation of God’s love for us.

5. Prayer and Friendship are key.

We all live busy lives, and it’s easy to say we will pray.

Many times, prayer is action. It’s not about a few well-meaning words and moving on; it’s about picking up the phone and saying, hey, let’s grab a coffee or take a walk. It says, I am making time for you. We don’t need platitudes that are easy; we need friends who are there. I suspect this sort of sincere friendship is something that would go a long way for many struggling in our churches.

6. Believe that we are strong.

We are tougher than you might think. We’ve been through hell and survived. Living with it may be tough, but we got through. We don’t need to be coddled, we need respect.

We live in a fallen world.

Statistics indicate that 32% of children have experienced childhood abuse (3). That means that the likelihood of sitting next to someone in a service or bible study group that has a traumatic history is not uncommon. And the world is not getting any better. It is the responsibility of the church to understand ALL members of the congregation, and to carve out a place for the growing number of trauma survivors in our midst. The church should not and cannot take the place of therapeutic help.

Instead, the church needs to provide a place of safety and compassion, where the practical skills of learning to trust and feel safe can be put into practice as we walk through this world and come to terms with our history of trauma, and our place as a child of God.

A word to survivors.

There will be readers who are survivors of some sort of trauma that has defined and shaped their view of the world.

All I’d like to say is, if you have reached through the muck of your history and are clinging to God, don’t give up. Believe that in the church community, there will be rest. Take charge of your future, and if you don’t find that respite in the church you are in, then reach out, ask for what you need or find a new church home. Do the hardest thing of all: trust yourself. Trust what you know of God and lean into Him. That support is there; you may have to look beyond the jagged edges of the ragamuffin mob of believers that surround you, but God will introduce you to people of faith you can be real with. They won’t be perfect; no one is, but they can be a heart where who you are is accepted and loved.

Start there.

Here are versus that help me each day:

Proverbs 3.5-8, Deuteronomy 29.29, Romans 5:3-4, Psalm 139, Psalm 46.10

Maggie Walters is a trauma survivor and author of SPLIT a life shared: living with Multiple Personality Disorder. She is an advocate, both in and out of the church, for changing the narrative around mental health and complex trauma.  

Article supplied with thanks to Akos Balogh.

About the Author: Akos is the Executive Director of the Gospel Coalition Australia. He has a Masters in Theology and is a trained Combat and Aerospace Engineer.

Feature image: Canva

It feels like the world is on fire. Just look at Ukraine, Gaza, China and AI – there’s much to keep us up at night.

Will the rules-based world order that has kept major conflict at bay for the last 70 years survive? Or will the new Trump administration’s ‘America First’ policy lead to a withdrawal from organisations like NATO? Some commentators are bullish about Trump’s foreign policy, while others predict the end of NATO and a more fractious, conflict-ridden world.

And then there’s AI.

As AI continues to advance, will it take our jobs and dehumanise us? Where will that leave our kids as they finish school and move toward entering the workforce? And what about China? President Xi Xingping has allegedly told his military to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Will he order his troops to take the island?

There’s much to worry about in this uncertain world—the world really is on fire. But as I think and blog about these issues, I try to process them in a way that draws me closer to God and his goodness rather than toward despair and fear.

Here’s how I’m going about it:

1) Sin may shock me, but it shouldn’t surprise me

I’ve been traumatised from watching the news over the past 18 months.

The October 7 massacres plumbed a level of evil and brutality I could scarcely imagine. And not just by Hamas fighters, but also some everyday Palestinians and Muslims in the Middle East and Australia, who cheered on this atrocity.

Is this really the world we live in, I wondered.

Like many in the West, I’ve been immersed in the Enlightenment-era belief that the world is improving and progressing. Yes, we are improving in many areas, like technology, health, and wealth (with global rates of poverty falling precipitously over the last 40 years). And for this, we should praise God!

But morally, as humans, we’re cut from the same crooked timber as Adam and Eve.

And Jesus doesn’t give us any expectations of a world progressing. Instead, we’re to expect wars and rumours of wars (Matt 24:6-7). Sinful people will go from bad to worse (2 Tim 3:13). As they persecuted Jesus, so they’ll persecute us (John 15:20). We’re living in a world under God’s judgement (Romans 1), where God is giving humanity over to its sinful desires, leading to evil people doing evil things.

That’s the Biblical expectation.

And so, while I’m shocked by evil people doing evil things, I shouldn’t be surprised. This is ‘situation normal’ (as tragic as it is).

And if I expect evil to happen in this rebellious world of ours, I’ll more likely respond to it in a way that looks toward the only One who can bring a final end to this evil:

2) If I look to the Risen Messiah, I’ll be at peace

In my relatively short life I’ve realised something: what holds my attention governs my life.

If I’m looking to human politicians to solve my and the world’s problems, I’ll be on a never-ending rollercoaster of ups and downs, depending on their performance and on whether they’re in power. I’ll feel fear when tyrants rise. I’ll feel relief when ‘my party’ wins.

But human politicians are mortal and temporary. They can only do so much. Their power is limited.

But if I remember how big God is, then the world’s problems will always seem smaller – or rather, in the right proportion. And that tends to ease my fears, and bring me comfort.

3) Life, and this world, are temporary, ‘like a dream’

Tim Keller once described our temporal world and our lives like a dream:

It’s all-encompassing when you’re in it. But then you wake up, and it’s all behind you. Of course, there are consequences to our actions in this world that we don’t have in our dreams, but from eternity’s perspective, it’s just as temporary.

‘So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.’ (2 Cor 4:18).

When I remember that life is temporary, I feel strangely soothed. I can better respond to bad news, knowing that this world will be rolled up like a scroll and God will bring it to judgement (Eccl 12:14).

4) I’m  never alone: Christ is also with me

While suffering is challenging, I find it even more challenging when I feel alone and isolated in that suffering.

When I think that I have to face an uncertain future alone, I feel vulnerable. I feel exposed. I feel weak. But when I remember that Christ is with us, to the end of the age (Matt 28:20), then I feel a rush of comfort, even confidence. I can face an uncertain and challenging future knowing that the risen and Almighty Lord Jesus Christ is with me.

5) Have the right hope, or frustration will be the norm

Like most people around the world, I hope for a future of peace and stability.

Where Jewish kids aren’t massacred or taken hostage, and Palestinian kids aren’t bombed or used as human shields. Where there’s peace in our region and democracy in Russia.

And those are good things to hope for and pray for.

But if that’s where my hope ends, I’ll feel frustrated and disillusioned. I might even tend toward despair.

But if my ultimate hope is in an ultimate reality – the return of Jesus and the end of all evil (Rev 21), then I won’t be afraid or shaken. Sure, I’ll lament sad things that happen, but these things won’t undo me.

6) I need to get out of centre stage – and keep Jesus there

One of the most profound truths in Scripture is this: Jesus is the centre of the Universe. Therefore, he must be the centre of my life.

But since every man since Adam, I have a tendency to put myself in the centre. And when I do,  strange and awful things happen.

I find myself becoming more demanding of those around me, including what’s happening out there in the world. I subtly (or not so subtly) demand things of God. As I become more demanding, I become more controlling, wanting to bend situations and people to my will. Of course, I can’t control anyone, let alone world events, so I end up feeling angry and frustrated. I question God. I question his goodness.

But when Jesus is the centre of my life, these selfish, controlling desires start losing their grip on me. I see the world with a fresh perspective: it’s not about me and what I want. It’s about what Jesus is doing, bringing more people into his kingdom and waiting for that final day of his return.

7) Thankfulness gives perspective

Being glued to social media and the news tends to shift my perspective in God-less direction. Whether fear at world events. Or envy of other people’s lives.

But thankfulness shifts my perspective in a God-ward direction.

When I realise that everything I have – my life, my family, my possessions, my health, my relationships – are ultimately a gift from a good and heavenly Father, my perspective shifts. When I realise that as a sinful, rebellious man I deserve eternal condemnation, not the life I’ve been given, I’m humbled and removed from the centre of life.

When I realise the forgiveness Jesus has won for me – undeserved, eternal, unwavering – I feel joy.

8) Waiting is a feature of the Christian life, not a bug

As a modern 21st century Australian, I’m not a fan of waiting.

I want my life to work as I want it, right now. Waiting is not only a waste of time, I reason, but frustrating. I want God to fix the world now. Why can’t there peace in Ukraine now? Why can’t the Middle East calm down, now? What’s God doing, I think to myself?

But waiting isn’t a bug, something that’s wrong with the Christian life: it’s baked into it. Whether it’s waiting for Jesus’ return, for God to answer prayer, or patiently waiting during a challenging personal season, waiting is what we’re designed for.

As author Mark Vroegop points out in his book Waiting isn’t a Waste, ‘Waiting on God is living on what I know to be true about God when I don’t know what’s true about my life’. If I know that God is good and in control, then I’ll live differently in this difficult ‘already but not yet’ chapter of world history. I’ll live trusting that God has got this, rather than despairing and shaking my head (or fist) at God for not doing what I think he should be doing.

Article supplied with thanks to Akos Balogh.

About the Author: Akos is the Executive Director of the Gospel Coalition Australia. He has a Masters in Theology and is a trained Combat and Aerospace Engineer.

Feature image: Photo by Na Inho on Unsplash

‘We predict that the impact of superhuman AI over the next decade will be enormous, exceeding that of the Industrial Revolution.’

So begins the  new report “AI-2027” that is making waves in the AI world and some US Media about its forecast of the imminent arrival of AI superintelligence, and the danger it poses to humanity:

‘The CEOs of OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic have all predicted that AGI [Human Level Artificial Intelligence] will arrive within the next 5 years. Sam Altman has said OpenAI is setting its sights on “superintelligence in the true sense of the word” and the “glorious future.” It’s tempting to dismiss this as just hype. This would be a grave mistake—it is not just hype. We have no desire to hype AI ourselves, yet we also think it is strikingly plausible that superintelligence could arrive by the end of the decade.’

While many people have made general comments about the disruption that AI will (most likely) bring, few if any have given a blow-by-blow, month-by-month prediction of what this will look like.

Until now.

And the AI-2027 report makes for sobering reading, written for the sake of preparing us for what’s (possibly?) coming:

‘If we’re on the cusp of superintelligence, society is nowhere near prepared. Very few people have even attempted to articulate any plausible path through the development of superintelligence. We wrote AI 2027 to fill that gap, providing much needed concrete detail.’

To put it another way, while our news feeds are currently filled with Trump’s presidency, the advent of AI – and potentially super intelligent AI – will relegate the current Trump presidency to a footnote of history compared to the AI revolution you and I are living through.

But how seriously can we take people who forecast the future? Weren’t we meant to be living in space colonies and flying around like the Jetson’s according to earlier forecasts? The AI 2027 authors – including a former OpenAI Engineer-turned-whistle-blower, an expert forecaster, and others – explain why we should  listen:

‘[O]ver the course of this project, we did an immense amount of background research, expert interviews, and trend extrapolation to make the most informed guesses we could. Moreover, our team has an excellent track record in forecasting, especially on AI. Daniel Kokotajlo, lead author, wrote a similar scenario 4 years ago called “What 2026 Looks Like”, which aged remarkably well, and Eli Lifland is a top competitive forecaster.’

In other words, this isn’t just the imaginings of a science fiction writer, but the serious work of professionals exploring what might happen next.

So what’s in their forecast? And how might Christians respond to it?

While the AI-2027 report is over 70 pages long (highly readable, but at times technical), here’s the Readers Digest version of the report, involving a fictional AI company called ‘OpenBrain’:

2025: AI development gathers pace, with the lead US Company ‘OpenBrain’ developing AI that can program AI, as it sees this as key to accelerating AI progress. It aims to win against other AI companies in the US, but also against China.

2026: China wakes up, and realises the stakes of being behind in AI research. It doubles down on industrial espionage (i.e. stealing OpenBrain’s AI secrets). OpenBrain’s new AI has started taking jobs, but new jobs are also being created.

2027: OpenBrian has developed a self-improving AI – a ‘country of geniuses in a datacentre’. Most of the humans AI developers at OpenBrain become obsolete. But this AI is ‘misaligned’: OpenBrain struggles to ensure that the goals of the AI are aligned with human goals. AI progress accelerates, and the public is getting nervous. Things that sound like science fiction keep happening in real life. But there’s no massive job displacement – the economy grows.

2028: The AI economy arrives, where humans realise they are obsolete. AI’s and robots now do all the work. But there are also benefits: cures for most diseases, end to poverty, unprecedented global stability. Some people are scared and unhappy, but what can they do? The powerful AI has it’s own goals, which don’t include humans. But the AI hasn’t acted on this – yet.

Two Possible Endings

The report finishes with two possible endings: the ‘Race Ending’, where AI development surges ahead despite the public’s misgivings (China is the big threat they’re racing against), or the ‘Slowdown Ending’, where AI development slows down out of fear of AI takeover:

The ‘Race’ Ending:

2030: The  AI Takeover. AI continue building factories, pouring out robots and drones. But eventually, the latest AI finds the remaining humans too much of an impediment: in mid-2030, the AI releases a dozen quiet-spreading biological weapons in major cities, lets them silently infect almost everyone, then triggers them with a chemical spray. Most are dead within hours; the few survivors (e.g. preppers in bunkers, sailors on submarines) are mopped up by drones.

The ‘Slowdown’ (Safer) Ending:

2028: Superintelligent AI is developed but aligned with human goals (i.e., unlikely to harm or destroy us). There’s an AI treaty between the US and China, to ensure safe AI.

2030: AI does all the work, and the government gets its revenue from tax. New innovations and medications arrive weekly; disease cures are moving at unprecedented speed. People have superintelligence on their smartphones which they talk to constantly. Many people give into consumerism, and are happy enough. Others turn to religion, or to hippie-style anti-consumerist ideas, or find their own solutions.

The Aim of AI-2027: Start a Conversation

The authors of AI-2027 have written a confronting report, but they’re not aiming to start a panic. Instead, they want to raise awareness to shape a more human-friendly future: ‘We hope to spark a broad conversation about where we’re headed and how to steer toward positive futures.’ And for that alone, it’s worth reading.

 So, what can we make of all this as Christians?

1) ‘It’s very hard to make predictions, especially about the future’, so don’t lose perspective

Time will tell whether these predictions will come to pass.

Maybe it won’t be anywhere near as bad as what they’re saying. Maybe human level AI will arrive, and we’ll all shrug our shoulders and move on, like US economist Tyler Cowen argued on April 16th, when he wrote that we’ve just hit Artificial General Intelligence (AGI):

I think [the new ChatGPT o3 model] is AGI, seriously.  Try asking it lots of questions, and then ask yourself: just how much smarter was I expecting AGI to be?

As I’ve argued in the past, AGI, however you define it, is not much of a social event per se.  It still will take us a long time to use it properly.  I do not expect [stock market] prices to move significantly (that AI is progressing rapidly already is priced in, and I doubt if the market cares about “April 16th” per se).

Benchmarks, benchmarks, blah blah blah.  Maybe AGI is like porn — I know it when I see it.

And I’ve seen it.

Or maybe it will be bad as the AI-2027 authors warn, and humanity will face an existential threat. Author and Apologist John Lennox suggests that perhaps the beast of Revelation 13:15 involves an AI element. [1]

2) Technology (like AI) doesn’t force us to use it – it merely ‘opens the door’. But for AI companies, the incentives to keep developing it outweigh the incentives to ‘slow down’

Technology like AI does not determine our future, but it does open up various possibilities. However, AI companies are pushing AI into the marketplace because the incentives to deploy them are so strong, first from the marketplace itself (the trillions in potential revenue), and the looming threat of China overtaking US AI companies.

And the incentives to keep developing and deploying AI outweigh the potential fears that some AI researchers have about ‘misaligned’ AI going rogue. At least for now.

This means that nothing short of a government edict will stop AI development – but the current US Administration wants AI development to speed up, not slow down, partly because of the geopolitical threat from China.

3) AI companies have (blind) faith that they’ll be able to control powerful AI

AI companies like OpenAI aren’t really concerned about the dangers of AGI – or at least, their executives aren’t. One of the 2027 report authors, Daniel Kokotajlo, is a former AI employee who is a whistle-blower about OpenAI’s race toward AGI, writing:

‘A sane civilization would not be proceeding with the creation of this incredibly powerful technology until we had some better idea of what we were doing and how we were going to keep it safe’.

4) The quiet part is increasingly being said out loud: Many AI companies want to automate all knowledge work

For obvious reasons, AI companies have been coy about saying their AI is intended to replace all knowledge work, but it’s already happening under the radar.

That’s right: they want a world where AI takes over ALL cognitive computer related work. What would such a world look like? The above report gives us a prediction: AI developers are made redundant as soon as AI can self-program and thus self-improve at a rate much, much faster than human AI developers.

But more broadly, Tech podcaster and Investor Dwarkesh Patel has outlined his vision of a world of AI only corporations. What about physical work? If Elon Musk has his way, his (and other) robots will automate much of that in the coming decade.

Let’s just say these AI companies are not operating out a Christian worldview of the dignity of human labour…

5) AI is not like any technology before it: the more powerful it becomes, the harder it is to control

Your computer is now thousands, if not millions of times more powerful than what we were using in the 1980’s. And yet, is it harder for you to control?  Of course not.

It’s the same for almost all technology: planes, cars, rockets. Upgrading these and making them more powerful doesn’t necessarily make it harder to control them. [2]

Not so with AI. The more powerful it gets, the more intelligent it becomes. And the more intelligent it becomes, the harder it is to understand it and control it. And we’re seeing this already, with AI becoming more deceptive as it grows in intelligence.

6) The wider public (including you and me) need to understand the perils and promises of AI

It’s tempting to put your head in the sand and hope this blows over. But that’s highly unlikely.

As Proverbs 22:3 says:

‘The prudent sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple go on and suffer for it.’

Now is the time for Christians – and wider society – to start wrapping our heads around the perils and promises of AI, and start a broader conversation about where we want to head with it as a society. The more we’re engaged in this broader conversation, the more likely we’ll be able to steer toward a more positive future when it comes to AI.

7) We may wish for simpler, less confronting times: but God put us here for a reason

As author Paul Matthews points out in his book  A Time to Lead: A Faithful Approach to AI in Christian Education:

‘There are times when I catch myself wishing I was teaching in a simpler time; one of those times where teaching looked similar from decade to decade. In these moments, it’s the sovereignty of God that clarifies my thinking. If God wanted me to teach in those times, that’s where he would have put me. But he didn’t! He put me – and you – right in the midst of the most rapid technological change the world has ever known. God has not called us merely to batten down the hatches and try to limit the damage. God has called us to lead.’[2]

8) While Christians should be aware of AI, we need not despair, for our Lord Reigns

Fellow Christian, this is our time. Yes, the road ahead may be rough and uncertain. Yes, we may lose much, and suffer more. But we know that God has our lives in His hands, and so we can say, with the apostle Paul:

If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?…  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall [AI or ] trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers [including super intelligent AI], neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:32-39)

We have a choice before us: do we lean into the challenge (and opportunity) that AI brings, trusting that God works all things for his purposes? Or do we bury our heads in the sand and ignore what’s coming?

[1] John C. Lennox, 2084 – Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity (Zondervan: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2020), 201.

[2] Paul Matthews, A Time To Lead – A Faithful Approach To Artificial Intelligence In Christian Education, 6-7.

Article supplied with thanks to Akos Balogh.

About the Author: Akos is the Executive Director of the Gospel Coalition Australia. He has a Masters in Theology and is a trained Combat and Aerospace Engineer.

Feature image: Canva