The Small Town Anti-Christ

I was recently informed that I may be the antichrist of a small town. Not officially, of course. There was no ceremony, no plaque, no ominous choir. Just the general suggestion that because I am helping build infrastructure connected to artificial intelligence, I must be somewhere on the prophetic warning-label spectrum.

Which, to be fair, is a lot to carry before lunch.

The concern is understandable, even if the title feels a little dramatic. Technology moves fast and AI feels strange… Especially when you see what humans uses it for.

Data centers sound mysterious and when people do not know what something is, the imagination tends to fill in the gaps with either science fiction or Revelation charts.

I think this goes without saying, but just in case and to be perfectly clear…

I am not building AI Jesus, ma’am!

I am not trying to replace God, recreate the image of God, or construct some digital messiah with fiber internet and a cooling system.

That is actually part of why I care so much about writing Artificial Faith. The danger of AI is not that a machine becomes God- but the very real danger is that humans start treating machines like they are. We are not in danger because technology can answer questions. We are in danger when we stop asking whether those answers are true, wise, holy, or good.

So yes, I understand the suspicion…. I even appreciate parts of it… except for a few of the comments I’ve received- some are just plain rude!

Christians SHOULD be cautious about the tools that shape us. We SHOULD ask better questions than the world asks. We SHOULD not blindly baptize every innovation just because it is useful, efficient, or profitable.

But hear me say it loud for the ones with the pitch forks in the back: Fear is not the same thing as discernment.

Panic is not the same thing as wisdom just because Bill calls every new machine “the mark of the beast”.

So what do I believe?

Thanks for asking.

My hope is to live somewhere between the extremes.

I do not want to worship technology, and at the same time, I do not want to be afraid of it. I want to examine it, use it carefully, question it honestly, and keep it in its proper place. That is the line I keep coming back to… open, but anchored.

My I suggest we approach it like the Bereans of Acts 17. (Previous post here!)

We can build things without bowing to them. We can use tools without being formed by them. We can engage the age we live in without forgetting who is Lord over it.

Because in the end…. God created the heaven’s and the earth, and the humans and the humans who made machines.

The end.