{"id":35121,"date":"2024-02-29T10:36:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-29T10:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/ais-hopes-and-dreams-are-christianity-repackaged\/"},"modified":"2024-02-29T10:36:00","modified_gmt":"2024-02-29T10:36:00","slug":"ais-hopes-and-dreams-are-christianity-repackaged","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/ais-hopes-and-dreams-are-christianity-repackaged\/","title":{"rendered":"AI\u2019s Hopes and Dreams are Christianity Repackaged"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Formerly the Religion Editor for the <em>Atlantic<\/em>, Sigal Samuel now writes about the future of consciousness, artificial intelligence, and neuroscience, and their &quot;staggering ethical implications.&quot; She describes much of the hope for artificial intelligence as mimicking what Christianity and other major religions have been espousing for centuries. She writes:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Suppose I told you that in 10 years &hellip; you will live in a sort of paradise. You won&rsquo;t get sick, or age, or die. Eternal life will be yours! Even better, your mind will be blissfully free of uncertainty &mdash; you&rsquo;ll have access to perfect knowledge. Oh, and you&rsquo;ll no longer be stuck on Earth. Instead, you can live up in the heavens.<\/p>\n<p>The more you listen to Silicon Valley&rsquo;s discourse around AI, the more you hear echoes of religion. That&rsquo;s because a lot of the excitement about building a superintelligent machine comes down to recycled religious ideas. Most secular technologists who are building AI just don&rsquo;t recognize that.<\/p>\n<p>These technologists propose cheating death by uploading our minds to the cloud, where we can live digitally for all eternity. They talk about AI as a decision-making agent that can judge with mathematical certainty what&rsquo;s optimal and what&rsquo;s not. (It is) an endeavor that guarantees human salvation if it goes well, even as it spells doom if it goes badly.<\/p>\n<p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Jack Clark, co-founder of the AI safety company Anthropic, recently wrote: &ldquo;Sometimes I think a lot of the breathless enthusiasm for AGI is misplaced religious impulses from people brought up in a secular culture.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\n<p>Sigal Samuel summarizes the beliefs in this nutshell: &quot;When we put all these ideas together and boil them down, we get this basic proposition:<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\t<li>We may not have much time until life as we know it is over.<\/li>\n\n\t<li>So, we need to place a bet on something that can save us.<\/li>\n\n\t<li>Since the stakes are so high, we should ante up and go all in on our bet.<\/li>\n\n<\/ul>\n\n<p>Silicon Valley&rsquo;s vision for AI? It&rsquo;s religion, repackaged<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3398,3399,3655,3737,3863,3864,3880,3886,3951,3953,3977,4014,4180,4181,4186,4223,4385,4493,4891,5129],"tax_ctp_topics":[397,400],"class_list":["post-35121","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-afterlife","tax_ctp_tags-age","tax_ctp_tags-computers","tax_ctp_tags-death","tax_ctp_tags-end-of-the-world","tax_ctp_tags-end-times","tax_ctp_tags-eschatology","tax_ctp_tags-eternal-life","tax_ctp_tags-false-gods","tax_ctp_tags-false-religion","tax_ctp_tags-fear-of-death","tax_ctp_tags-forsaking-god","tax_ctp_tags-human-limitations","tax_ctp_tags-human-nature","tax_ctp_tags-humanism","tax_ctp_tags-immortality","tax_ctp_tags-longevity","tax_ctp_tags-mortality","tax_ctp_tags-science","tax_ctp_tags-technology"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>AI\u2019s Hopes and Dreams are Christianity Repackaged - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/ais-hopes-and-dreams-are-christianity-repackaged\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AI\u2019s Hopes and Dreams are Christianity Repackaged - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Formerly the Religion Editor for the Atlantic, Sigal Samuel now writes about the future of consciousness, artificial intelligence, and neuroscience, and their &quot;staggering ethical implications.&quot; She describes much of the hope for artificial intelligence as mimicking what Christianity and other major religions have been espousing for centuries. She writes: Suppose I told you that in Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/ais-hopes-and-dreams-are-christianity-repackaged\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/ais-hopes-and-dreams-are-christianity-repackaged\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/ais-hopes-and-dreams-are-christianity-repackaged\/\",\"name\":\"AI\u2019s Hopes and Dreams are Christianity Repackaged - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-29T10:36:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-29T10:36:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/ais-hopes-and-dreams-are-christianity-repackaged\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/ais-hopes-and-dreams-are-christianity-repackaged\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/ais-hopes-and-dreams-are-christianity-repackaged\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"AI\u2019s Hopes and Dreams are Christianity Repackaged\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"AI\u2019s Hopes and Dreams are Christianity Repackaged - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/ais-hopes-and-dreams-are-christianity-repackaged\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"AI\u2019s Hopes and Dreams are Christianity Repackaged - CT Pastors","og_description":"Formerly the Religion Editor for the Atlantic, Sigal Samuel now writes about the future of consciousness, artificial intelligence, and neuroscience, and their &quot;staggering ethical implications.&quot; She describes much of the hope for artificial intelligence as mimicking what Christianity and other major religions have been espousing for centuries. 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