{"id":66937,"date":"2026-05-04T14:01:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T14:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?post_type=sermon-illustrations&#038;p=66937"},"modified":"2026-05-04T14:01:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T14:01:28","slug":"how-chatbots-answer-your-prayers","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/how-chatbots-answer-your-prayers\/","title":{"rendered":"How Chatbots Answer Your Prayers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A <em>New York Times<\/em> article observes how we are seeing AI as God. As the subtitle puts it, \u201cA religious fervor surrounds our relationship with technology.\u201d The linguist Adam Aleksic claims, \u201cYou\u2019re Literally Worshiping Your Phone\u2026 Scrolling [on your computer or phone] is a digital prayer. You assume it knows a piece of you. You are offering your attention and in exchange you get something.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the <em>New York Times<\/em> article offered this insightful contrast between the God of the Bible and the idol god of AI:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAs anyone who has ever prayed in a house of worship or to God in bed at night will know, prayers are not always answered. But the act itself gives comfort and hope. Here lies an important difference between our \u201cdigital prayers,\u201d which is a guaranteed transaction, and traditional religious prayer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The chatbot prayer is always met immediately with an answer. And the answer comes from an unctuous prophet: An analysis published this year found that A.I. chatbots are 50 percent more [bent on meeting your needs].. The major chatbots flatter their users and reflect back to them their worldview. The A.I.-driven personalization algorithm creates playlists for you and only you\u2026 The relationship between users and chatbots is defined by \u2018narcissistic individualism,\u2019 with A.I. incapable of delivering the hard truths of a traditional prophet or oracle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The article notes that the god of AI shapes us to think: \u201cI am the only one who gets to initiate the conversation. It is there for me, and it serves me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"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":[3419,5338,4679],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-66937","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-answered-prayer","tax_ctp_tags-artificial-intelligence-ai","tax_ctp_tags-prayer"],"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}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How Chatbots Answer Your Prayers - 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\/how-chatbots-answer-your-prayers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Chatbots Answer Your Prayers - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A New York Times article observes how we are seeing AI as God. As the subtitle puts it, \u201cA religious fervor surrounds our relationship with technology.\u201d The linguist Adam Aleksic claims, \u201cYou\u2019re Literally Worshiping Your Phone\u2026 Scrolling [on your computer or phone] is a digital prayer. You assume it knows a piece of you. 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