
Is artificial intelligence ruining our brain? By peshkova/stock.adobe.com
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently warned employees that artificial intelligence could replace them. “We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs,” he wrote.
However, as Allysia Finley notes in the Wall Street Journal, “Technological advances as far back as the printing press have eliminated some jobs while creating many others.” In her view, “The real danger is that excessive reliance on AI could spawn a generation of brainless young people unequipped for the jobs of the future because they have never learned to think creatively or critically.”
As an example, she reports that college and high school students are increasingly using AI models like ChatGPT to write papers, perform mathematical proofs, and create computer code. However, this means “they don’t learn how to think through, express, or defend ideas. Nor how to construct arguments and anticipate the rebuttals.” This is because “they offload these cognitive challenges to AI.”
Her fears are substantiated by a recent study published by Cornell University. It reports that participants using AI tools “consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels,” results that “raise concerns about the long-term education implications” of relying on such tools.
I once heard Henry Kissinger warn that we have more information than ever before, but less wisdom. The reason, he explained, was that information no longer needs to be learned or memorized since it is as close as our mobile devices. However, we need to internalize information in order to use it in developing knowledge, which is the basis for wisdom.
Outsourcing all three is hazardous to our minds and all that we use them to produce.
“Sola Scriptura” and our souls
As I read these stories, my thoughts were drawn to an implication directly related to evangelical Christians.
One of the chief differences between Catholic and Protestant worldviews concerns the role of the church in defining and applying biblical truth.
The Catholic position, stated briefly, is that the Holy Spirit gave the Bible through the church, so the Spirit uses the church to guide us in understanding and applying its truth to our lives. This means that the creeds, councils, and teachings of the Catholic church are normative in thinking and living biblically.
Many Protestants, by contrast, believe that the Spirit who inspired God’s word will lead us directly in understanding and applying its truth. We can and should learn much from each other and from the believers and theologians who have preceded us, but we can also trust the Spirit to guide us directly and personally.
This is why “sola Scriptura,” “only Scripture,” is a central tenet of Protestant faith.
Treating the Spirit like ChatGPT
Here’s the downside: In studying and applying Scripture, we can trust so fully in what we perceive to be the Spirit’s direct leading that we neglect our role in this process.
Jesus commanded us to love God “with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37), while Paul taught us to “think about” that which is “true” (Philippians 4:8–9). “The mature” are “those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:14). As a result, we are to “test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (1 John 4:1) and to “judge with right judgment” (John 7:24).
This means you and I play a vital role in partnering with the Spirit as he helps us understand and apply Scripture to our lives and world. Paul was known for his “great learning” (Acts 26:24); Luke did painstaking research in writing the “orderly account” that became his gospel (Luke 1:1–3). Like them, we are invited and privileged to partner with the Spirit as he guides us “into all the truth” (John 16:13). This requires commitment and discipline on our part.
However, we can choose to abdicate this vital role in our sanctification and ministry. We can treat the Spirit as if he were ChatGPT, assuming that our thoughts and inclinations are so guided by him that we do not need to do the hard work of testing our assumptions by biblical truth and theological wisdom.
That way lies immature faith, subjective spirituality, and even heresy and cults.
Three practical steps
How should we respond? Let’s close with three simple but vital steps.
One: Begin every day by submitting that day to the Holy Spirit. When we are “filled” and controlled by him in this way (Ephesians 5:18), we position ourselves to be led and taught by him through the day.
Two: Seek personal transformation by meeting God daily in his word. JI Packer called Scripture “God preaching.” As Francis Schaeffer noted, “He is there and he is not silent.” One of the primary ways he speaks to us is through the word he has given us.
God instructed Joshua:
Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success (Joshua 1:6–8).
Read God’s word daily, asking the Spirit to reveal its intended truth to your life. Do not stop until you have gained insights that make a practical difference in your life today. You cannot hear from the God of the universe and remain the same.
Three: Seek to think biblically about every event and moment of your day. Make Paul’s model yours: “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Allow no unbiblical thoughts in your mind and heart; test them by biblical truth and seek to glorify God in response. See sinful thoughts as spiritual cancer, and excise them the moment they appear.
Marcus Aurelius observed:
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
How happy will your life be today?