On November 23, 2025 we were privileged to have Joanne Loewen lead us through an informational session with accompanying discussion to thoughfully consider Artificial Intelligence, its benefits and drawbacks, and how we as Christians should interact with it. If you weren't able to make it, you can find the presentation slides here.
A video of the presentation will also be made available in the near future.
Read a blog post from Joanne below.
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Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.
-James 1:5
In a world where AI is becoming increasingly accessible – even ubiquitous – it is becoming increasingly important to take the time to inform ourselves about it. While the world seems to be embracing AI with wild abandon, how as Christians might we be called to think differently about it?
Whether you are young, middle-aged or ripe in wisdom and years, the topic of AI is now relevant. If you use any kind of device, it is relevant. If you have children or grandchildren, it is relevant. It is no longer a fringe or futuristic concept, or something reserved for professionals working in the digital space...it is being woven into the fabric of the culture at every level, sometimes invisibly.
AI can offer some tremendous benefits. For example, in the fields of science and medicine, it is completely revolutionizing the ability to diagnose and treat disease, while strengthening and speeding up the connections in research, leading to more frequent and robust discoveries. There is no doubt that many good and virtuous uses can be argued on the pro-AI side, across many disciplines.
But because of the hype and positivity-bias towards AI in this cultural moment, we are not often encouraged to stop and think about the potential drawbacks of AI use, especially when it comes to personal use. Careful and informed use in “upper level” professional settings for specific and deliberate purposes is one thing...but it may be worth distinguishing that kind of use from the more “ground-level” use we encounter in daily life as regular people with tools like ChatGPT.
The negative impacts, just like the benefits, are too numerous to list and describe. To name a few: conditioning humans to expect quick answers, fostering over-dependency and trust in AI, creating feedback loops with confirmation bias, mental shortcutting leading to stunted brain growth, propagating misinformation, and opaquely or invisibly plagiarizing published works...not to mention the very tangible negative impacts on our earth and its resources. To understand these impacts more thoroughly, it’s really helpful to understand how AI technologies work – see resources below if you’re interested in educating yourself further about AI.
All the above examples are impacts any human can agree are important to weigh. But as Christians, we have the added dynamic of considering how spiritual formation and Biblical worldview shape our view and approach. Perhaps “added” is the wrong word here, as that implies it’s one extra-and-equally-weighted thing to pile on top of the reasons to use or not use AI. Primary or foundational might be more precise terms, as our faith is the primary, foundational lens through which we view the world, not merely an afterthought.
As a high school teacher, I have seen the effects of “ground-level” use AI on adolescents first-hand. For the last two and a half years or so, I have dealt with countless incidents related to AI use. It reminds me of the early days of the smart phone, when I first caught a glimpse of the impacts of putting powerful technologies in the hands of young people. It took us (the world) more than ten years to figure out that smart phones and social media have had massive impacts on adolescent development and well-being. May God give us wisdom now for how to be proactive in anticipating the potential impacts of AI.
And while social and cognitive development are absolutely crucial factors to consider, adolescents aren’t the only ones impacted by the quick and easy solutions provided by AI. Even “fully-formed” adult hearts and minds can be conditioned by overreliance on AI to perform certain functions. Whether it’s outsourcing small mundane tasks to AI, or turning to it for information, advice, support, therapy or wisdom, adults are not immune to the social-emotional and even physical impacts of using AI, especially when they have no guiding framework for its use.
Ultimately, our goal is to think critically and Biblically about AI, in order to discern:
o IF and WHEN it can be helpful to promote deep thinking, relationship, personal growth, discipleship, and other life-giving and life-affirming values.
o HOW and WHEN it has the potential to set us back, harm us, or distract us from our call as Christians to love God, to love one another, to bear the fruit of the Spirit, and to steward the gifts that have been given to us.
We won’t all agree on the true nature and risk of AI – when it should be used, if it should be used at all, what tools and uses are ok or not ok, or whether or not the world is going to hell in a handbasket. Even expert philosophers and scientists hold massively polar views on these questions. These differences exist amongst Christian academics as well.
Approaching this topic from a Biblical worldview doesn’t mean that we all arrive at the exact same conclusion. This dissonance is not a bad thing. In fact, it can sharpen the way we think about this as we listen to and consider multiple viewpoints, and weigh them against Biblical values.
“How do we live out the gospel in the age of AI? It’s not all that different than living out the gospel in the age of the printing press.”
-Dr. Gretchen Huizinga (while appearing on 100 Huntley Street)
Resources for how to think Biblically and critically about AI use:
Artificially Intelligent (podcast series): Christianity Today produced 3 podcasts investigating AI from a Christian worldview.
Should Christians use AI? A Debate (podcast): two Christians in different fields debate the good, the bad and ugly of AI.
The worldview behind AI (video): Dr. Gretchen Huizinga, Christian Academic, former Microsoft podcaster.
Spiritual Formation and AI (video): A conversation between Jay Kim (pastor) and Andy Crouch (author of “the TechWise Family”).
AI, Faith and the Future (video): Sean McDowell from the Talbot School of Theology (Biola University) interviews 3 professors in different fields studying AI (computer science, of business and philosophy).
The Spiritual Danger of Speed Privilege (podcast): AJ Swoboda and Nijay Gupta from the Slow Theology podcast talk about the impacts of having unfettered access to fast answers.
Grok Admits God is Real: an eye-opening video from Answers in Genesis that demonstrates how chatbots can be prompted to give completely conflicting answers to the exact same question (putting in question their reliability).
Resources about how AI works (from secular perspectives):
AI terminology explained: Brief overview of the main AI terms to know. The information is helpful, but be mindful that this is presented by IBM, so there is a clear pro-AI bias.
The Impacts of Cognitive Bypassing: Impacts of AI on learning from a former teacher, medical doctor and learning expert.
Generative AI in a nutshell : this covers history and the basics of AI, as well as other considerations for its use. HOWEVER, this is also an example of a very pro-AI approach, and the view expressed by the video’s presenter clearly express a view that being a super-productive human is a net gain.
Book Recommendation: 2084 and the AI revolution
