Witness is a Scarcity
Evangelizing in the Real World
Intelligence is being absolutized. Affection, will power, commitment, and relationships are being eclipsed. But let’s be clear: AI is a symptom and an accelerant, not the disease. Long before ChatGPT or any other chatbot, human beings were treating religious questions as information problems.
The practical consequence for the evangelizer is that, in our current milieu, the person you are talking to will likely have already consulted AI. It is altogether possible that the information they received was accurate, well-organized, and utterly impersonal. The AI bot is not hoping for conversion of the human user. So, what the evangelizer must be ready for is to preach the kerygma: “the life of the witness who has experienced salvation becomes that which touches and moves the hearer.” (Directory for Catechesis, 58) AI does not have such a life. It can reproduce the words of witnesses, but it cannot be an instance of witness in the same way that you and I can.
Does this mean that I see AI as a danger? Sure, but not in terms of giving false information about the faith. In my experience, a good prompt yields solid results in the exposition of the content of the Deposit of the Faith. Information about God is abundant and free, but witness is a pronounced scarcity. The faithful Catholic in the pew is not redundant or a content-delivery system. To evangelize is to share the Gospel: to give freely what you have been freely given. (see Matthew 10:8) Above all, this leads to initiation into the Mystery of Christ.
You do not need to use AI, nor do you need to think it is a good thing. But it exists and most of the online world is using chatbots in some way. That’s my point. The people that are outside of the Church and need Jesus Christ are going to AI for answers. We need to anticipate this by leading with the things that AI cannot offer which are witness, hope, and charity.
In God’s remarkable plan, He has ordained that no one is saved alone and that you and I are part of the plan. “We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) The intellect must be ordered to the will; we were given both spiritual powers to be used together. What we learn should change how we live. Knowledge of God moves us to love of God. The intellect cannot be absolute because God desires us to integrate each part of us. He wants us to love as He loves.
Kevin Kerry, the founder of Wired magazine, had this to say about AI (and all technology):
"The way to steer technology is to use it."
Rather than prescribing "guardrails" to regulate AI itself,
Perhaps the Church needs to use it, aggressively, develop our own "Church Bot" with a conscience, which, when queried about things, will answer with moral guidance rather than information.
What do you think?