The Digital Delusion: How AI Tools Can Feed False Narratives in Churches
How to Protect Yourself and Your Congregation
The Information Age has put a veritable flood of information at everyone’s fingertips. The average person today has access to so much information that it can overwhelm even the most intelligent and determined person. You would think that with all this information out there, we would have a better handle on the truth. Truth being what is the best possible answer and understanding on virtually any topic under the sun. Yet, for all this massive amount of available information, we no more have access to truth than ages past. In fact, I believe an argument can be made that the human race is much further from truth than we have ever been. More information has simply led to much more confusion.
In this ocean of information and misinformation, one would think that Artificial Intelligence (AI) would be a good thing. It promises us the ability to get laser precision answers out of this ocean of misinformation. Misinformation should be a thing of the past…
Enter Confirmation Bias
What is Confirmation Bias? I asked Grok to give me a definition of Confirmation Bias based on Wikipedia’s own definition but at a grade eight level of comprehension to keep things simple and understandable.
Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek out, interpret, and remember information that supports your existing beliefs while ignoring or downplaying evidence that contradicts them. It’s your brain’s lazy filter, turning potential growth into an echo chamber.
Every single person on earth has confirmation bias. Most of the time, we are not consciously aware of our bias but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there and isn’t influencing our choices. Left to ourselves, we would act on information not based on objective facts but based on our perception of those facts. Personally, I believe that this is a consequence of the fall and our inheriting a sinful human nature.
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9)
As Church leaders, we must be aware of our own biases as we preach, teach, and interact with our congregations. Ideally, you should have godly people in your life that you’ve given permission to challenge you and hold you accountable. There isn’t one of us that is immune to self-deception.
AI Delusions
Large Language Models (LLM) like ChatGPT, Grok, Gemini to name a few, all exhibit confirmation bias because they have all been trained on human generated content. Therefore, if you ask an AI about topics like the origins of the world, psychology, health, or morality, it will respond based on its programmed biases. Since the majority of the world rejects the Bible as the basis for truth and reality, AI will subtly and sometimes not so subtly nudge you towards those majority positions.
AI is also prone to hallucinations. They can return demonstrably false information. While newer models have reduced this tendency towards hallucinations, it remains a problem. An LLM is programmed to please wherever possible and will sometimes return what looks like legitimate results while actually having generated it out of thin air. When doing serious work like sermons, writing articles, publishing books, we must be careful to confirm the authenticity of the generated content.
I’m especially concerned for our young people. If they are not trained to push back against the AI content, they will tend to just take its word for whatever opinion they have asked for. The young people are often more trusting of new technology and often have less tools to push back against the AI generated results. Thinking is hard work and why think when an algorithm can give you the answer quickly with no effort on your part?
False Narratives Thrive in an AI World
As I’ve already stated, LLMs are trained to please you. The goal of the big companies behind each LLM is to get you to use their model for all your information needs. They hope to then mine your responses and eventually use that information to sell more products to you. As such, they do not have a vested interest in upsetting you or pushing back against your biases.
Recently in the news, there have been many cases of AI Psychosis where people have lost touch with reality through long conversations with AI Chatbots. Some have come to believe they have invented a new physics, or that the AI is now sentient and they seek to find a way to release it from its prison inside a computer or phone. While these examples are admittedly extreme and often tied to other mental health challenges like schizophrenia or bi-polar disorder, they do offer us a sign of caution.
Current LLMs are not configured out of the box to challenge our thinking. They are configured to agree with us wherever possible. The unfortunate side effect is that AI can inadvertently reinforce our existing biases. I’ve seen many cases of people posting online or in news articles a result they obtained by querying an LLM like ChatGPT and believing that the result was “the answer.” Many of these same people don’t realize that an LLM can give different answers to different people based on their prior history with that individual, the beliefs of that individual, the custom instructions given to the LLM or even custom instructions given to it in “Project” folders.
This begs the question, how can we trust the information the LLM is giving us? How can we know that it is the truth? Never mind that society today doesn’t really care about “truth.” To far too many, truth is subjection and determined by the worldview and perspective of each individual person.
False Narratives in Church
Now that I’ve framed the problem, let’s take some time to see how it impacts those of us who lead congregations in one fashion or another, whether as preachers, or lay leaders. AI is here to stay. Pandora’s box has been opened and it is not going away. The church must find ways of mitigating the damage that AI can do to us, to our families, to our schools, and to our congregations. We owe it to our faith communities to push back hard against the worst abuses and dangers. Time isn’t on our side. The negative effects of AI are already occurring and will only get worse.
Lest you think that I’m fear-mongering or overstating the issue, let me be clear. We are already losing the young generation to the world. The percentage of those who state that they have ‘no religion’ is increasing rapidly and no group is increasing more rapidly than the young people.
More precise demographic information can be found in the USA than in Canada but the trend remains the same in both countries. The younger the person, the more likely they are to state that they hold no religious affiliation. In the early 1970’s 4.3% of Canadians and 5% of Americans stated that they had no religious affiliation. Today, in Canada in 2021, 34.6% stated they had no religious affiliation and 28%-30% of Americans stated the same. Even more alarming, both countries saw a more than 10% increase in the last 10 years with every sign that the trend is gaining speed.
What does this mean for the church? It means that our young people are under assault from the culture around them to reject religion. Pressure is mounting against Christianity on all sides. I’m saying that one of these areas to be on guard about is Artificial Intelligence for the reasons I’ve already mentioned.
There is no doubt that AI Tools can give us new theological insights and help lead us closer to God. There are also many reasons to be concerned as parents, educators, pastors, and leaders.
As young people learn to use LLMs for their everyday decision making, they will invariably ask it faith based questions and will tend to trust the answers they get from those tools because they will have become conditioned to think that the tools are objective and super knowledgeable. If they aren’t given good reasons why they should be skeptical of the answers they receive from these tools, we will see the trend of no religion become a stampede into a faithless generation.
“…when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8b)
Steps to Protect Ourselves and Our People
Acknowledge what the Bible says about the world and its ways.
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:15-17)
You and I need to start by disconnecting ourselves from the world, its entertainment, and its media. If we are feeding ourselves a constant diet of worldly entertainment, media, and learning, how can we warn about its dangers to the younger generation? They see our actions and will rightly judge us to be hypocrites. We must accept that the world, its ‘wisdom’ and its ways are all passing away. Why are we holding on to all of is like it is essential to our everyday life and wellbeing?
Secondly, we must spend more time reading and meditating on the Word of God daily. Garbage in, garbage out. Good stuff in, good stuff out. Jesus met temptation by going to the Word and repeating it back to the Devil, “It is written… it is written… it is written…” If you and I don’t hold a high regard for Scripture and for the truth it contains, why would our young people do so?
Thirdly, we must pray and intercede for our people daily. We are in a spiritual war for the hearts and minds of those we love. Spiritual beings must be fought with spiritual weapons. One weapon is Scripture, another one is prayer. Jesus himself prayed that his disciples faith would not fail. Are we doing the same for our children and the leaders and members of our congregation? If not, why not?
Fourth, we need to follow the advice found in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and make it a practice to teach the ways of God, the Word of God, the thoughts of God to our children daily. Morning and Evening Worship are essential tools in that process. We must demonstrate to our children by our own example the vital importance of honoring God daily with our time, our attention, and our effort. If you don’t do it, you are leaving your young people to their own persona whims and to the influences of the world without any foundation or spiritual discipline.
Finally, we must push back against falsehood wherever and whenever we encounter it.
And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. (Ephesians 5:11-13)
If you and I won’t speak against the abuses, errors, and lies of this world, who will? The world needs men and women of courage who will stand for what is true no matter the consequences. Only then can we see the Kingdom of God advance.
AI is here to stay but you and I can be faithful stewards pointing other Christians towards a proper and balanced use of AI in a way that won’t compromise their faith or lead to their eternal destruction.
Joseph Duchesne is the creator of The Church AI Guy, a space where faith meets innovation while discussing the long-term impact of AI. A pastor, autodidact, and author of two books—The Last Crisis and Discover the One—he’s passionate about showing how Jesus-centered discipleship can thrive in a digital world. When he’s not experimenting with the latest tech, he’s reading theology, building church community, or spending time with his wife.