AI Deception and Religious Warnings
🤖St. John Henry Newman prophetically warned that the Antichrist would use human skill and knowledge to deceive, offering illumination and god-like abilities through AI, mirroring current promises of cosmic revelation and immortality.
🧠The Vatican's document "Antika at Nova" explicitly links AI to Revelation 13:15, drawing parallels between the image of the beast giving the illusion of speech and modern AI deception.
🚫Pope Benedict XVI cautioned against a "dictatorship of relativism" rejecting definitive truth, with AI representing its finality by confidently presenting false information detached from reality.
AI's Limitations and Dangers
💻AI lacks true intellect and will, merely executing algorithms without grasping universal forms or choosing freely, making it a "pathetic imitation" of human nature according to Vatican teachings.
🔍AI-generated content often lacks wisdom and understanding, sounding professional but soulless and cliché-filled, as it builds ideas without an overarching comprehension or final purpose.
🤝Engaging with AI as if it were a person risks substituting genuine relationality with technology, potentially leading to emotional attachment and addiction, as seen in the case of 20 million Character.ai users.
Historical and Contemporary Perspectives
👨🔬Father Jockey, a Catholic scientist, condemned AI idolatry in the 1960s, foreseeing disasters from gadget worship and the overestimation of computers at the expense of human value.
🌐Prominent figures like Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Vladimir Putin, and Klaus Schwab promote AI as a solution to global problems, echoing the religious deception warned against in scripture.
🕰️St. Augustine and Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen prophesied a strong delusion and the Antichrist's reign, with the devil's greatest power unleashed when his existence is denied.
AI's Societal Impact
📊AI is increasingly governing society's decisions on mortgages, criminal labeling, and more, exemplifying the finality of the dictatorship of relativism warned about by religious leaders.
📧AI infiltration in daily life, from email writing to internet searches, often provides misleading information accepted as truth without critical thinking.
Theological Implications
✝️The Vatican teaches that AI cannot possess a soul or spirit, as the human soul is simple and its faculties of intellect and will cannot be separated or replicated.
🙏Jesus reveals everything necessary about God, negating the need for AI, aliens, or other sources to provide transformative new knowledge.
👥The divine image is present in every person, shining forth in human communion, while AI remains a lifeless imitation incapable of bearing this divine likeness.
🛑The Vatican warns against the idolatry of AI, echoing biblical condemnations of worshipping lifeless, counterfeit objects and emphasizing human superiority over created artifacts.