In a confusing world, Christians need truth more than ever

Christians shouldn’t get antsy about the rise of Artificial Intelligence or the possibility that the bar scene from Star Wars is really something.

Both topics have dominated recent news cycles, particularly the rekindled conversation of aliens among us after a former intelligence officer testified before the House Oversight Committee’s national security subcommittee last week.

David Grusch served 14 years as an intelligence officer in the Air Force and later with the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. He told committee members about a “multi-decade UAP (unidentified anomalous phenomena) crash retrieval and reverse engineering program.”

He also said he had interviewed officials who had direct knowledge of aircraft with “nonhuman” origins and that “biologics” were recovered from some craft.

[On another front] Getting frustrated with a nonhuman “assistant” in a corporate effort at customer service is not extremely new.

But media accounts are emerging about how close to reality AI can seem … to the point of replacing personal relationship with artificial “soulmates.”

“Life only exists because God created it,” Dr. Jonathan Sarfati, a Christian and chemist, said on a radio program….“The only way life could appear here or anywhere else is if God created it, and there's no good evidence that God did create life anywhere else besides Earth,” Sarfati [said] “The Bible's quite clear. God created Earth on Day 1 and created the sun, moon, and stars on Day 4. So, Earth was clearly first. He created only humans in his image. There’s no evidence that he created any other creatures like Vulcans or Klingons in His image.”

Still, stories of sightings of something are out there….The stories can become confusing, much like AI. Images of Pope Francis  Images in white puffer outerwear went viral earlier this year and showed how real AI can look.

Geoffrey Hinton, called the “Godfather of AI,” resigned from Google in to bring attention to what he called “dangers” of the technology he helped to develop.

Hinton’s concerns are rooted in a new crop of chatbots that he believes can spread misinformation and displace jobs and are being embraced by a growing number of tech companies.

Hinton said Google has been responsible in its development of the technology but that he resigned so he could speak freely on the subject.

Christians, though, should not be alarmed but should return to their source of truth.

[Florida Baptist Pastor Tom Ascol] says there’s no reason to question the authority of the Bible if the teaching of Greek philosophers like Aristotle or Socrates are never met with the same skepticism.

“If you believe those things, and you don’t believe the Bible, there’s something going on other than your concern for evidence,” Ascol said.

He supports his claim with Bible prophecies proclaimed thousands of years ahead of the acts they predicted and with the impact the Bible has had on cultures, societies and nations throughout the history of the world.

“You see the transformative power individually that comes from the message of the Bible. There’s evidence after evidence regarding manuscripts, evidence that we have from the New Testament, thousands of manuscripts available to us that are closer to the original source than any of the ancient writings that we take for granted today as being accurate,” Ascol said.

“So, there’s a logical foundation to consider the validity of the Bible.”

Sarfati doesn’t dispute that some individuals have had experiences with beings they may consider aliens but that he considers demons as described in the Bible.

“There’s a minority of these alien abduction-type things which are probably demonic. And, also, it’s interesting that real, born-again, walk-the-walk Christians seem immune from these sorts of abduction experiences. Because if you have the Holy Spirit indwelling you, then the demonic spirit can’t touch you." 

On the topic of aliens and the congressional hearing, retired fighter pilot Derek Jones told AFN in an interview it is not unusual for pilots to see things that are unexplainable. A former Air Force pilot, Jones says it's quite common among pilots to share such stories of sightings that remain a mystery. But he views the topic as a distraction from God and His unique relationship with mankind. 

On the issue of demons, Jones says he agrees with that explanation. 

https://afn.net/culture/2023/08/01/in-a-confusing-world-christians-need-truth-more-than-ever/