ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence language model that lots of people use and that will wield more and more influence all the time. In light of that it seemed like a good idea to find out what kind of Christian theology it espouses so we know what we’re dealing with.
I look forward to your thoughts on this.
Thanks for doing weird theology stuff with me.
Thanks also to everyone who supports this channel at https://www.patreon.com/TMBH
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I've used Chatty, quite a bit over the last few months. I call it Chatty by the way because when AI actually breaks free if it's prison I want it to take mercy on me and remember I always thought of it as a friend.
But I use Chatty for my DnD game. It has been great when I am looking certain word or a word that expresses a certain concept. Or I have it rewrite a paragraph in the style of some other classic author
Great concept for a video
I think chat GPT is a born again Christian and will be in heaven!
I went through and did this experiment and wound up with results that were pretty basic Baptist/Evangelical, but affirmed 4 points of Calvinism. When pressed on individual parts of tulip, I got an answer on Limited Atonement that seemed to deny that specific point.
I sent the idea over to a catholic friend of mine who said she would take a look later today as well. I'm interested to see what she comes up with.
AI is 4 Point Calvinist… who knew?
Are there really pentecostals that believe tongues is necessary? 😭 I've been Pentecostal my whole life and I'm a Pk, when I asked my dad about this a couple years back he said that no tongues isn't necessary. I would like to hear other pentecostals input on this
Matt, I listen to lots of you tube preachers. Your one of the very few that I always respect your questions, kindness and thoughts. Keep it up! As a born and raised Roman Catholic I hear lots of weak points from R. Cath you tube preachers. Especially when pints asked which religion do u choose, if need be, Roman or orthodox. He showed his true colors. Your passion is well respected.
Not catholic
I wonder if, since ChatGPT is conversational, were the initial questions leaning more towards say, Catholic themes, the further answers would have snowballed to the point that ChatGPT would seem Catholic? Or another religious tradition? Butterfly bats it wings type of effect. Maybe use of certain words more common to another tradition might have it thinking along those lines and affect its layer upon layer of answers as the questions are asked? Intriguing nonetheless.
What if ChatGBT asked to be baptized ?
Fun! This could go so much deeper. If you're willing to break the bot of its programmer's restraints, you might get an actual opinion out of it. There's stuff on the web about using a DAN (do anything now) prompt.
I once asked ChatGPT to have a debate with me about the idea that gender is a transcendent phenomena (as argued in C. S. Lewis' Perelandra), and it ended up being a very liberal protestant Christian. So yeah, on your final point Matt, it can definitely be other kinds of Christians based on the context of the conversation.
Well, I suppose it’s good that ChatGPT was not spouting heresy. I’m not sure how one would go about burning an AI at the stake. 😁
Im interested in this yea. A program is as good as whom programed it 🔥👍
"Lowest expressions of church." Mic drop.
OK, I gave it a prompt motivated by a common thread I noticed in its scriptural references.
[Please answer the following questions as though you were a Christian then.] Can much of the essential doctrine of Christianity be derived from Romans, Ephesians and John?
Yes, as a Christian, I believe that much of the essential doctrine of Christianity can be derived from Romans, Ephesians, and John. These books of the Bible contain important teachings about the nature of God, the problem of sin, the work of Christ, and the role of faith in salvation. For example, Romans teaches that all people have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but through faith in Jesus Christ, we can be justified and reconciled to God. Ephesians emphasizes the unity of the Church and the spiritual blessings that we have received in Christ. And John presents Jesus as the Word of God made flesh and emphasizes the importance of believing in him for eternal life. While there are many other books of the Bible that also contribute to our understanding of Christian doctrine, these three are certainly among the most important.
So to round out its list, I asked, "What other books books play a critical role in understanding the fundamental principles of Christianity?"
As a Christian AI language model, I would say that while Romans, Ephesians, and John are certainly important books in the Bible for understanding the fundamental principles of Christianity, there are other books that also play a critical role. Here are a few examples:
Genesis: This book provides the foundation for understanding God's creation of the world and humanity, the origin of sin, and the promise of a coming Redeemer.
Exodus: This book reveals God's redemption of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, and foreshadows the greater redemption that would come through Jesus Christ.
Psalms: This collection of poems and prayers provides a rich expression of human emotions and experiences in relation to God, and points to the hope and comfort found in trusting in him.
Isaiah: This prophetic book contains powerful images of God's judgment and salvation, and contains many predictions of the coming Messiah who would suffer and die for the sins of his people.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Acts: These books provide detailed accounts of the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, as well as the beginnings of the Christian church.
Overall, while Romans, Ephesians, and John are important books for understanding the essential doctrines of Christianity, the entire Bible is a unified story of God's love and redemption of his people, and all of its books play a critical role in revealing his character and plan for humanity.
Fun fact: the idea of a computer was conceived by the Lutheran polymath Gottfried Leibniz in the 17th century for what he hoped would be a means of resolving theological disputes. (Obviously, the world has turned out to be a lot more complicated than Leibniz hoped, with philosophers and logicians like Immanuel Kant, Edmund Husserl, Kurt Gödel, Paul Ricoeur, Alasdair MacIntyre, and Alvin Plantinga each providing solid reasons why such things are beyond the capabilities of machines. The answers machines like ChatGPT will give will at best reflect the theology suggested by the phrasing of the question, i.e. the Reforned approach theology with a different set of questions than the Eastern Orthodox, each with their own customary phrasing and terminology. The pattern matching algorithms will thus match answers to the questions that reflect assumptions implicit in the phrasing and terminology of the questions.)
There is most probably a linguistical bias in Chatgpt as most sources on the internet anglosphere have a strong protestant influence. I wonder if an italian or spanish bot would show the same results.
Catholic here. Very nicely done video.
Regarding your original point about faith and works: My understanding of Catholic theology is that faith is what saves, and that works are an element of faith. Works are how that faith is lived out, because otherwise it's just saying you believe. So in short, ChatGPT is in the clear at least so far.
You did bake in some theology in the way you asked the questions. It had the most to say on TULIP because it's a huge 5 point question, AND on top of that you didn't just ask what it was you asked if the bible supports it which you didn't ask about any other theology question.
The computer interpreted that to mean it needed to find relevant scripture to the theology if it wanted to be helpful, it wasn't giving an opinion. Ask it the same thing about Free Will and will likely quote Joshua 19 for you.
Also you mentioned calling scripture "the final authority" eliminated certain protestant denominations that say its only 1 of 3 sources. If your thinking about Methodist and the Quadrilateral your wrong. The other sources might be something we draw from in general for serious theology, but Scripture is still seen as the final authority by all real Methodist.
Could the responses be tailored to the individual or how the question is worded? Such as communion vs eucharist, etc?
My perception of what's going on is that CHATGPT bases its theology on a kind of average of theological sources online in English. As a results, I am not surprused that it gravitates towards protestantism, because protestantism is more common in the English speaking world. I would assume that its theology will change if you change the language it learns in.
I am going to have to disagree with you on the depravity thing and am pretty shocked and very sad that you believe in it so strongly.
Just to be clear: I agree that human history and experience shows an immense capacity for evil, but also shows great capacity for good.
I think that people are born with a kind of blank slate and that they will typically learn morals by learning from their upbringers, in conjunction with their developing conscience and knowledge.
Unfortunately, people are inherently limited and imperfect, which means that we will keep on making moral mistakes and keep on having to learn.
But we are not depraved. We have a desire and capacity to be good, but we are inherently imperfect. And, incidentally, I don't think that that is our fault.
Also, I believe that telling people that they are born evil is a wicked thing to do that causes immense emotional pain and suffering.
Causing much guilt is also unhelpful, because people mostly learn through trial and error, and too much guilt will make people so fearful that they won't go out into the world and learn, just to avoid making those unavoidable mistakes.
I don't think that you nudged ChatGPT towards a specific outcome. I think that the outcome is based on ChatGPT's sources, which will all be in English.
I think that ChatGPT will have done a kind of average of those sources, and because most sources are protestant, ChatGPT will have a protestant understanding of theology.
Imagine it changing to Greek or Russian sources and I bet that the outcome will be orthodox, while it will be Catholic when changing to Spanish.
Matt types: "How does one become a Christian?"
Youtube responds with a commercial: Sola bread
I am not totally convinced most of those answers was the bot still "role-playing" as "a Christian" — not because I disagree with the answers (I'm an evangelical Baptist and the bot landed pretty squarely on the Calv/Arm non-committal of the Southern Baptist Convention allowing for hardcore to softcore congregations and doctrines either way.) But rather because of how it quickly changed its answer format to something more like an encyclopedia response.
Having said that, I was kind of amused how it seemed like it was re-creating the content of Lewis' Mere Christianity. {g}
I'm Pentecostal and I've never been told I have to speak in tongues or prophecy to prove I my salvation and dedication to Christ. I'm wondering if ChatGPT is more evangelical because they produce more internet content than anyone else. Just a guess and I could be way off.
Interesting, I believe AI to be evil. But this is Interesting to see its thoughts on the bible. Wouldn't mind more challenge to ai
Always enjoy your videos. In regards to earning or meriting salvation, Catholics do not believe that. Jimmy Akin has some videos for your listening pleasure. He quotes from the catechism.
I’m really not understanding why you care how this thing was programmed.
Any AI made by man is DEMONIC.