Could AI Spur a Resurgence of Faith?

The questions that AI raises about reality could end up justifying the claims of Christianity in the eyes of many.

PUBLISHED ON

January 23, 2025

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In the theology courses I have taught high schoolers, I take pains to convey that faith is a type of knowledge, not mere belief. The traditional definition of knowledge, according to epistemology, is justified true belief, and we can certainly be justified in holding the truths of faith. However, such justification is a kind that has fallen out of favor for much of the Western world due to our prioritization of the scientific method.

When my students and I go over this, we differentiate between the testimonial knowledge of faith and the experimental knowledge of the scientific method. The former is gained through others’ words—what one hears (see Romans 10:17)—so it is based on trust, which can be justified if others’ trustworthiness can be rationally established. Conversely, the latter is gained through one’s own experience—what one sees (contrast with Hebrews 11:1)—so it is based on skepticism, which requires gathering evidence for oneself. In short, whereas science is individual knowledge, faith is relational knowledge. It is therefore no surprise that, in the hyper-individualistic culture of much of the West today, science trumps faith.

However, artificial intelligence might help tip the balance in the other direction. A major fear about AI is that it might inundate the internet with disinformation that is indistinguishable from the real thing, fabricating pictures and videos and sound clips lacking any telltale signs of forgery. In that case, how could we muster sufficient evidence to determine a claim’s legitimacy, the evidence itself being suspect? We might have to return to forms of justification associated with faith: analysis of the speaker’s character and motives (Would he or she really say such a thing?), examination of the links in the tradition (Who passed the claim down to whom, and can we trust them?), etc. We might, in other words, have to resort to knowledge rooted in relationship.

Orthodox. Faithful. Free.

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A major fear about AI is that it might inundate the internet with disinformation that is indistinguishable from the real thing, fabricating pictures and videos and sound clips lacking any telltale signs of forgery.Tweet This

Consider an example from recent history. During the Catholic Church’s Synod on the Family in 2014, the respected Vatican journalist Edward Pentin conducted an interview with Cardinal Walter Kasper in which the German prelate made insulting remarks about the African bishops whose orthodoxy opposed his innovations. Upon the interview’s publication, Kasper denied he ever said such things—until Pentin released a recording of his words. That settled the matter; he publicly apologized. However, if that had happened today, he could have easily accused Pentin of fabricating the recording with AI. Our only remaining criteria of judgment would thus be ones relying on relationship: What kind of person is the prelate? What kind is the journalist? How would people who know them evaluate their claims?

These are the types of questions AI might force us to ask about any information we receive from the internet. And these are the very types of questions that justify belief in the New Testament. What kind of people were the New Testament’s authors? The kind with the integrity to change their views when confronted with new evidence and the honesty to suffer and die without retracting their new views. How can we know they even wrote the books ascribed to them or actually knew Jesus or the apostles firsthand? By examining the links in the tradition, by reading the works of the people who knew the authors and the ones who knew those people—that is, by reading the early Church Fathers—all of whom confirm that the traditionally ascribed authors wrote the New Testament and had relationships with Christ or the apostles.

Therefore, the New Testament is a trustworthy source based on historically reliable eyewitness testimony. We are thus justified in trusting its accounts of miracles; we are thus justified in believing its claims that it comes from God; and we are thus justified in embracing the truths of Christianity that God reveals through it. That last conclusion is essential, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains: 

What moves us to believe is not the fact that revealed truths appear as true and intelligible in the light of our natural reason: we believe because of the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived.

Still, “so that the submission of our faith might nevertheless be in accordance with reason, God willed that external proofs of his Revelation”—for example, the above evidence for the New Testament’s reliability—“should be joined to the internal helps of the Holy Spirit.” And, therefore, faith really is a form of justified true belief; it really is knowledge.

Of course, faith is distinguished from other forms of testimonial knowledge by its supernatural character, so it cannot be conjured through human reason alone. While reason precedes it and establishes its foundation, it still requires a leap from that foundation, a leap that can occur only by the supernatural gift of God’s grace. After all, a loving relationship with God requires certainty toward some truths about Him—How can you love someone if you are unsure of his existence or do not know any of his characteristics?—and the historical induction required to verify the New Testament, like any inductive reasoning, is not conducive to certitude. Even many of Jesus’ contemporaries who witnessed His miracles firsthand ended up rejecting Him. The certainty of faith is therefore a gift of grace.

Consequently, AI’s disinformation cannot, by itself, inspire a resurgence of faith. Still, it might cause testimonial knowledge to become more culturally respectable and, thus, faith to seem less ridiculous. God can work with that.

Author

  • Tristan Macdonald is an English and History teacher at a high school in Massachusetts.

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