Artificial Intelligence ....

Artificial means 'produced by human beings' ...or it can mean 'insincere' ...or 'imitation, substitute, unnatural, or fake'.

Or all of the above ...

Siri can be helpful in many ways. And people love the fact that it will almost always answer immediately.

We often struggle with life ...because we either don't believe in God, or we feel He doesn't answer immediately. And there are theists who believe God doesn't answer us personally at all.

Though there are also those of us who feel God always answers us (though we must have the understanding that our omniscient and omnipresent God may answer in different ways, inclusive of what some may call a non-answer, which is where we need to have the discretion to realize that that answer may just be "Wait!"). 

Of course, others may say we can rationalize anything, and support it. And yes, I agree ...our government and large businesses do it all the time. So, again I agree that there may be much participation in deception, and we often believe those who are very persuasive in promoting it ...who presented themselves as authorities on the subject. They have also said that 'weak' people feel a strong need to be comforted by the authority of God, being the One who gives us our guidance. And yes, we have a personal relationship with Him, also inclusive of prayer (talking to Him). 

And yes, I know the ready response ...because I worked in a State Community Health system, and I am very much aware of the fact that many of the patients that I worked with talked to someone I could not see, and they said they heard voices (answering them.)

So, how do I discern the difference?

First of all, how can I have any thoughts at all. You could say my thoughts came from other people, yet if my thoughts are different than some of those people, where do my varying thoughts or opposing views come from?

You could say that I'm just incorrigible or disagreeable ...and that I just want to be oppositional. But, by what criteria would you be able to say that?

I do believe the most important part is listening to God. Though I have never heard His audible voice, I do believe that God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit. So, I admit I have never heard an audible response like you get with Siri. 

I have experienced and seen that the answers we feel we are given by God ...well, it is difficult to say, and I'm not qualified to say how it is in someone else's given situation, so I can only share my experience.

I worked within a Community Health Institution. At first it was called a Mental Health Institution, and some people shortened it by just calling it a Mental Institution. The seemed to carry a negative connotation, though in reality, we can all benefit from working on better mental health ...and none of us have perfect mental health. We all struggle on occasion, and we'd like to say those occasions are not that frequent, but the reality is that those the struggles may not appear as frequent, the mental assessments of life around us and including us often lead to most of our struggles when wrong assessments build up and one wrong assessments leads to more wrong assessments.

Yes, I also worked in a prison ...so, let's take that scenario which is also familiar to me. Suppose someone is in prison but is innocent ...they have been wrongfully convicted. Of course, there are many prisoners who say that, but let's say it is true for Rocky, Steve, and Lambert ---who we will just call Bert.

Rocky hears voices, and when anyone is around him, no one else hears the voices. Rocky appears peaceful because he seems to have pleasant conversation with these voices ---not what I'd call substantive, but mostly joking and laughing along with the voices (as good friends often do).

Bert has a Bible ...and he reads it throughout the day. And he prays.

Steve ---well, we just lost him. I don't mean he died, what I mean is that he left the system. He is no longer in prison, and that's a good thing. The court system found him to be innocent. Yet, Steve does not seem grateful for that. He continues to be angry because he had to go to prison for the better part of a year, which he considers the worst part of any year ---the worst part of his life, and he seems bent on having that experience negatively affect the rest of his life.

Rocky continues to be in prison, and he is considered a model prisoner ...the voices supposedly helping him with his peaceful nature and good behavior.

Bert continues to be in prison, and he is also a model prisoner.

Steve, who had been a model citizen until his arrest, is now rather bitter and reckless. He stands to lose his driver's license ...as he has had three traffic tickets in the past month. No one was injured, and they were not major collisions ...the first occasion was when he failed to brake soon enough at a traffic light, and he bumped into someone. The second time he was upset because someone cut him off in traffic, and he tried to chase the guy, angrily shouting things  that no one but himself could hear ---and he made a careless move, and to avoid a collision, he went off the road and ran into a church sign. The third time, he sideswiped another car traveling in the adjacent lane ---and though no one was hurt, it just happened to be a police car.

The police insisted he take an anger management course, and also get some therapy. He just faked his way through the anger management course, but this follow-up therapy was a little bit more of a challenge. Yet, Steve felt he could make up a sympathetic story and no one would likely be able to challenge the truth of it.

Steve told his therapist that his dad had just died, and that he had just lost his mom six months prior. The therapist listened, but felt that perhaps his weekly sessions would not be enough ---so the therapist recommended an app he could use.

The app which the therapist recommended was a new tool developed by a couple companies he could choose from. He could select 'HereAfter AI' ...or 'DeepBrain AI'. 

Steve found that he could gather photos which could be used to create visual images of both his parents, and he could recreate there personalities based upon past memories of them. He found he could interact with them and they could have a 3-way conversation. So, Steve decided to have fun with this ...and he created personalities and interactions which were not at all like his parents.

When Steve had his next session with his therapist, he was asked how the app was going. Steve showed the therapist a video of the AI generated image of him interacting with both of his parents. And in the video his parents were arguing with each other, and when that seemed to reach its peak, they both turned on him to belittle him ...and say all their problems were his fault.

The therapist told Steve that clearly the root of his problem was his parents, and though they were both deceased, he was still harboring the feeling that everything in life was his fault, and when he was wrongfully put in prison, that was too much for him and he snapped.

The therapist gave him a card for a lawyer he knew, and the lawyer helped him sue the State Court System.

It so happened that the Judge had also just lost both parents and had created a very lifelike AI generated image of his parents ---interacting with them in a loving way each morning, with them telling him what a great and loving Judge he was. The Judge saw the AI video of Steve's parents and felt pity for Steve. When he went home that evening the Judge's AI parents told him to give Steve a huge settlement, and to order the police to participate in more training.

So, of course Steve was free and wealthy ...laughing all the way to the bank. Rocky got 3 square meals a day, and his usual company ---his pleasant imaginary friend(s), and he had much seemingly joyous laughter ---not being bothered by real people. And Bert was serving out his sentence without incident ...though he found no occasion to laugh.

Who do you think was coping the best???

How about the Judge??

The Judge's wife left him and their three children moved away ...yet, each evening he would go home and consult his parents on most everything (of course, it was not really his parents, but AI generated). And he made his parents exactly how he wanted them, and they responded the way he wanted them to.

Some people think we've done the same thing with God ...and though in this life we often do create images of Him to our liking (and our interpretations), we will not forever have that option. I believe we have an eternity beyond ...yes, our life here on earth is like a small blip ---or in my case a Meiner (minor) blip, or even less than that in an entire eternal life. But, it's a very significant blip.

On the TV show 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?', there were four choices for each question and Regis Philbin would let you reason it out which one was the correct answer, then Regis would ask, "Is that your final answer?"

And the contestant could say he/she wanted to use one of the three options to help them decide. But, each option could only be used one time, and the questions were difficult, so there may be many times you'd want to use them, yet once they were used, those options were gone. The person could use 50/50 to eliminate two wrong answers. They could electronically poll the audience to see what the majority of people thought the right answer was. Or they could phone a friend ...hopefully one they felt may know the answer. Yet, Regis would then say again, "Is that your final answer?"

In our life, many people are providing answers. And I don't feel comfortable with what the majority thinks. I do have friends which I can consult, and when I do, I don't lose that option (though some may tire of me asking or talking too much). And the 50/50 leaving me with only two options to choose from ...well, I believe there is only one option to choose from, and that is choosing to believe in the Bible. And my friends always say, "Choose Jesus!"

And that is absolutely wonderful ...and I believe, correct. 

What makes the simplicity not so simple?

Well, little by little ...the world, including the scientific world, puts forth their claims to challenge the claims of the Bible. There are scientists who believe that there is science to support the Bible, but I don't see much of that on the standard internet, unless I go to a site that is sort of like preaching to the choir. 

So what happens then ...well, it could get like bitter Steve did. He found much fun with making  wrong version of his parents. And people are doing videos and writing books that are different versions of who God is.

I'm not a bitter Steve ...I believe in the Bible.