There are few topics more popular (or perhaps unpopular) in the current educational landscape than artificial intelligence. In an astoundingly short time, AI has moved from a dot on the horizon to a nearly inescapable element of everyday life. Schools have had little time to digest and fully prepare for the many implications AI has on the learning process and environment, and Christian schools are no exception.
Although Christians generally share consistent beliefs about the nature of God and his creation, Christian educators have yet to find the same unity around the issue of AI. Three recent conversations with school leaders illustrate the current dissonance:
Whatever you do, don’t talk about AI today. Our teachers are in an uproar over it, and there are heated perspectives on each side.
I told my staff, AI is here to stay. We are going to figure out how to use it. They’ve embraced it! You’ll see that today.
(And I did—they created items on the fly during a training)
We are adopting an AI tool for student and teacher use from a Christian company. It helps students think through things rather than just do the work for them.
Whether you’ve decided that AI is a friend or a foe, the more important consideration is how a biblical worldview will inform how you see, interpret, and engage with AI this coming school year.
It’s easy to quickly fall down the proverbial rabbit hole when investigating AI. Fortunately, there are reputable Christian organizations and sources that have spent time examining and researching the topic and provide a great starting place.
As you consider your response to AI, here are two key ways to frame your thinking.
#1 Understand the Worldview Behind Modern AI
First, we must evaluate AI from within a biblical worldview. Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper is credited with the powerful rationale for engaging with cultural topics by reminding us that “not a single bit of our world of thought can be hermetically sealed off from the rest; and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’”
AI has become a part of everyday life (love it or hate it) and must be held up against biblical Truth—not adopted unquestioningly—even if it makes life convenient.
AI is not simply a neutral tool. It is built upon a worldview—a set of assumptions about what humans are and what they are for. Friend of Summit, Randall Niles, recently joined Dr. Jeff Myers on the Truth Changes Everything podcast to share his concerns about where AI is leading us.
One of Randall’s primary concerns with AI is the underlying worldview of transhumanism. In simple terms, transhumanism views technology as the cure for humanity’s natural limits and offers claims that are anything but neutral:
- Technology can help eliminate disease; therefore, extending life indefinitely.
- Humanity can eventually merge with machines.
- The cost of technological advancements (environmental or human costs) is worth it if it leads to a “better” future (for some).
AI is built on a radical worldview that elicits concern and disagreement, even among AI proponents and executives (warning: explicit language). Some go so far as to suggest that “artificial intelligence could usher in a post-scarcity utopia, automating grunt work, curing cancer, and liberating people to enjoy lives of leisure and abundance. But [they warned that] if the technology went rogue, or fell into the wrong hands, the devastation could be total.”
AI is not neutral, and Christians must evaluate the assumptions of the worldview that undergirds AI rather than engage in unchecked use, prompted by the ease and convenience it offers.
#2 Understand AI Within God’s Story
God’s unifying story, or the biblical metanarrative, is the essence of a biblical worldview. It is made up of four chapters that tell not just the story of the Bible but the story of humanity’s place in God’s creation. We use it to think carefully about AI.
1. Creation – Some of the most significant questions surrounding AI must be held up against God’s design for humanity. We look to the first chapter of the metanarrative to see how things ought to be. In creation, we see God’s design for mankind to:
- Actively engage in stewarding creation
- Live in authentic relationship with God and with one another
- Depend on God rather than seek autonomy
- Develop virtue through faithful obedience and perseverance
Transhumanism offers an answer to the question of how things ought to be that counters much of God’s good design. If used uncritically, AI can rob us of meaningful work, creative endeavors, and authentic relationships. Habitual dependence hinders our ability to think deeply. Avoiding productive struggle robs individuals of deeper understanding, satisfaction, resilience, and mental well-being.
Additionally, unfettered use of AI can alter ideas about companionship. God knew what was good when he created a living, breathing, thinking, loving companion for Adam. We must consider how our use of AI promotes or discourages valuable human relationships.
2. Fall – Every worldview knows something is wrong with our current reality and must answer the question: Why is the world the way it is? The Fall reminds us that every part of creation, including human creativity and technology, has been affected by sin. AI is no exception. It is capable of good—accelerating medical discoveries, increasing accessibility, and reducing burdensome tasks. Yet it is also prone to deception, exploitation, and misuse.
More importantly, the Fall reminds us that even our best innovations are developed by fallen people with mixed motives. As Christian educators, we should neither reject AI because it is imperfect nor embrace it because it is impressive. Instead, we approach it with discernment, recognizing both its potential and its limitations in a fallen world.
3. Redemption – Every worldview answers the question of how can things be different? For Christians, we understand we have a role in pushing back against the effects of sin in the world around us—a call rooted in the creation order. We are designed to be active participants, finding ways to create what is missing, cure what is broken, cultivate what is good, and curb what is evil.
But the transhuman worldview asserts that things can be different by upgrading humanity and leaning on technology to do the work that humans are uniquely created for. It is true that we can use technology to create, cure, cultivate, and curb. But when the rationale or ultimate hope that drives the use of technology is flawed, we end up with a flawed vision for the future. Worldviews don’t just concern themselves with today. They also have a vision for tomorrow.
4. Restoration – Each worldview will also answer the question: how will things work out in the end? For Christians, we know that one day, God will restore all things. A new heaven and a new Earth will be created—one in which “death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore” (Revelation 21:4b). We can celebrate human creativity and technological advancement, but we must not confuse them with the One who will ultimately make all things new.
Transhumanism holds that technology will serve as a savior, ushering in a new utopian reality of ease, comfort, and eternal life. Many believe AI can eliminate suffering, resolve human conflict, perform cognitive work better than humans, and ultimately even defeat death. For anyone to believe this dangerous assertion, they must also be okay with the fact that not all humans will have the opportunity to take part in this restored vision for humanity. In a kind of natural selection, only the fittest (the smartest, the richest, etc.) will survive.
In conclusion, only the biblical worldview offers a robust and hopeful view of what it means to be human and to fulfill God’s purposes. This good design can never be supplanted by technology. A machine cannot be relational, moral, or spiritual. It cannot worship, repent, extend grace, or love sacrificially. It cannot create from the wellspring of human experience: the brushstrokes of a Renaissance masterpiece born from years of discipline and vision, the haunting lyrics of a Negro spiritual forged through suffering and hope, the prayer whispered beside a hospital bed, or the patient mentorship of a teacher who recognizes not only what a student knows, but who that student is becoming.
As Christian educators, we must not be satisfied simply with whether AI is useful, but instead consider how our use of it reflects or deviates from God’s good design for humanity.
-Dr. Maggie Pope