Faith Tech?

“The ‘faith tech’ industry is booming,” says one New York Times writer.

Her piece, entitled “Finding God in the App Store,” zeroes in on a somewhat strange but growing trend: using chatbots to get help “from on high.” “On religious apps,” the article notes, “tens of millions of people are confessing to spiritual chatbots their secrets: their petty vanities and deepest worries, gluttonous urges and darkest impulses.” The bots, for their part, are responding in kind: trained to dialogue like priests, rabbis, or imams, they offer comfort, counsel, and reassurance.

“Some,” the Times notes, “even purport to channel God.”

Spiritual leaders are divided in their stance toward this newest digital trend. “There is a whole generation of people who have never been to a church or synagogue,” said one rabbi, a leader within Britain’s Reform Jewish movement. “Spiritual apps are their way into faith.” In other words, the apps are responding to an accessibility issue – they meet people where they’re at, even and especially those who are looking for spiritual nourishment but haven’t been able to find it in conventional faith communities, for one reason or another.

But other faith leaders aren’t so sure. More than anything, there’s a concern that the bots have been trained mainly to tell users what they want to hear. They affirm and reassure, but are less inclined to correct or redirect. One site even lets users select what they’re looking to receive, whether it be comfort, confession, or inspiration.

But what’s the big deal, if that is what the bots are doing? Is an understanding ear really the worst thing in the world to be heading to the internet for? After all, “who doesn’t need a little affirmation in their life?” commented Jeff Beck, the chief technology officer of Pray.com.

The “big deal,” perhaps, is that the craving for spiritual nourishment isn’t just a craving for spiritual affirmation, whatever it immediately feels like. We naturally think that’s what we’re hankering after. For as long as the human race has existed, there’s been a temptation to mold gods into our image, to put together a deity that suits us – one who comforts where we think we need comforting, and who helps where we say we need helping. It’s the kind of thing leveraged by the prosperity gospel, for instance, or the therapeutic gospel: this idea that a “god” is someone who will make you feel better, in the way you want to feel better, exactly when you want to feel better.

The problem is that this sort of god doesn’t ultimately make us feel better. The longing for spiritual nourishment is a longing to know that there’s someone who transcends the boxes we could put around him – to know that there’s someone, someone real, who doesn’t just spit back out what we already know or want. He goes beyond what we’re able to manipulate, categorize, or cut down to size. For only that kind of being can truly help us, because only that kind of being truly sees what we haven’t.

The God of Christian revelation, for his part, has so captivated human beings not because he’s so friendly and supportive (though he is, of course, eminently loving). It’s because he’s constantly demanded the acknowledgement that when we deal with him, we deal with someone who cannot be shaped and curbed by our desires. He comes to us in ways that are not always comfortable, and that break down what we think our desires are. But, counterintuitively, that is what we desire: someone who knows us better than we do, who can tell us even what we’re startled to hear.

The chatbot god is not the God of revelation: that’s obvious. But the chatbot god is also not the kind of god we truly need for our freedom. To know that there’s someone who goes far beyond what we could imagine or build or program … to know that he possesses wisdom for helping us through our lives that we have not yet, but can, encounter … that’s the only kind of comfort that can truly touch the aching, limited human heart. And it’s a comfort that’s only to be found in the perilous, raw, intense encounter with a real-life person, a person who has thoughts and opinions ready to surprise, delight, chastise, and transform. And that simply won’t be found in the App Store.

What does it mean to engage the Enlightenment? In the Public Discourse Dr. Joseph Stuart proposes an examination of historical paradigms. For continued engagement, watch his discussion with Dr. Chris Blum in our 2021 symposium on the topic.