In April of 2019, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention published a document called “Artificial Intelligence: An Evangelical Statement of Principles.” Armed with the belief that God has created humans with both the ability to invent new technologies and the wisdom to answer new dilemmas those technologies raise, the document outlined basic principles to guide a Christian ethical approach to advances in AI. In a cultural moment when many Christian voices express anxiety over the effects of the digital world on faith, community, and identity, the tone of this document was one of hope, acknowledging the dangers of advances in technology while professing that “nothing we create will be able to thwart [God’s] redemptive plan for creation.”
In this episode, Jason Thacker, lead drafter of the document and director of the Research Institute for the ERLC, further explores the intersection of theology and digital technology with Gretchen. Together they consider the meaning of discipleship in the 21st century, the ways that our identity is (and isn’t) formed by technological advances, and the “big” questions that underlie ethical issues relating to data privacy, digital surveillance, and more. Jason seeks to help root the Church’s approach to AI in a posture of wakefulness and hope, alert to the impact of timeless questions on current issues and equipped to engage with them as members of a digital age.
