Dear Ones,
Hope you had a good weekend and weren’t buried in snow. Our S.S. was cancelled but we got to church as roads got cleared quite quickly. Today I plan to go to Aldie’s and exercise class and tonight we have a St. Patrick’s Day party here!
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Recently, I have read several articles about AI and it seems there is a big gap between natural intelligence and artificial intelligence. Marcus Schwartling, senior editor at AI and Faith writes how natural intelligence is a God-given gift that helps us understand and reason about reality, one another and ourselves. But he writes that, “By contrast, AI is the subdiscipline of computer science concerned with building models to perform tasks often associated with natural intelligence, like solving a puzzle or summarizing a text.” The two are not interchangeable or equivalent.

AI provides informational knowledge, and is dependent on the data and information available to it. But the Bible’s definition of knowledge is more than organized data and contextualized information; it is rooted in people experiencing life in relationship with God and others. Jesus said in John 13:34 that we are to love others just as He has loved us. AI can’t empathize and provide companionship with others for it isn’t human. In fact, our technology today is resulting in more loneliness instead of bringing people together.

Our culture is one of self-sufficiency rather than interdependence. Everyone is busy and posts online rather than meeting together for lunch or coffee. Even phone calls to hear another familiar voice is getting scarce as people grab their phones to text instead. We are missing out today on deep friendships and being known by others and we find it hard to have a sense of belonging. Just because we note we have many followers doesn’t mean we have many close friends. We need real connections, face to face, sharing our lives listening to one another and processing things. We all want to know we matter and that takes living life in relationship with others.

Challenge for today: Share offline today with a friend even if it is brief and let them know they matter to you.
Blessings on your week and prayers and love, Judy