AI & Faith

Artificial Intelligence & Faith. With ChatGPT a person can now find the answers to a multitude of queries and topics. I was interested in what the AI tool had to say about evangelicals and faith, and to compare and contrast this synopsis with some real time surveys and understanding of the Christian faith among what we call evangelical Christians.

The AI posited this — "However, there are some general characteristics that many evangelical Christians share. Firstly, evangelical

Christians believe in the importance of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. They see salvation as a gift of grace, received through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Secondly, evangelical Christians believe in the authority of the Bible as the Word of God. They often have a high view of Scripture and see it as the ultimate source of truth and guidance for their lives. Thirdly, many

evangelical Christians place a strong emphasis on evangelism and sharing the gospel with others. They may be involved in outreach activities such as evangelistic crusades, street preaching, or door-to-door evangelism. Fourthly, many evangelical Christians are active in their local churches and may participate in a range of activities, including Bible studies, prayer groups, and volunteer

work. Finally, evangelical Christians often hold conservative views on social and moral issues, such as abortion, homosexuality, and traditional family values. They may be politically engaged and may support candidates or policies that align with their beliefs."

There are, however, as AI admits, diversities of beliefs among evangelicals with many younger evangelicals seeing themselves not as conservative in many ways with their older counterparts — "There is also a growing diversity within evangelical Christianity, with many younger evangelicals embracing a more progressive stance on issues such as gender and sexuality, and some pushing back against the association of evangelicalism with conservative politics. Overall, while evangelical Christianity is often associated with a particular set of beliefs and practices, it is a diverse and evolving movement that continues to be shaped by a variety of cultural, social, and theological factors." Notably, the AI tool typically generalizes and fudges on the analysis.

Barna Associates, a time honored Christian survey instrument that many evangelicals and others have used throughout the years, have given us some real-time statistics to compare to the AI generated descriptors. In terms of spirituality, at least a full third of all evangelical Christians are looking for salvation, guidance and purpose in their lives (32% in a 2023 poll). They believe in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as important and necessary for salvation, but peace (40%), hope (40%) and healing (32%) even top  salvation (32%). The authority of the Bible is still rated high — "About four in 10 of all Christians and two-thirds of practicing Christians profess the Bible’s credibility. Belief about salvation and heaven, too, is shared among the generations. At least six in 10 self-identified Christians believe they will go to heaven because they confessed their sins and accepted Jesus as savior. More practicing Christians affirm this view of salvation; Elders (73%) and Millennials (72%) are essentially on par, with some slight variation for Boomers (75%) and Gen X (70%)." (Barna, "A Snapshot of Faith Practice Across Age Groups" 2019) Regular Bible reading, however, is less common than prayer. Only 5% of the surveyed population actually are Bible-centered in their faith and life, interact with the Bible regularly, and consult the Bible in shaping their choices (State of the Bible 2019: Trends in Engagement).

Evangelism, however, has been lagging behind what AI posits, for quite some time. In the 1990s, only about 4% of practicing Christians actually evangelized others with a world-and-life viewpoint about the Christian faith. In today's faith practices, "most employed Christians want to do good in their places of work—but not always in a way that stands out. They appear less inclined to see it as their responsibility to be influential: one-third believes they should help mold the culture of their workplace (35%). In addition, only one-quarter says sharing the gospel is a responsibility (24%), pointing to a general wariness of speaking explicitly about faith, an attitude not uncommon in today's climate." (What Faith Looks Like in the Workplace, 2018)

Involvement in local churches remains fairly high — "Practicing Christians’ weekly attendance is also double that of the average Christian (though, as fairly frequent church attendance is part of Barna’s baseline definition of practicing Christians, it follows that this weekly attendance rate would climb). The proportion decreases marginally from Elders (83%) and Boomers (81%) to Gen X (77%) and Millennials (79%)." (A Snapshot of Faith Practice Across Age Groups, 2019) Volunteerism is fairly high, both for one-on-one care (57%) as well as organizational volunteerism (52%). (The Relationship Between Volunteering and Giving, 2018)

As far as social viewpoints, there is a wide and growing divergence between older evangelicals and younger evangelicals. Older elders and boomers are mostly conservative on a number of social and political issues, while younger believers are less so. "Elders are a shrinking proportion of the overall population, but for perspective, fully three out of five among the eldest generation (61%) strongly agree that lying is immoral, while only one-third of Gen Z (34%) believes lying is wrong. Abortion is wrong (40% of Boomers and Elders, but only 29% for younger Christians)." (Gen Z and Morality: What Teens Believe (So Far), 2018) Younger believers do not necessarily vote for conservative Republicans.

My point in this research and article is to demonstrate that although AI is generally accurate, it fails at precise distinguishing between age groups even among evangelical Christians. This shows that we must be wary of AI generated summaries and papers in such debated topics. We still need to do our research and consult more reliable resources than even AI.