DECISION DAY: WHAT WILL ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE BECOME IN YOUR LIFE?

For all his theological and philosophical mistakes, Glenn Beck has a habit of hitting the bull's eye from time to time What he says needs close observation and critical thought. Today, from his perspective as a Mormon, he is giving us fair warning that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has reached singularity. We will provide our own comment from the point of view of Eastern Orthodoxy. Beck acknowledges that Intelligent Design is just one aspect of the 'nature' of God. As we have stated here with some regularity, computers calculate, they don't comprehend like real intelligence. Computers, however powerful, cannot attain consciousness, which requires life; life does not come into existence ex nihilo or as a result of calculation, however powerful.

March 29, 2925 Glenn Beck Poscast: Glenn Beck WARNS: This New 'God' Could Destroy Humanity | The Glenn Beck Podcast | Ep 251.

Interestingly Beck suggests that whether we keep control of AI is really up to us. When we start seeing it as a living being that requires "equality and human rights" (don't laugh, that has already been happening for years!), or start seeing it as a god or an idol, we are actively giving up control by implication! And he's right. 

Given that the West is a secular eparchy where religious questions are relegated to the privacy of private homes, and given the dualism that is pitting religion against science (or scientism, most of the time), it takes no soothsayer to predict this caveat might as well be addressed to the wind. 

Now most people have no idea what constitutes an idol. There are observers -- like Jonathan Pageau for Symbolic World fame -- who have pointed out that addictive substances are good examples of  idols to those who are addicted to it. An idol or a god is that on which we center our lives and to which we turn for blessings. 

It takes no wizard to see how many will sacrifice at the altar of AI, instead of seeing it like the man-made contraption that is actually is. 

And then there is a trend that has been going on since Kant, that wants us to believe man has no free will. Hence the lowering of the concept of what constitutes an addiction. According to present day wisdom, being glued to your phone all day makes you a slave of tech oligarchs. Yet, practically no one -- glued or unglued -- would be so negligent as to cross a street without checking the oncoming traffic. 

Another piece of vile materialist propaganda trying to convince you, you have no free will. You are a slave to your brain. Notice how petty the examples are. I never in my live leave a super market with impuls buys. Nudge, from the husband of USAID Samantha Power! https://t.co/UDQyMoYuXI

— 🏛 Kassandra Troy ☦ (@KassieTroy) March 30, 2025

Taking guidance in ethics from tech oligarchs is like emanating the morality of alley cats. Cute, but not a thing in the real world. While it is incredibly hard today for people to amass knowledge and insight and turn it into some kind of wisdom, imagine what will happen to them once they have turned their lives over to AI and it is running it! 

I don't know about you, but I can find no other escape from this hell scape, but to turn our lives over to the true Triune God instead. The Eastern Orthodox school teaches that man's spiritual capacity also consists in five senses, like the material five senses. These are: the intellect, the imagination, the emotions, the capacity to judge and the nous. 

The nous (Beck refers to it as 'the Spirit') is located in the heart. It is what gives us the capacity to know God. The nous is often translated as simply 'thought', but there is a subtle difference. Thought is rational, it takes us from point A to point B (if this, then that). The nous of the other hand is receptive of thoughts that hit us out of the blue. Since we cannot know from where it originates, we have to pass it through the filter of the intellect. 

Imagine the evil being done to man and God once we have AI implanted in our brains. Modern man, being the mess that he already is, doesn't stand a chance to ever control this thing. Let alone once it reaches the stages of super intelligence and over. 

As Beck says, there will come a point in time very soon, where we all shall have to decide how we are going to deal with the issue. Guess we can start by not calling it a god.

From here onwards, we need to be hyper conscious about the thoughts we receive in our nous. Where did they come from? God, an angel, a demon or has AI been manipulating our consciousness? 

For Orthodox Christians this is no different from what they have been doing for centuries. As far as the receptives of the nous are concerned, they are going to have an easier time than most.  

Remembering who we are, where we are coming from and where we are going will become an even more imperative commission in the future than it was in the past.

Given Beck's warnings, I am coming away from this with the conviction that taking the lead from the Eastern Orthodox Church and its wisdom of the ages will be the one road that will prepare us best for this new, dangerous era. 

Some food for thought on this Sunday afternoon of St John of the Ladder. 

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