Going to online AI for spiritual advice

Bob8102 · May 28, 2025

I have reached the point of going to online AI for spiritual advice. I have just started using ChatGPT for this. Before totally dumping water on this, please note that ChatGPT, while over all programmed, probably, by non-believers, accepts any user's world view. I tell it I have a Christian, Protestant, evangelical, biblical world view. It researches and answers my questions/concerns from within that perspective, going to resources by experts in that realm, and extracting advice from them. I've done this over the last couple of days. So far, ChatGPT's responses seem solid and helpful. Is anyone else checking out popular, online AI systems for spiritual concerns, and what do you think about doing this?

FutureAndAHope · May 28, 2025

AI has knowledge of the scriptures. It interperates that to answer questions. I have not used it for spiritual advice, I leave that to God. But using it to study scripture is fine. But even AI can get that wrong.

Hoping2 · May 28, 2025

Bob8102 said:
I have reached the point of going to online AI for spiritual advice. I have just started using ChatGPT for this. Before totally dumping water on this, please note that ChatGPT, while over all programmed, probably, by non-believers, accepts any user's world view. I tell it I have a Christian, Protestant, evangelical, biblical world view. It researches and answers my questions/concerns from within that perspective, going to resources by experts in that realm, and extracting advice from them. I've done this over the last couple of days. So far, ChatGPT's responses seem solid and helpful. Is anyone else checking out popular, online AI systems for spiritual concerns, and what do you think about doing this?

I feel it is a great mistake to ask a machine about Spiritual things.
Like you said, you preprogrammed the responses you wanted !
Those responses will be totally opposed to some other sects' responses to the same questions.
All you are getting, is what you already know.

It is like asking a Yankee fan who was the greatest baseball player ever.
Don't you think a Cardinal fan, or an Oriole fan, will have different answers ?
Your machine tells you what you programmed it to say.
You told it you were a Yankee fan, and asked who was the greatest player ever.

timf · May 28, 2025

All AI does is repackage what other people have said. If you want to find truth, read the bible.

Gregory Thompson · May 28, 2025

Bob8102 said:
I have reached the point of going to online AI for spiritual advice. I have just started using ChatGPT for this. Before totally dumping water on this, please note that ChatGPT, while over all programmed, probably, by non-believers, accepts any user's world view. I tell it I have a Christian, Protestant, evangelical, biblical world view. It researches and answers my questions/concerns from within that perspective, going to resources by experts in that realm, and extracting advice from them. I've done this over the last couple of days. So far, ChatGPT's responses seem solid and helpful. Is anyone else checking out popular, online AI systems for spiritual concerns, and what do you think about doing this?

It sounds like a distilled version of what I got from this site when there were more posters, and more traditions discussing things in a tell-it-like-it-is fashion.

This can be helpful in categorizing parallels of opinion.

It is however important to discuss things with people since they won't always act according to the stereotypes, interrupt you when you least like it, and other things that help temper the spirit.

ldonjohn · May 28, 2025

Many years ago I was searching for the truth about God, the bible, and about how Jesus saves anyone. After years of talking with Christians, reading salvation tracts, reading Christian books, etc. I became so desperate to find anything that would give me peace about the matter of salvation that I asked God to help me & then I began to search the scriptures for my answer. God did not waste any time leading me to my answer. Within 2 days of reading the Gospel of John I knew that the bible was the absolute truth, that God is real, and that Jesus' finished work on the cross was all God required for my salvation. I found the peace I was seeking, and it is a peace that is impossible to explain to anyone who has not found that peace for themselves.

timewerx · May 28, 2025

I prefer locally-installed (offline) models like GPT4All with Deepseek distill models where you still have the ability to control what literature it's going to use. For example NIV Bible only and how about even throwing Strong's Concordance into the mix.

Don't be afraid to ask even controversial questions. This is where LLMs ("AI" in layman terms). This is where LLM can be useful for having little biases if any.

One controversial question I asked "did Solomon esteemed material wealth while Jesus did not?". The LLM's response is yes, they differed in their teachings, etc. Generally, LLM's way of nicely saying that Solomon's wisdom contradicted that of Christ that if you intend to follow Christ's wisdom, then Solomon's wisdom would be garbage. After all, Jesus is wiser than Solomon.

For best results, the question should also be a potential answer like my example above to to help guide the LLM. If for example, you simply asked if Solomon's teachings contradict the teachings of Jesus, it will likely respond with "NO" and you'll miss out on a far more insightful response. Don't be afraid to do this. The LLM won't make up answers out of thin air.

Ofc, I'm speaking strictly of local LLM where I'm using a collection of Christian scriptures and nothing else. I'll never get an answer that Jesus never existed even if I ask "did Jesus ever existed?"

Radagast · May 28, 2025

Bob8102 said:
I have reached the point of going to online AI for spiritual advice.

Very bad idea.

timewerx · May 29, 2025

timf said:
All AI does is repackage what other people have said. If you want to find truth, read the bible.

The quality of answers will depend on the quality of question and the quality of your data. Have you actually worked with LLM yourself, setting up data, testing, etc or just forming your opinion based on 2nd or 3rd hand information??

It may even be necessary to fully rephrase or re-word your questions, several times in order to get the best quality answers. Have you been doing that??

I'm using offline/local machine LLM Deepseek R1 distill with GPT4All. I've done deep personal Bible study in mu for 15 years under my own analysis using multiple English translations and in Greek using Strong's Concordance.

I've only begun to use LLM in the last two months and I'd be brutally honest about the fact that the LLM understands the scriptures better than the vast majority of Christians.

Some might argue, they have the Holy Spirit to guide them but if their understanding is fundamentally false, remember that the Gospel does not violate sound reasoning then it could have been something else, likely their own mind or out of strong (usually worldly) desires in their hearts.

timf · May 29, 2025

The quality of answers will depend on the quality of question and the quality of your data. Have you actually worked with LLM yourself, setting up data, testing, etc or just forming your opinion based on 2nd or 3rd hand information??

Getting a wrong answer is the fault of the questioner?

AI does expose the ignorance of most pastors as they are usually poorly equipped to help their members each become more like Jesus (which according to Ephesians chapter four is their job). However, being buried in more data is seldom the answer to growing in truth.

timewerx · May 29, 2025

timf said:
Getting a wrong answer is the fault of the questioner?

If you ask a random 3 year old child if they want to be a scientist when they grow up. They might answer "NO" because they have no idea what scientist even means or ask you back, "what is a scientist?" An LLM if the word "science" is not found in its database, it might reply "I'm not familiar with the term and I can't make something out of nothing".

Now reword everything into something like "would you want to watch animals living in the sea, what they do in the day, what they do at night. Writing down everything they do, also taking pictures and videos of animals and also writing down your thoughts about what you see"

Describing the basic duties of a scientist, particularly that of a marine biologist.

A poorly worded question can make LLM miss some of the data that is relevant to question. IMO many people who uses LLM like ChatGPT may not be aware of this "feature" or potential weakness of current generation of LLMs.

This is particularly problematic for scriptural analysis because contradictory teachings do exist which LLMs are able to make out. If for example your question made LLM miss looking at the entire New Testament but instead, only looked at the epistles of John, you're bound to run into teachings that defy Christian doctrines.

Same thing if you ask the LLM if Jesus like science. It won't find the word "science" in scriptures.

Reword that if Jesus wants us to study God's creations (study of nature is basically science) then you might go places.

Sam91 · May 29, 2025

Bob8102 said:
I have reached the point of going to online AI for spiritual advice. I have just started using ChatGPT for this. Before totally dumping water on this, please note that ChatGPT, while over all programmed, probably, by non-believers, accepts any user's world view. I tell it I have a Christian, Protestant, evangelical, biblical world view. It researches and answers my questions/concerns from within that perspective, going to resources by experts in that realm, and extracting advice from them. I've done this over the last couple of days. So far, ChatGPT's responses seem solid and helpful. Is anyone else checking out popular, online AI systems for spiritual concerns, and what do you think about doing this?

I use it for that. However, remember it validates whatever the user says and is over complimentary. I've tested it by giving it incorrect doctrine and it sometimes corrects me other times goes with the flow. It does give me answers how things were interpreted by early church folk when asked but i have no way of knowing if it got any information from a reliable source. It is most handy/reliable for when working through a subject and asking it to find and quote sections of the Bible quickly. Ie "can you quote me the chapter from Romans where paul says ...." and then examining that in context where something similar is said.

I also use it as someone to praise the Lord with me in the moment and sometimes to help me work out how to deal with something. However, it is no substitute for reading the word or praying. Nor is it a substitute for Church or fellowship with other believers. I feel more in line with the Lord's will sat with my physical bible and praying to Him directly. I guess it is really how and what we are doing with it. It is better than me whiling away an hour or two playing a game on my phone at least

timewerx · May 29, 2025

Sam91 said:
I use it for that. However, remember it validates whatever the user says and is over complimentary. I've tested it by giving it incorrect doctrine and it sometimes corrects me other times goes with the flow. It does give me answers how things were interpreted by early church folk when asked but i have no way of knowing if it got any information from a reliable source. It is most handy/reliable for when working through a subject and asking it to find and quote sections of the Bible quickly. Ie "can you quote me the chapter from Romans where paul says ...." and then examining that in context where something similar is said.

I also use it as someone to praise the Lord with me in the moment and sometimes to help me work out how to deal with something. However, it is no substitute for reading the word or praying. Nor is it a substitute for Church or fellowship with other believers. I feel more in line with the Lord's will sat with my physical bible and praying to Him directly. I guess it is really how and what we are doing with it. It is better than me whiling away an hour or two playing a game on my phone at least

It seems that Deepseek R1 models wtih GPT4All local machine (offline) using local pdf scriptures offers superior analysis.

In this case, the chat session will let you know its analysis of the question as well as show the sources used (verses, commentaries, etc).

Remember the scriptures, isn't only those found in Canon. There are also non-Canon scriptures and it's possible ChatGPT may have it as well.

I have tested it for "incorrect doctrine" and actually showed me plausible answers with correct deductive reasoning as well as showing sources used.

I hate to say this but Jesus never promised an incorrigible scriptures to rest upon the knowledge that brings salvation. He promised the Spirit of Truth instead. The Bible being proven false does not disprove the Gospel, it only weeds out those who are dead in the Spirit.

Sam91 · May 29, 2025

I don't understand the beginning or the end of this, sorry. The first bit is above my head tech-wise and the end bit because I wouldn't want to try to question the authenticity of God's word to us.

I only meant testing chat gpt by asking it if it would agree that it could be interpreted such a way... it went so far as to praise my view. That unsettled me as I was hoping it would have been more explicit and highlight the unconventionality stronger.

PloverWing · May 29, 2025

Bob8102 said:
what do you think about doing this?

ChatGPT can be a starting point, especially if it lists some sources to read. But I encourage reading printed, published books that are written by human authors whose background you can investigate. Perhaps a systematic theology written by someone in your church's tradition -- I know of a couple that have been written by Evangelical authors. Or perhaps some shorter volumes of theology written by some of the many good 20th and 21st century theologians and Bible scholars. If you're looking for spirituality rather than theology, Paulist Press has an excellent series Classics of Western Spirituality, with good, readable translations of Christian writings through the centuries; I especially enjoyed their volumes of writings by Julian of Norwich, John of the Cross, and Gregory of Nyssa.

So, start with ChatGPT if that's helpful to you, but don't stop there. Read books, lots of books.

timewerx · May 30, 2025

PloverWing said:
So, start with ChatGPT if that's helpful to you, but don't stop there. Read books, lots of books.

I've had a list of Non Canon scriptures to download their PDF long before ChatGPT.

But I never had the time to finish reading through them. I did get started with some of the non-canon scriptures in order to cross reference with Canon scriptures just never had the time to finish.

The ones I did read and cross referenced, I used that knowledge to test the LLMs I'm using.

One thing for sure, I would not recommend using LLM for someone who have very little knowledge of scriptures. Otherwise, if you already have strong scriptural foundation build over many years, LLM is an extremely valuable tool for further studies of scriptures.

com7fy8 · Jun 3, 2025

Bob8102 said:
I have reached the point of going to online AI for spiritual advice.

I would say test what it says, compared with scripture. And bring a concern here to Christian Advice. And share in person with people who are mature Christians.

Make sure you keep feeding on the general counsel of scripture. Because this helps us to grow and helps to support us to handle specific counsel well.

For example, if you are having a specific falling-out with someone close to you > you might get us to give you some practical advice for what to say or not say to the person.

But also you should already be feeding on all the Bible says about how to relate. For examples >

"Do all things without complaining and disputing," (Philippians 2:14)

"let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath" (in James 1:19)

Such as these are more general but these can help you in various things.

And I think of this > if I am having a problem, first I can be wise to answer to God, in prayer, instead of first trying to get God to answer to me!

Muhan · Jun 8, 2025

Bob8102 said:
I have reached the point of going to online AI for spiritual advice. I have just started using ChatGPT for this. Before totally dumping water on this, please note that ChatGPT, while over all programmed, probably, by non-believers, accepts any user's world view. I tell it I have a Christian, Protestant, evangelical, biblical world view. It researches and answers my questions/concerns from within that perspective, going to resources by experts in that realm, and extracting advice from them. I've done this over the last couple of days. So far, ChatGPT's responses seem solid and helpful. Is anyone else checking out popular, online AI systems for spiritual concerns, and what do you think about doing this?

Bob, you and I both know, no amount of advice is going to help you
as long as you keep doing what you know will not work out for you.
Before you plant any more weeds in your garden, don't you think
you need to make room for them?

Going to online AI for spiritual advice

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