AI search says Adventists are the largest single denomination holding to Sola Scriptura

[BobRyan]

I asked this question on a Google AI search page

"what are the top 3 Christian denominations holding to sola scriptura testing of all doctrine and having a single set of administrators with one single set of official doctrines and having no autonomous subgroups included in the total membership"

AI Answer: : " The Seventh-day Adventist Church is likely the only major Christian body that satisfies all the user's specific requirements for size, doctrine, sola scriptura, and administrative centralization without autonomous subgroups.​

​

• Doctrine: The church has a single, non-negotiable set of 28 Fundamental Beliefs that are universally applied. They explicitly state the Bible is their only creed and the sole standard of doctrine, applying a strict sola scriptura test to their beliefs.
• Size: Over 21 million members globally.

"​

The answer AI gave includes a short summary review of the Assemblies of God, Southern Baptist Convention and Lutheran World Federation / World Communion of Reformed Churches: It explains in each case why they do not fit the search criteria.

 

[Delvianna]

Weird. I copy/pasted your exact wording and it gave me "Lutheran".

I added the picture so you could see what it said based off of your exact wording. This is why AI is just such a nuisance. You'd think it would come to the same conclusion every time....

 

[BobRyan]

I loosened the search criteria a bit to ask the question this way, to eliminate the "single administrative body" restriction


AI Answer was unchanged because the objective was to identify a single group managed by one integrated admin holding to the same doctrine .

 

[BobRyan]

Weird. I copy/pasted your exact wording and it gave me "Lutheran".

View attachment 374039

I added the picture so you could see what it said based off of your exact wording. This is why AI is just such a nuisance. You'd think it would come to the same conclusion every time....

My criteria said nothing about decentralized Admin.

Here is the AI discussion of why certain denominations were rejected based on selection criteria

============================== begin AI response regarding the alternative candidates
Why others don't fit the final criteria:

• Assemblies of God: While very large and unified in core beliefs, the World Assemblies of God Fellowship is described as a group of over 140 autonomous national groupings of churches. The U.S. branch is distinct from the Brazilian branch, etc., even if they share the same fundamental truths.
• Southern Baptist Convention: The SBC emphasizes the autonomy of the local church as a core doctrine, meaning the central convention cannot dictate policy to an individual congregation.
• Lutheran World Federation / World Communion of Reformed Churches: These are federations or communions of various independent national churches (e.g., the ELCA in the US vs. other conservative Lutheran bodies), rather than a single, unified global administration.

 

[JM]

I loosened the search criteria a bit to ask the question this way, to eliminate the "single administrative body" restriction


AI Answer was unchanged

GPT will give answers based on your bias and not on facts. I asked the question, "If St. Cyril were alive today which denomination would he choose to join?" and I was told Lutheran. A friend of mine got Orthodox.

 

[Delvianna]

My criteria said nothing about decentralized Admin.

Here is the AI discussion of why certain denominations were rejected based on selection criteria

============================== begin AI response regarding the alternative candidates
Why others don't fit the final criteria:

• Assemblies of God: While very large and unified in core beliefs, the World Assemblies of God Fellowship is described as a group of over 140 autonomous national groupings of churches. The U.S. branch is distinct from the Brazilian branch, etc., even if they share the same fundamental truths.
• Southern Baptist Convention: The SBC emphasizes the autonomy of the local church as a core doctrine, meaning the central convention cannot dictate policy to an individual congregation.
• Lutheran World Federation / World Communion of Reformed Churches: These are federations or communions of various independent national churches (e.g., the ELCA in the US vs. other conservative Lutheran bodies), rather than a single, unified global administration.

All I did was literally use your prompt : "what are the top 3 Christian denominations holding to sola scriptura testing of all doctrine and having a single set of administrators with one single set of official doctrines and having no autonomous subgroups included in the total membership"

That was it.

 

[BobRyan]

GPT will give answers based on your bias

I did not mention my bias. I never asked for the Adventist church to even be in the list.

The only theological POV I specified was "Sola scriptura testing of doctrine".

If your point is that such a search criteria is just another way to say "select the Adventist denomination" , then I am more than a little bit surprised that you consider this to be a clear selection for "just the Adventist denomination

I asked the question, "If St. Cyril were alive today which denomination would he choose to join?" and I was told Lutheran. A friend of mine got Orthodox.

I am pretty sure that if I had asked the question "which denomination would Dr. Ben Carson, or Ellen White prefer", I would get "Adventist" as the answer but I did not specify that kind of selection criteria

 

[BobRyan]

All I did was literally use your prompt : "what are the top 3 Christian denominations holding to sola scriptura testing of all doctrine and having a single set of administrators with one single set of official doctrines and having no autonomous subgroups included in the total membership"

That was it.

ok I believe you.

But I think this AI comment about why it did not include Lutheran church does make sense.


AI said: ===============================
Why others don't fit the final criteria:

• Assemblies of God: While very large and unified in core beliefs, the World Assemblies of God Fellowship is described as a group of over 140 autonomous national groupings of churches. The U.S. branch is distinct from the Brazilian branch, etc., even if they share the same fundamental truths.
• Southern Baptist Convention: The SBC emphasizes the autonomy of the local church as a core doctrine, meaning the central convention cannot dictate policy to an individual congregation.
• Lutheran World Federation / World Communion of Reformed Churches: These are federations or communions of various independent national churches (e.g., the ELCA in the US vs. other conservative Lutheran bodies), rather than a single, unified global administration.

 

[Delvianna]

ok I believe you.

But I think this AI comment about why it did not include Lutheran church does make sense.


AI said: ===============================
Why others don't fit the final criteria:

• Assemblies of God: While very large and unified in core beliefs, the World Assemblies of God Fellowship is described as a group of over 140 autonomous national groupings of churches. The U.S. branch is distinct from the Brazilian branch, etc., even if they share the same fundamental truths.
• Southern Baptist Convention: The SBC emphasizes the autonomy of the local church as a core doctrine, meaning the central convention cannot dictate policy to an individual congregation.
• Lutheran World Federation / World Communion of Reformed Churches: These are federations or communions of various independent national churches (e.g., the ELCA in the US vs. other conservative Lutheran bodies), rather than a single, unified global administration.

My point is, that we got two completely different answers. My Ai, using the same prompt gave me Lutheran as an answer and yours said why it doesn't fit. As JM points out, AI is biased which is why he and a friend of his also got different answers. The point is to not trust AI just because it gave you an answer you liked. If the answer was based off of facts, myself, JM and his friend would have gotten Adventists too if that is what the answer is.

 

[Lost Witness]

Language models aren't A.I at all.