The Tower of Babel & AI

Thousands of years ago, humanity gathered on a plain in Shinar with one language, one vision, and one wildly audacious plan to build a tower straight into the presence of God. Sound familiar? In this episode, we hold the ancient story of Babel up against our modern race to build artificial general intelligence, and the parallels are unsettling. We explore what the Bible actually says about human ambition, why God's response at Babel wasn't simply punishment, and what it might mean theologically that we are now constructing systems that can reason, create, and speak like us — at a scale that dwarfs any ziggurat. This is not a scare-piece about AI. It's a serious question: are we building a tower again, and if so — what happens next?

Transcript

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In Genesis chapter 11, we read a story about the Tower of Babel, right? So in this story, all humankind speak one language. That means no matter where you were, you all communicate in one language, right? So in this thing, that all of these people got together and decided they wanted to build a tower straight up to heaven. The whole idea for them to build a tower is that they wanted to be strong and powerful, right? And so they all start working together to build this tower. God came down and saw the tower and he put a stop to it. But they were using brick, not just you know stone, but they were building brick after brick after brick, working together to get that tower as high as possible to heaven as possible. Now this this building of together in unity, a show where power can combine when we all speak one language, right? Today, as we look at this episode, the Tower of Babel and AI, let us think about what AI is. AI is actually not new, it's been around from a long time since Google has been here. But the general AI is a technology or a machine that is trying to do difficult tasks but also develop a consciousness such as human. Now they haven't got to that stage yet, but yes, they are still working on it. But the whole idea of AI is that we can use one machine to do a powerful work, doing all of our tasks that we can't even manage. So when we think of a Tower of Babel, where people start in a unified language to build a powerful tower, and we think of AI, one machines um coming together and going all over the world, finding information and bringing. This is a big part of the poor Meteor theory, is that humankind is trying to always do something that's transcending their ability to do something to be more and more like God? That's what we are going to look at. Today, we are going to examine the tower of Babel and AI and take a deeper look and how does it matter to us today? What does all of this mean? When we think of the Tower of Babel back when the people were building it, when we looked at it in Genesis, in Genesis chapter 11, if you notice what the Lord said, it said about in verses 11. Genesis chapter 11, verses 5. But the Lord came down to look at the city and the tower the people were building. Look, he said, The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse the people with different language, then they won't be able to understand each other. And so, why did God do this? Why did God need to confuse the people so that they start building this tower? Was it God was feeling that, you know, were they feeling come was he feeling competitive? Uh you know, um, was he feeling threatened? Or did he feel that the people do some impossible stuff that will expose some of his secret? I think the main reason why God does it during that time is that people weren't ready for what they find. Think about if they had built this tower of Baba and it goes all the way up into the heaven. Not only will people get hurt, oh my goodness. Think of right now we have some high tower in the world. You know, um, the Ethel Tower, we have, you know, the tower, we have the New York City Tower, all of these tall buildings in the world. It's exciting for people to be on top of the world. But what happens if you fall off that top? It's dangerous. God can never be threatened by a human being. He is the one who created us. So he already knows that he is more powerful than them. But God didn't want them to do the impossible, he didn't want them to keep going and reaching for things. The funny thing is, why did they build a stove in the first place? Those verses 11 tell us that they build a stove. They said, let us go and make a name for ourselves. In other words, this is where, again, the Purmethian Terium, the Purmithan comes in, the desire to be more like God, the desire to combine to be powerful, right? This thing is where humans are always seeking to be different or better or close to God. It's something that is deep down inside of us, pushing us to take steps and doing things that are dangerous, even though it's not necessarily good. But you also put in mind the fact that God created us to be in his image. So that means God knows us, God understands what we are able to do, and he is God. And if they had done something um really dangerous back then, of course God is able to stop them, he's able to put a stop to their heck. But to understand who God is is a place where no matter where we do, what we do, he cares for us and he only wants what's best for us. So that is why he is always going to look at the danger. There was so much danger in building that tower. They didn't even see that danger because they were still fresh and hurt, they were still learning just to be human. Oh, come on. You think about how they build that tower, people would get hurt. So many people would have gotten earth if that tower and keep building. So there's a lot of danger involved in building the tower that God has already foreseen. Now, let's look at AI today. What are the dangers in having AI? AI is all over right now. I think one of the biggest dangers is that people will become so dependent on it that they will eventually see it as an idol, as in God. Um, when I looked at how people react to Christine today, when a Christian comes to your mind, what do you do? Right. You Google it becoming so natural now, right? I want you to think about that. How many of us today, if a Christian comes to our mind, we said, let me go look in the dictionary? How many of us today said, I'll go to the library and search a bunch of books, right? AI made it easier, but with that ease also comes danger. We are not living in the time where God has to worry about us fall off. But God knows that whenever we combine such power as artificial intelligence, there is danger lying there. There is ethic involved. There is a whole bunch of things that involve when we take it to it the exile. But I want us to go back and just take a look at Genesis chapter 11. I'm going to read it and we take a look at it. It said at one time all the people in her spoke the same language and used the same word. As people migrated to the east, they found a plain in the land of Babylonia and settled there. So all these people were together, thousand and unto people together, living together, and they began saying to each other, let's make brick, guarding them with fire. In this region, brick were used instead of stone and tall and used for mutter. Ooh. Hold on. Yeah. Then they said, Come, let us build a great city for ourselves with a tower that reaches into the sky. This will make us famous and keep us from being scattered all over the world. So there was an intention behind building that tower. Not only were they already plotting and planning what their future looked like. First, they wanted to build this tower so that there won't be scattered all over the world. Who tells you that you can't be? Who tell you God wants you to just stay in Boblin? No, that's not sufficient. You are the beginning of the world. You can't be one place. But this was their plan. I want you to notice how quickly it's the word spread. You know how somebody tried to spread a Romo and tried to destroy something, you know, they have to go and tell this person, that person, to that person, to that person. But in this region, everyone spoke the same language, everyone was in one location. It was so easy for information to share. Let's keep reading before I go on. The Savior. But the Lord, verse 5 again. But the Lord came down. Look at the city and the tower, and the people were building. Look, he said, the people are united and they speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do would be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse the people with different language. Then they won't be able to understand each other. So God was concerned. He was concerned that these people will do things that once they unite, they will do anything, even if it's dangerous. It could be so dangerous that it killed all of them. But only God could be able to fix that. Only God would be able to see that. And so he did what was best. He scattered them all over and putting them in different language. Verses 8 says, in that way, the Lord scattered them all over the world, and they stopped building the city. That is why the city was called Babel, because that is where the Lord confused the people with different language. In this way, He scattered them all over the world. And so God scattered the people all over the world, allowing them to speak in individual language. That's how we get to learn all our language and how we get to speak in the convenient language. But now let's look at how all of that changes. First, God was so concerned for the people, he was making sure that they didn't do things that would devastate my future. Because if they build a future, you know that we will exist today. And then, you know, then automatically in Acts chapter 2, when the Holy Spirit shows up, the Holy Spirit reversed this. Yeah. See, now it's not totally reversed, but the Holy Spirit can equip people to speak in the language that they don't even learn. They don't even have to live in the region, which is totally different. But the way out the Holy Spirit brings the language to that person in the in Acts chapter 2, when the Holy Spirit shows up, some of the people were visiting from far and wide over the world. They came to that place and Jerusalem to worship, and bum, they hear someone else who has never been to their country, never been to their region speaking their language. So now the Holy Spirit unite people again in one, but not together as in one language. He does it in a different way. Whenever it's necessary to share the good news of Jesus Christ, it wasn't so people can make a name for themselves. Now that we think about Ah and think about all the things we use artificial intelligence for. When we think about how it processes and how it's growing and how it's being refined, if that's the same thing. Humans are seeking power, it's speaking someone to do something. Artificial intelligence is actually leaving us to a place where we want someone else or something else to help us or control what we do. So now we can go to AI to create a simple task for us, right? But it's come to a place where we are so dependent on AI that we are no longer thinking on our own. Instead, we are going, instead of learning or trying to see to know these things, we go to artificial intelligence. It also makes us lazy because eventually we won't do anything on our own. Well, we keep depending on AI. And now in the Tower of Babel, we were united in one language, and so they were able to do one task together. And that's the same thing with artificial intelligence, right? Artificial intelligence, the machine is collecting data, storing data, using data, and getting information from data. But yet it can come to a place where we are trying to make a name for ourselves by coming up with a machine to do all the tasks for us, right? When we think about how God wants us to operate as human beings, He doesn't want us to just seek to make a name for ourselves, He wants us to seek to know who we are, trust who we are, and believe that He had given us all the tasks we need inside of us to do the things. So we really have to be asking ourselves, how dependent are we becoming in AI? Where do you know artificial intelligence is not being used? Today it's used everywhere, but that doesn't mean it wasn't being used before. It simply means it's more prominent now. Now AI is everywhere in every country, all over the world. People can use AI to even start a war. Yes, you heard that because it's information sharing, it's information giving, it's information building. Today, very few people do not use AI. Let me just say this. It's important for you to understand artificial intelligence is not bad. How we use it may be detrimental and dangerous, not just to ourselves, but to the world around us. Everything if we use for selfish gain and power can be dangerous to the world. God is the creator of the world. He is not going to sit back and allow the world he created to be destroyed by a machine, right? And so in the midst of using it, we have to remember that God is in control. A human mind is fragile. We can easily become so dependent on AI that we start to see it as something to provide our needs. And that's where it comes in for believer. Ask ourselves, where are we using AI and do we need it? As people prepar to preach and so forth, AI can be used for simple researching. But to actually write an entire sermon, no one should do that. The work of the Holy Spirit cannot be replaced. And if you try to do that, then your sermon is gonna lose the whole body of fire that is needed to bring people to know who God is. You're using artificial intelligence anywhere. As a believer, you have to ask yourself, where should I draw the line? Whether you're using it at your job, in the boardroom, in the classroom, in the church, where should I draw the line? Because as children of God, He is the one we obey first, He is the one we depend on, He is the one we seek. Many people today believe AI is more capable of giving them answers than the Holy Spirit. And that's where you can never be more wrong. Before AI or before general artificial intelligence, before it reaches a stage where it's conversational so forth, we always have Google, right? Before Google, what did we have? Books. So there was always a way to get information. Google came as things starting to get digitalized. So now we move from just having the physical things to things that were in the cloud, and then we move on to having artificial intelligence. So artificial intelligence didn't happen overnight, it's the doing and the participating of people over time using technology to bring answers to them. A long time ago, I have learned to practice this thing in my life where, for example, if I'm reading the Bible and I come across a um a difficult question or word I can't understand, I usually pray and ask the spirit to show me. But one of the things I do is I write the question in my journal. And I have found that 90% of the time, while I am writing the question at the Holy Spirit brings the answer to my mind. Yes, no Google, no nothing. I can assure you that the spirit of a living God can bring you every answer you need more than artificial intelligence can. Yes. If you rely on the whole spirit, it will bring you the truth, everything you need. So instead of just Googling when you're doing your Bible study, sometimes stop and realize that you have something greater within you. The word of God tells you, tell us that greater is He that is in us than E that is in the world. The Holy Spirit is greater than artificial intelligence. Yes. He can bring you more wisdom, more understand. It can do everything better than artificial intelligence can. So as believers, we have to see where our line is drawn. And then we have to remember some of the things that artificial intelligence cannot do. Think about it for a second. What artificial intelligence cannot do? Then let's go on. It cannot love. That's make I'm sorry, there's a lot of things artificial intelligence cannot do that make us realize how much better it is to depend on the Holy Spirit that can do everything. To be fully human is amazing. To be fully human is divine. To be fully human is just powerful, and that's what artificial intelligence can never do. So we must embrace that. Embrace the truth that you are made in God's image. You are special and unique. Nothing can ever come to build a human and can never build anything that can be close to what God created. We, yes. We are unique, we are made in the image of God. Nothing can change that. But we must remember where we are coming from historical. From the Tower of Babel, where we try to make a name for ourselves, where we try to be famous and be more like God, to Permition, where we try to be transine, where we're trying to be powerful, ever powerful, right? All of those desires can all be found in the Holy Spirit. Yes. And that's the secret of being a believer, is that eventually you realize the power of the Holy Spirit is so great, it's so powerful. Nothing, there is absolutely nothing, can be close. When Jesus leaves the Holy Spirit to his disciples, I want you to think of this. All the many ways that the Holy Spirit is represented in the Bible. Right? But in Acts 2, what we were talking about, when the Holy Spirit came, it came in the form of a tongue of fire, burning, powerful, scotching. No artificial intelligence can ever come close to that. And so, as a believer, use artificial intelligence if you need to, but draw the line and make sure you have not come fully dependent on it, because you are supposed to be fully dependent on the Holy Spirit. Greater is E that is in you than E that is in the world. And E that is in you can do great and powerful things through you if you allow the Holy Spirit to. I have thought about sometimes um where Jesus standed in the disciple house and he said, Don't worry about what you have to say. I will tell you what you say. The spirit will know tell you what to speak, and it's so powerful when Peter speaks all the words, all the issues, the understanding of the scripture was revealed to him and to him. I know what that's like. I've experienced that where I don't know what to say. And the Holy Spirit bring the truth to my lips. So I know I can trust in the Holy Spirit more. And if you need to be so dependent on artificial intelligence that you have to go to it for every answer that you are seeking from the Bible, then you will lose out, you will miss out on experiencing the divine power that God has given to us. The Tower of Babel was trying to build something for themselves. Artificial intelligence is the same. Man has built something for himself. A data center that can try to do every task that human can do. But one thing it can never do is to become fully human or even spiritual. We can live without artificial intelligence, but we can never live without the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit in everything we do and in everything we say. And so what I want you to leave here with, what I want you to take from this as you go out into the world today, I want you to ask yourself this question. As a believer, what have I created? What is one thing I have created where I know that artificial intelligence can never create? I want you to think about what have you created that artificial intelligence can never create. And then you remember, greater is E that is in you than E or anything that is in the world. Be empowered in knowing that no matter what man created, there is a limit, and God can intervene. So no matter how big a data center they build, God will always have something bigger and greater. Alright? And so I pray that this episode brings you some understanding of artificial intelligence, our world today, and what we can do as children of God. Our faith can never be replicated, and the art can never be replicated. It's a beautiful feeling in the realization of how special you are. God created you in this image. And as David says, He is wonderful, we are wonderfully and beautifully made. And God not only loved us, but he will always prevent us from being in danger when we choose him. Yes. And so whatever is going on in your life today, never be worried about what artificial intelligence can do. But be worried about what God can do. Alright? So take that with you today. Let us just go ahead and close in prayer. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for your holy word to remind us of the things that happen historically. I pray for every person who is praying along with me right now that you would bring wisdom, understanding, and discernment so that we know where to draw the line as we seek to use technology. Help us not to allow technology to move us far away from you, but instead allow it to draw us closer to you because you are our God. Forgive us for the time when we try to replace you with something else. Because you, O Father God, can never be replaced. You are our God. And we surrender all to you today, asking for your divine grace and power to keep us and to completely draw us closer to you. May we always put you first in our life and allow your light to shine through us. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, I pray. Amen. Amen. I thank you for joining me today. Don't forget to share this episode. Share this with someone who's struggling with their faith in artificial intelligence. And until next time, keep asking, keep seeking, and keep unpacking the truth. God bless you.