What an incredible achievement. However, when a society knows how to do almost everything but no longer knows why it should do anything, it is in trouble. This condition is what John Seel describes as algorithmic nihilism—a society increasingly organized by powerful systems that cannot answer the most basic human question.
When I was in university, I studied Peter Berger and what he called the “sacred canopy,” the shared framework of moral meaning that made life feel coherent and intelligible. And meaningful!
But today AI is reshaping knowledge and reality itself. Social media has reshaped our identity. The result of all this is social and personal anxiety.
“Anxiety” comes from the term angina, and we use it to speak of a constriction of the heart. Anxiety is a constriction of the soul or a constriction of the spirit. The Apostle Paul reminds us to be anxious for nothing but by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.
Well, the good news is He already knows them. This is not algorithmic nihilism. This is the providential, sovereign, transcendent God who not only knows but cares…for me. In fact, He loves me. This is not simply literary rhetoric but life’s reality.
The Bible not only identifies and reveals the fault lines hidden beneath the comfortable but counterfeit surface of the worlds we create and invent for ourselves through AI and social media, it also provides, dare we say, in today's post-truth age, true truth, absolute truth of reality.
“Be anxious for nothing”? You bet!
Serving Him with you
Until He comes for us, Fred | 