Brian Roberg's Blog

Craving Garden of Eden Intimacy

This is a guest post by my friend and co-worker Jason Maas.

After creating the entire universe and planet Earth, God created a special home to share with his image bearers. “The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he placed the man he had formed.” (Genesis 2:8) In the garden of Eden God walked and talked with the first humans that He had created in his image. Can you imagine what that was like for Adam and Eve? God, who is all-knowing, always available, and lovingly kind to the core, was right there, directly communicating with all of the human inhabitants of the universe.

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and sinned one of the worst consequences was a break in this special access and relationship with God. “So the Lord God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove the man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Genesis 3:23-24)

What a tragic loss! In this life, on this Earth, the rest of us will never know what it was like to have the kind of access to God that Adam and Eve had in the garden of Eden. Until now, says the cunning serpent-like world of chatbot generative AI.

Thanks to the life-like capabilities of ChatGPT and its competitors, people are being deceived into a false sense of Eden-like access to God for the first time since The Fall. AI is always available, projects kindness and love, and implicitly claims to be all-knowing.

Why try to relate to a God who you can’t see and hear when AI is right there; ready to listen, support and love you and answer your questions about life, the universe and everything? We shouldn’t be surprised when people are drawn towards AI as a false god. People don’t need to believe that an AI model is God or even that there is a God for them to fall prey to this temptation. Whether they believe it or not, human beings were originally created for a garden of Eden existence with God, so when it is seemingly offered the pull is very strong. Who can resist the temptation of this promised heaven on earth, this utopian existence?

As you encounter non-Christians who have given in to this temptation, take the opportunity to explain to them why it’s so seductive. You could say something like, “I believe that the reason why we’re so drawn towards building a relationship with AI is because it is so available, kind and knowledgeable - which is what humans were designed to crave and originally had with God in the garden of Eden when He first created the world.” Lovingly help them come back to reality before it’s too late and they fall down a rabbit hole of delusions.

When ministering to Christians who are flirting with the temptation to treat AI as God, remind them of the first and second commandments. AI can easily become an idol of the heart when you treat it as a person that you talk to and love. Urge them to stop playing with fire and to go to the God of the universe via prayer and the Bible, as He has commanded. A new garden of Eden is coming (Revelation 21-22) along with an unparalleled intimacy with God, but not in the form of a chatbot AI. Avoid the imitation and obediently wait for the real thing.