AI can create a 'new Bible,' influential author declares: 'In a few years, there might be religions that are actually correct'

 

June 11, 2023

Yuval Noah Harari — an influential author, professor, and renowned public intellectual — said recently that artificial intelligence can create a "new Bible."

What are the details?

Harari — who has written "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind," "Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow," and "21 Lessons for the 21st Century" — spoke last month about the future of AI and said it may soon greatly influence spirituality:

"It's the first technology ever that can create new ideas. You know, the printing press, radio, television, they broadcast, they spread the ideas created by the human brain, by the human mind. They cannot create a new idea. You know, [Johannes] Gutenberg printed the Bible in the middle of the 15th century; the printing press printed as many copies of the Bible as Gutenberg instructed it, but it did not create a single new page. It had no ideas of its own about the Bible: Is it good? Is it bad? How to interpret this? How to interpret that?"

Harari then dropped a bomb: "AI can create new ideas; [it] can even write a new Bible."

He added that "throughout history, religions dreamt about having a book written by a superhuman intelligence, by a non-human entity" and that "in a few years there might be religions that are actually correct ... just think about a religion whose holy book is written by an AI. That could be a reality in a few years."

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Pat Robertson, broadcaster who helped make religion central to GOP politics, dies at 93

 

June 8, 2023

Pat Robertson, a religious broadcaster who turned a tiny Virginia station into the global Christian Broadcasting Network, tried a run for president and helped make religion central to Republican Party politics in America through his Christian Coalition, has died. He was 93.

Robertson’s death Thursday was announced by his broadcasting network. No cause was given.

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The Dog Whistle of ‘Christian Nationalism’

 

May 10, 2023

The Left’s latest cudgel against religious conservatives. 

Since Donald Trump’s surprise victory in the 2016 election, a rash of articles, surveys, and books have claimed that many—maybe even most—Americans in flyover country are “Christian nationalists.” That’s supposed to sound scary. But the term is mostly used as a smear against conservative Christians who defend the role of religion in American public life.  

Sociologists Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry give the perceived threat a scholarly gloss in their recent book from Oxford University Press, Taking America Back for God. They define Christian nationalism as “an ideology that idealizes and advocates a fusion of American civic life with a particular type of Christian identity and culture.” What’s more, it “includes assumptions of nativism, white supremacy, patriarchy and heteronormativity, along with divine sanction for authoritarian control and militarism.” That’s quite a parade of horribles. 

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How to Bring People to God and Religion

 

May 9, 2023

There are four primary reasons fewer and fewer people in America and the West take God, the Bible or religion seriously.

1. The belief that science disproves religion.

2. The belief that reason and feelings supplant God and the Bible as the only necessary vehicles to morality.

3. The “progressive” ideologies of at least 100 years that seek to replace religion.

4. The failure of religious people to convince the next generation to be religious.

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Catholic hospitals' attorney reacts to win against Biden admin's 'shocking' threats to force closures

 

May 9, 2023

'I've been doing religious liberty work for a long time and I was shocked,' the attorney for St. Francis' hospital system said

The Catholic hospital system the Biden administration had nearly forced to lose its accreditation over an eternal flame in its chapels is relieved that, after it threatened litigation, the federal government backed off, its counsel told Fox News Digital Monday.

The federal government had attempted to force the St. Francis Catholic hospital system Oklahoma to choose between losing its accreditation for Medicaid and Medicare or removing eternal flames from its chapels, which is central to their faith. The hospital system refused, citing their First Amendment rights and religious beliefs. 

"St. Francis is relieved they've always served God and serve their community. Those two things go hand in hand, and they're happy to continue doing it," said Lori Windham, the Vice President and Senior Counsel The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

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Faith Crisis? This One False Idea Could be the Biggest Cause

 

May 2023

A False Idea

I (Duane) once taught a Sunday School class of high school juniors and seniors, including my daughter (and co-author of The Last Safe Place) Kimberly. Over time it became clear to me (1) that these youth held a shared assumption or idea (whether consciously or not) and (2) that this idea was coloring everything I taught them about the gospel. They all, implicitly, believed it—and yet, it was completely false.

The idea was that they could not or should not accept anything unless they understood it. Their unstated assumption was that if they didn’t understand something, then they should be suspicious of it. In other words, they assumed that when a doctrine or statement or scripture “didn’t make sense” to them, their inability to understand or make sense of the issue served as evidence that the doctrine/statement/scripture was wrong—or at least, imperfect or incomplete. And this idea was creating doubts in them about the Church itself and its doctrines.

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Billboards Pop Up All Over the Country with 3 Words That Are Sure to Cause the Devil a Headache

 

May 6, 2023

Billboards sharing the same three words are popping up all over the country.

Those words may anger secular atheists, leftists and Democrats in equal measure. What’s more, they are sure to anger the Devil himself.

Why? Because these billboards proclaim the ultimate, universal authority of Jesus Christ.

Simply but profoundly, they read, “Christ Is Lord.”

The ads were bought and paid for by Christian publisher Canon Press as a promotional preorder campaign for prominent Moscow, Idaho, pastor Douglas Wilson’s new book “Mere Christendom.”

So far, the ads have appeared or will soon appear in Moscow; Spokane, Washington; New York City, Porto Alegre, Brazil; Nashville, Tennessee; Taylor, Texas; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Greenville, South Carolina and Houston, Texas.

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Franklin Graham: America Is ‘Spiraling in a Heap of Confusion and Lies’

 

May 6, 2023

Prominent evangelist Franklin Graham urged Americans to return to prayer Thursday, insisting the nation’s problems stem from having “turned our back on God.”

“Our country is spiraling in a heap of confusion and lies,” Rev. Graham wrote to his 10 million Facebook followers.

“As a nation we have turned our back on God and His Word, and we are seeing the results. Violence, crime, and suicide are rampant,” he declared.

The only solution to the nation’s escalating problems is a return to God, Graham asserted, in his remembrance of the National Day of Prayer, an annual observance designated by the U.S. Congress and held on the first Thursday of May.

The National Day of Prayer was established by President Harry S. Truman in 1952 as part of the public reaction to the threats occasioned by the Korean War, mandating that each subsequent president sign a yearly proclamation urging all Americans to pray on this day.

At that time, Rev. Billy Graham — Franklin Graham’s father — was a leading voice in urging the country to adopt a national day of prayer.

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The important lessons we can learn from 5 mothers in the Old Testament

 

May 4, 2023

When I think of important lessons I learn from the scriptures, prophets like Lehi, Nephi, Moroni, Moses, Noah, and Adam first come to mind. I love stories about prophets and the truths we learn from them. But when it comes to women in the scriptures, I have often felt that there are fewer examples to draw from. This is understandable—the scriptures were written in a different time and place, and so it’s unsurprising that we don’t know as much about the women from these time periods.

That being said, I wanted to take a deeper look at women in the scriptures and see what I could learn from them. Specifically, I wanted to research mothers in the scriptures—and I was shocked with how many I found. It’s impossible to cover them all here, but I hope this look at five mothers in the Old Testament can encourage us all to search more intentionally for women in the scriptures and appreciate what their important stories can teach us.

Eve

In his October 1987 general conference address, President Russell M. Nelson gave a talk during the women’s session called “Lessons from Eve.” Speaking of how Christ created the earth under the direction of Heavenly Father, President Nelson said:

“As Michael, Adam did his part. He became the first man. But, in spite of the power and glory of creation to that point, the final link in the chain of creation was still missing. All the purposes of the world and all that was in the world would be brought to naught without woman—a keystone in the priesthood arch of creation.”

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All the President’s Islamists

May 4, 2023

In 2014, Abdullah Hasan was a recipient of the CAIR-SFBA Islamic Scholarship Fund. He went on to defend BDS for the ACLU. Now he’s an assistant press secretary at the White House.

CAIR is an Islamist organization that was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in one of the largest terror financing trials in America. Its founders were linked to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, and it has opposed efforts to protect the United States against Islamic terrorism.

“Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant,” CAIR co-founder Omar Ahmad had declared.

When Hasan received his scholarship in 2014-2015, the Islamic Scholarship Fund’s board members included Hatem Bazian, one of the country’s most notorious Islamic bigots, the co-founder of Students for Justice in Palestine, and an alleged supporter of Hamas, who has spent decades trafficking in antisemitism.

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A new survey explores how and where Americans seek divine connection — and who they pray for

 

May 4, 2023

Americans today may spend less time in houses of worship than they once did, but many still regularly try to connect with the divine, according to new research on religious and spiritual habits.

The survey, which was released Thursday on the National Day of Prayer, showed that 85% of Americans participate in some kind of spiritual practice, with the most common being prayer.

More than 6 in 10 survey respondents (61%) said they pray, while 39% said they practice meditation. Millennials and members of Gen Z were more likely than older adults to meditate or engage in other mindfulness practices.

The new survey, which was conducted by City Square Associates on behalf of Skylight, an initiative of the Radiant Foundation, was fielded online from April 6-12, 2023, among 1,783 U.S. adults. The margin of error for the full sample is plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Skylight’s mission is to use technology to help young people embrace God-centered spiritual habits. Like the Deseret News, it’s part of Deseret Management Corporation.

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Biden Admin Tells Catholic Hospital to Blow Out This Sanctuary Candle or Stop Serving Patients

 

May 3, 2023

The federal government recently told a Catholic hospital in Oklahoma to either blow out a small candle or stop serving elderly, disabled, and low-income patients. Saint Francis Health System, the twelfth largest hospital in the nation, keeps, with many prudent safeguards, a sacred candle always lit inside its hospital chapels, in accordance with its Catholic faith.

After a hospital inspection in February, the government said a single candle was too dangerous and now threatens to strip the hospital of the ability to accept Medicare, Medicaid, or CHIP if it does not extinguish the flame. Becket sent a letter to the Biden administration reminding it that Saint Francis has the right to religious freedom and warning federal bureaucrats to leave the candle alone.

Saint Francis Health System is a premier health system with five hospitals in Eastern Oklahoma. The health system cares for nearly 400,000 patients each year, has given away more than $650 million dollars in free medical care in the past five years, and employs more than 11,000 Oklahomans. Saint Francis’s mission is to extend the presence and healing ministry of Christ. In addition to providing compassionate and top-notch care to its patients, Saint Francis lives out its religious mission by maintaining multiple chapels throughout its hospitals, each of which has been blessed by the local Bishop.

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Biblical sites in the Holy Land: It’s less about pinpointing the location and more about feeling the spirit of the event

May 3, 2023

Biblical sites can provide ‘spiritual echoes’ and ‘visual clues’ — not only to those touring the sites but believers from half a world way

JERUSALEM — When it comes to pinpointing sacred biblical sites in the Holy Land and beyond, sometimes the most certain thing about the historical location is the uncertainty.

Was the baby Jesus born in Bethlehem in a cave — at the present-day spot of the 14-point silver star inlaid in a marble floor of a grotto underneath the Church of the Nativity? Or perhaps elsewhere in the system of grottos that extend under the adjacent Chapel of Saint Catherine? Or somewhere else in or around Bethlehem, the small village that has since grown to a city of more than 30,000?

Was the Savior crucified and then entombed at the two locations enveloped by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, with the tomb cut away over the centuries to be encased by a shrine called the Aedicule? Or might the Crucifixion and burial have taken place at or near Skull Hill and the Garden Tomb respectively, both outside the walls of the Old City?

And when individuals want to “walk where Jesus walked” while traversing the walkways of old Jerusalem, do they understand that the city has been built among layers of stone, soil and debris from changing and conquering peoples and periods — Roman, Byzantine, Crusader and Ottoman, just to name a few? With the Old City’s “layers” going 20 to 30 feet deep in some locations, one might instead “walk over where Jesus walked.”

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On this day in history, May 2, 1611, King James Bible published, helped fuel revolution in American colonies

 

May 2, 2023

Story behind 'most widely published text in the English language' packed with royal intrigue

The King James Bible, the most famous version of the world’s most influential book, was published on this day in history, May 2, 1611. 

"The King James, or Authorized, Version of the Bible remains the most widely published text in the English language," claims the British Library. 

Commissioned by King James I of England in 1604, it is famed for its artfully written versions of Old and New Testament tales; its success bringing the Word of God to English-speaking commoners; and its influence on the American colonies. 

"In commissioning the first complete English translation of Christianity’s most sacred book, the King hoped to end protests by the Puritan faction of the Church of England," the website MapsoftheWorld.com notes.

"The result, beyond simply an authoritative text on which to continue building the national religion, would have far-reaching influence on the language itself."

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September 7, 2022

The Work of Virtue

A free republic depends on citizens who can take their prosperity into their own hands.

Daniel J. Mahoney

Mark T. Mitchell has written a book that addresses the specter haunting our decayed and decaying American republic. The title of the book gives that specter an apt name: “plutocratic socialism.” This two-headed creature combines the worst of an imperious oligarchy with the illusions of a socialism that is at once paternalistic, woke, and despotic. The principles of our republic remain admirable and choice-worthy, to be sure, but their presence in our common life has become attenuated with each passing day. The soul of our great republic has become hollowed out, because we have lost touch with the virtues that animate responsible citizenship in a free society.

More fundamentally, we have lost an appreciation of self-government in the most capacious sense of the term. The plentiful rights guaranteed by our constitutional order (and by “Nature and Nature’s God”) too often degenerate into excuses for self-destructive hedonism, veering inconsistently between impulsive self-assertion and debilitating passivity. As Mitchell persuasively argues, rights must be accompanied by the self-limitation that makes political liberty—what Aristotle called “ruling and being ruled”—possible and sustainable. There can be no self-government in the political sense without the governance of the self, and some self-conscious effort to put order in the human soul. Here the classics, Christians, and the American founders have more in common than we sometimes realize. Despite their elevation of rights as the central political category, the founders never broke with the Great Tradition’s understanding that “statecraft is inescapably soulcraft,” to cite the old locution of a more conservative George F. Will.

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September 5, 2022

Why Only Christianity Can Save the West… Again

Hellenistic thought experienced its “golden age” during the the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. This period witnessed the lives of some of history’s greatest philosophers, teachers, authors, and playwrights, and culminated with the spreading of Hellenism by Alexander the Great.

But by the end of the 1st century B.C., Hellenistic thought had been exhausted. Its creative energies had dried up; its ideas had lost their life.  

As Harvard professor Georges Florovsky noted in 1957:

“The ‘ancient’ Hellenism, in fact, completed its course, and its internal limitations were spectacularly exposed. In all areas of human existence, the ‘ancient Hellenism’ found itself in a desperate impasse.”

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An Appeal to Christians for Home Education

September 5, 2022

An Appeal to Christians for Home Education

I’m sorry to say this, but we live in a nation that seeks to devour children.

You probably already knew that, especially in consideration of the wickedness that has become more prevalent in recent years and taken hold of every facet of our society. There is nothing slowing down the widespread state of evil within our government, our cities, our schools, and even in some of our churches. However, over the last two years, the evil has taken a darker turn as the attacks on our children have escalated.

Consider the following realities in our country now (and please be warned: some of the links here are graphic and disturbing): Activists are now attempting to normalize sex between adults and minors. Doctors have no problem performing medical experiments on kids, and hospitals are performing hysterectomies, double mastectomies, and phalloplastys (where skin on the forearm or thigh is removed to create a non-functioning penis), on young girls.

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