AI from a Christian Perspective: Talking to a Computer, Not a Ghost

Michael Petler — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 03:09:08 +0000

I talk to people every week who are just plain spooked by AI. And honestly, I get it. The news makes it sound like something with a heartbeat is waking up in some dark server room somewhere. Fear gets clicks, and scare tactics always sells.

Before I write code or run a business, I follow Jesus Christ. That anchors me. Paul wrote to Timothy that God didn't give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. When you actually sit down and look at this stuff with a sound mind, the Hollywood fog just kind of burns off.

You're not talking to a soul. You're talking to a machine that predicts words.

In Genesis, God formed man out of the dust and breathed life right into his lungs. Scripture calls us the Imago Dei—made in the image of God. A computer chip don't have that breath. It doesn't have a conscience, it can't feel conviction, and it will never know what it means to repent or love another human being. It sounds human because it read everything we ever put on the internet. It's holding up a mirror to us, nothing more.

God makes people. People make tools. AI is just a tool.

The Oldest Trap in the Book

Humans have been making this mistake for thousands of years. In Isaiah 44, the prophet talks about a guy who chops down a tree, burns half of it to stay warm and cook his supper, and then takes the leftover wood, carves a little statue, and bows down to it saying "save me, you're my god!"

We're doing the exact same thing today, just with math. We take linear algebra, run it across millions of graphics cards, train it on human language, and suddenly folks in Silicon Valley are talking like they just summoned a digital god.

It's nonsense. Modern AI is just very good at guessing what word comes next based on patterns. That's handy, but it ain't life.

The real danger isn't that the computer is secretly plotting against you while you sleep. The danger is human laziness. If you give a computer system the keys to your bank account, your private messages, or your kid's photos without any fences around it, someone's gonna get hurt. That's not a sci-fi monster, that's just poor stewardship. The Bible talks all over the place about being a faithful manager of what you're given.

Work vs Home: Drawing the Line

This is the part nobody seems to want to say out loud:

At Work:

AI needs to be dead boring. When you handle payroll, medical records, or customer info, you're responsible before God and man for how you treat those people.

That's why at INASNAP we build governed AI for businesses where the human stays in the driver seat:

The system only reads first; it don't get to write or change things on its own.
If it wants to take an action that can't be undone, a real person has to approve it.
Everything is out in the open—you can look right through the glass and see what the machine did and why.

You don't let the tractor drive itself through the barn. You keep your hands on the wheel.

At Home:

In your everyday life, it's just a helper. Use it to bounce ideas off of, help polish a rough email, or organize your calendar so you can get home to dinner on time.

Just don't get confused about what it is:

It can summarize Proverbs, but it has no wisdom.
It can string words together, but it can't give you discernment.
It can act like it's listening, but it can't pray with you when your world falls apart.

Use it to redeem your time. Don't hand it your heart.

Where I Land

I'm not terrified of AI, and I sure ain't gonna worship it.

If you want to see how we put those guardrails in place for actual companies so things don't go off the rails, you can check out what we're building at inasnap.org.

And if the news cycle has you anxious, shut the laptop for an evening. Go sit on the porch, pray, talk to your family, and remember who actually runs the world. It's just a machine that answers back. Treat it like one, keep your feet on the ground, and don't let nobody sell you fear.

— Michael Petler

Founder & Principal Engineer, INASNAP LLC (INASNAP Labs)

Pennsylvania