{"id":2107,"date":"2024-09-10T15:55:39","date_gmt":"2024-09-10T15:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=2107"},"modified":"2024-09-10T15:55:43","modified_gmt":"2024-09-10T15:55:43","slug":"ai-answers-the-question-how-does-god-deal-with-all-those-prayers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=2107","title":{"rendered":"AI Answers the Question, &#8220;How Does God Deal with All Those Prayers?&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>How can God possibly hear and answer all those prayer requests? It&#8217;s a mind-boggling prospect that one person can interact with so many prayers in an intelligent way. How is that possible, even for God? That\u2019s a question people have wrestled with for ages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"AI Answers the Question &#039;How Does God Deal with All Those Prayers?&quot;\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/w0kLZS4K1Lk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Keep reading below, or watch a short reflection on how AI helps us think about God answering prayers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Bruce Almighty prayer machine<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>This question is the premise for an extended gag sequence in the Jim Carrey movie <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0315327\/\">Bruce Almighty<\/a>. Like many Jim Carrey movies, it&#8217;s funny, and really weird, and in this case much more sacrilegious than most. Bruce, Jim Carrey\u2019s character, receives the powers of God. As he\u2019s walking down the street, he starts hearing peoples\u2019 hopes, dreams, and prayer requests. This happens all the time, and it is overwhelming to have to deal with. So, he sets up an email system to handle the millions and billions of requests. But that is too hard, too. To avoid having to deal with them, he just answers \u201cyes,\u201d to all. Chaos ensues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The gag is premised on the simple idea that God is more powerful than a person, but still finds it overwhelming to have to carry on so many relationships and field so many requests (often contradictory) at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But we have a different way to picture it, now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1277\" height=\"673\" src=\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Machine_Hack__Events__uploaded_at_1671285548117-2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2110\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The power of AI helps us picture the power of God<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Large Language Model AI, like <a href=\"https:\/\/openai.com\/chatgpt\/\">Chat GPT<\/a>, have upset the status quo in many ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s a good way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The existence of these AI tools that seem to be able to answer most any question in the blink of an eye\u2014all around the world\u2014gives us a conceptual tool to make a little bit more sense of how God deals with prayers. We made this machine. It is subject to the limits of human power and engineering, and yet it\u2019s power is mind-boggling incredible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How much more than this AI can the God who created the universe and created us carry on a relationship with everyone all at once and never be overwhelmed. Never be taxed. Never be worked too hard by it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s what God can do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s what God does with our prayers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How can God possibly hear and answer all those prayer requests? It&#8217;s a mind-boggling prospect that one person can interact with so many prayers in an intelligent way. How is that possible, even for God? That\u2019s a question people have wrestled with for ages. A Bruce Almighty prayer machine This question is the premise for &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/fbcmstq.org\/?p=2107\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;AI Answers the Question, &#8220;How Does God Deal with All Those Prayers?&#8221;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2106,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[156,125],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>AI Answers the Question, &quot;How Does God Deal with All Those Prayers?&quot; - First Baptist Church of Manistique<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How can one God answer all those prayers? 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