• AI Has Transformed Mankind’s Knowledge Capital And Will Undoubtedly Exceed Current Levels — Musa
• I Don’t Need To Travel But Call For A Zoom Meeting That Is Where It Is Helping — Isong
• AI Is A Double-edged Sword With Numerous Benefits — Onike
• There Is Need For Church Leaders To Tap From AI Reservoir — Ogunmuyiwa
Artificial Intelligence (AI), as a set of technologies coded into computers to perform various functions, has the ability to understand, translate spoken and written language, analyse data, make useful recommendations, as well as organise zoom meetings and TikTok videos.
AI can also research on topics and has helped many students in this regard and assisted many professional organisations to effectively and accurately do their job. So then, how can religious leaders leverage on the advantages offered by AI to prepare their sermons, teachings, and reduce tension, just as they perform their religious obligations in a better manner.
The Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Lagos State Chapter, Dr. Stephen Adegbite, explains that since God has given people wisdom to come up with AI, the church can positively use it to propagate the gospel. He, however, condemned the wrong use of AI, saying any church or minister that tends to use it negatively for his or her own selfish interest or gain will suffer for it.
“If you want AI to do anything for you and even prepare sermon for you it will do it, but you must cross check whatever it has done to avoid error, because there is no way anything created by human being will be perfect except the one that is from God and so we rely solely on God for sustainability. We rely on God’s direction and guidance because the Bible remains our strongest constitution and tool. There is no technology that you want to talk about and you don’t find in the Bible that is why we call the Bible, the Book, and in , it is called Biblia,” Adegbite said.
He noted that there was a day he wanted to send a message to somebody, but it cut off and AI corrected him and said: “you would have put it this way.”
Adegbite said: “There was a day I was working on something I think I wanted to send a message to somebody but it cut off and said to me ‘you would have put it this way’ and I read it and discovered it was a better way but I ignored it, and still used what I have written before and sent to the person. It is very good in some areas to some extent but for us to use it, especially for the young minds or the society, we have now, people are using it at the detriment of God’s potency and God’s ability and capability and we should not support that. God is all knowing, he is all powerful he is all present and he is everywhere that is why he is omnipotent, omniscience God.”
He went further: “It can help us in many ways, for example, we can use it to prepare sermons, prepare outline for Bible study, approach to counseling because once you just put in the topic you can get 10 thousand results and once you have that you will be able to do your work with ease. But for students using it to prepare their assignments or do other things with it, they must still read properly so that they can defend their certificates, because it’s one thing to have a degree and it’s another to be able to defend your degree. If you have a Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Arts, and you are not able to convince people that, indeed, you are the owner of that certificate, that is unfortunate.”
Enumerating how AI has improved mankind’s knowledge capital, the Chief Imam of University of Lagos, Community Mosque, Prof. Ismail Musa, said: “AI has transformed mankind’s knowledge capital and will undoubtedly exceed the current levels. It has also enriched the spiritual capital of the individual devotee and the clergy. It has increased access to scriptural information, enhanced devotional worship and improved the quality and quantum of sermons to mention but a few of its positive contributions to our spirituality and morality. It has generally increased the breadth of our religiosity. On the flipside, are the drawbacks of AI in the minds and hands of mischievous individuals and groups.”
The Chief Imam also condemned the wrong use of AI to facilitate crime, corruption, exploitation and oppression.
Calling for guide in the use of AI so that its value could still be maintained, Musa said: “This means that further development and deployment of AI facilities require ethical considerations and regulation. This should be possible soon if we are resolute in our conviction that we are all accountable to God for all our deeds and misdeeds and that AI should be seen as a divine blessing of time and that this generation will be answerable for the AI blessing. Then you shall be questioned as to what end you have appropriated blessing, delight and pleasure of this world (Quran 102:8).”
Similarly, the founder of Christian Central Chapel International (City of Testimonies), Archbishop Emmah Isong, acknowledged that Ai and other forms of information technology are basically products of Biblical prophecy, adding that it can be used by the church to advance the gospel.
He said for the gospel to reach to every creature, which is the intention of the Bible, preachers cannot do that physically by trekking, especially now that cost of living in Nigeria has affected transportation either by air or land but with AI the job is seamlessly done, while you’re sitting at home.
According to Isong, “there are three ways we can leverage on the invention of technology. All technologies are from God, they are prophecies and gifts from God. It will increase the speed of the gospel. For instance, I have just written my book, all my printer or my publisher did was to input all my things into AI, it corrected all the grammatical errors and put apostrophe, punctuation marks, and arranged the paginations and chapters and he brought it back to me in two days. So the speed is wonderful! Unlike when a book could stay for six months but not so now.”
Although Archbishop Isong appreciated the good aspect of AI, but he was quick to describe it as artificial that could artificialised spirituality, reduce spirituality and is opposite of original.
In his word: “Ai can also be contradictory to human nature because it does not have the breath of life, AI does not have human conscience — spirit, soul and body, therefore, it would dehumanise man and artificialised the gospel. AI despite its advantage is subject to a third party manipulation.
“In terms of communication, if there are 10,000 branches of our church in Nigeria and we want to hold an emergence meeting, I don’t need to travel but call for a zoom meeting that is where it is helping. It can help the gospel to reduce crime.”
In the same vein, the Chief Missioner of Nasrul-Lahi-l-Fatin Society (NASFAT), Imam Abdul-Azeez Onike, has described AI as a double-edged-sword with numerous benefits and downsides, advising religious clerics and adherents of various religions to be Artificial Intelligence literate, in order to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff, in view of information overload, manipulative tendencies, fact distortion, inaccurate information, non-traceable and non-referenceable data, conversational notes that impair human physical social interaction, authentication challenges, insufficient background knowledge of religious issues, concepts, fundamentals and principles by some users of AI, threat of atheism and pornographic contents, tendency to be swayed by access of more information via AI than even fellow human beings, which could make the AI more trusted than man, among others.
While acknowledging the exploits of AI, Onike said, “AI exploits should not be surprising to Muslims, as we are still going to experience more scientific knowledge break-through, Allah (SWT) says, ‘We will show them Our Signs in the universe, and in their own selves, until it becomes manifest to them that this (the Quran) is the truth.” (Fussilat 41:53). The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), according to him, said: ‘Abu Hurayra reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, ‘The Final Hour will not come until people compete with one another in the height of their buildings.”
Interpreting the above quotation, Onike stressed that the Hadith is often seen as predicting the modern trend of skyscraper construction and urbanisation, where cities compete to build the tallest structures, as seen in places like Dubai, New York, and other major metropolitan centres.
He, therefore, called on other clerics and religious scholars to come to terms that there are new frontiers in Da’wah (evangelism) with probing questions such as: what has changed? Where do you see it? Are they relevant and real? among others.
The NASFAT Chief Missioner, who appreciated the facts that AI has come to stay with its attendant benefits and challenges, noted that his society in collaboration with sister organisations like Da’wah Institute of Nigeria/Islamic Education Trust, Minna, Niger State, Nigeria has organised various trainings periodically to abreast members of AI and IT developments. He said: “At present, some of our members are participating in an online training programme, organised by Albalagh Academy titled, ‘Mastering Chat GPT and AI for Islamic Education.
“As much as AI has come with a lot of benefits, knowing how to prompt it, the kind of information to seek, knowledge of how to authenticate such information are key ingredients and tools that clerics and religious adherents must equip themselves with.
“As a double-edged sword, AI, especially, Chatgpt has positively contributed to research and scholarship. On the negative side, however, BBC reported how an AI-powered App, encouraged a man to kill the Queen.”
Onike, however, concluded that NASFAT would not leave any stone unturned until its members are adequately educated on the benefits and ills of AI. “As a matter of fact, we have organised a well attended webinars on this topic in recent times,” he added.
Also, the former Chaplain of the National Ecumenical Centre (CAN), headquarters, Abuja/Archbishop of the African Church Province of the North/Abuja, Dr. Peter Ogunmuyiwa, called on the church to leverage on the usefulness of AI to further the growth evangelism.
He described AI as the simulation of human intelligence in machines, which according to him, enables people to learn; reason, resolve problems, perceive and interact.
“I see this innovation as a welcome development in the advancement of technology in the world as it makes easy access to information on almost all strata of human existence.
“The church also has to leverage on its usefulness to further the growth evangelism. We should focus on the information that can add value to the gospel and discard the immoral and unhealthy ones contained in it,” he said.
Underscoring the importance of AI, Ogunmuyiwa said: “Artificial intelligence (AI) has delved into so many issues, including theology and church doctrines. It provides sufficient information about the soteriology, which has to do with the systematic Theology (salvation). Hence, the need for church leaders to tap from AI reservoir as the case may be.
“We must, however, discourage our congregation from using AI to negatively affect their moral conduct. The scripture enjoins Christians not to be conformed with the world but be the salt and light of the world.”
