188 - Christians against AI art - Susannah Black Roberts
01/10/25 • 68 min
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There is increasing speculation and concern about the role of AI in the future of the arts. Surprisingly, many Christians are already embracing the use of AI to produce images of the saints. In this episode, Thomas and Susannah Black Roberts make the argument for why AI art is a contradiction in terms. It is analogous to pornography in that it scratches the itch to “create” without actually achieving the object of the desire in question. We should not use technology to replace the human specialties: “God won’t accept worship that we outsource.” Plus, the danger of demonic influence through AI should not be overlooked.
Susannah Black Roberts is a senior editor of Plough and has written for publications including First Things, Fare Forward, Front Porch Republic, Mere Orthodoxy, and The American Conservative.
Links
Susannah’s thread on Twitter https://x.com/suzania/status/1866516737057083862
Plough Quarterly https://www.plough.com/
PloughCast 66: The Technology of Demons w/ Paul Kingsnorth https://www.plough.com/en/topics/life/technology/the-technology-of-demons
David Schaengold, "Computers Can't Do Math" https://www.plough.com/en/topics/life/technology/computers-cant-do-math
Robert Cotton, “Augustine, AI, and the Demon Heuristic” https://mereorthodoxy.com/augustine-ai-and-the-demon-heuristic
The Anchored Argosy https://argosy.substack.com/
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There is increasing speculation and concern about the role of AI in the future of the arts. Surprisingly, many Christians are already embracing the use of AI to produce images of the saints. In this episode, Thomas and Susannah Black Roberts make the argument for why AI art is a contradiction in terms. It is analogous to pornography in that it scratches the itch to “create” without actually achieving the object of the desire in question. We should not use technology to replace the human specialties: “God won’t accept worship that we outsource.” Plus, the danger of demonic influence through AI should not be overlooked.
Susannah Black Roberts is a senior editor of Plough and has written for publications including First Things, Fare Forward, Front Porch Republic, Mere Orthodoxy, and The American Conservative.
Links
Susannah’s thread on Twitter https://x.com/suzania/status/1866516737057083862
Plough Quarterly https://www.plough.com/
PloughCast 66: The Technology of Demons w/ Paul Kingsnorth https://www.plough.com/en/topics/life/technology/the-technology-of-demons
David Schaengold, "Computers Can't Do Math" https://www.plough.com/en/topics/life/technology/computers-cant-do-math
Robert Cotton, “Augustine, AI, and the Demon Heuristic” https://mereorthodoxy.com/augustine-ai-and-the-demon-heuristic
The Anchored Argosy https://argosy.substack.com/
DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio
SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters
Previous Episode
187 - The Roman Rite, ad orientem worship, and liturgical tradition - Fr. Uwe Michael Lang
Fr. Uwe Michael Lang, a liturgical historian and priest of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in London, is the author of the new book A Short History of the Roman Mass, from Ignatius Press.
Topics discussed in this episode include:
- The origins of the Roman Rite and development of the Roman Eucharistic Prayer
- Problems with liturgical antiquarianism (trying to revive practices allegedly from the early Church in preference to what has been handed down continuously)
- The value of ad orientem worship
- Our current predicament of being cut off from the past/tradition
Links
Fr. Uwe Michael Lang, A Short History of the Roman Mass https://ignatius.com/a-short-history-of-the-roman-mass-shrmp/
Pope Pius XII against liturgical antiquarianism (par. 61-64) https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_20111947_mediator-dei.html
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Next Episode
189 - St. Boethius, Stoicism and Neoplatonism - Thomas Ward
St. Anicius Manlius Severius Boethius's book The Consolation of Philosophy, which he wrote in prison while awaiting martyrdom around the year 524, is one of the single most influential works for medieval philosophy and theology. But Boethius also owed much to the pagan philosophy that came before him. Thomas Ward has just written a commentary on Boethius's dialogue for Word on Fire, entitled After Stoicism: Last Words of the Last Roman Philosopher.
Topics discussed include:
- Boethius's debt to Stoic ethics and how he critiques the Stoic view of happiness
- The influence of neo-Platonist philosophy on Boethius
- Questions about the account of deification given by Lady Philosophy - is it more Platonist than Christian?
- Boethius's brilliant arguments about how God's way of knowing differs from ours
Links
Thomas Ward, After Stoicism: Last Words of the Last Roman Philosopher https://bookstore.wordonfire.org/products/after-stoicism?srsltid=AfmBOopBRfuMW6DMx_iUEH9u2gjSswySJAZ__JrdTznAIpZ3Ptj9mDMJ
Way of the Fathers episode on Boethius https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/st-boethius-church-father-and-medieval-scholar/
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