從教堂到聊天機(jī)器人：人工智能如何與宗教融合

從撰寫講道詞到模擬與耶穌的對話，宗教領(lǐng)袖和信徒們都在嘗試使用人工智能——盡管這并非沒有爭議。
作者：哈尼·里希特
2026年2月7日

2024 年，加利福尼亞州瓦列霍市友誼浸信會的牧師賈斯汀·萊斯特為他的教會構(gòu)建了一個定制的 GPT，該 GPT 使用他的講道來開發(fā)小組材料，并允許其他教會領(lǐng)袖根據(jù)這些講道來構(gòu)建課程。

萊斯特對以這種方式運用人工智能毫無顧慮。在他看來，使用這些工具對靈性成長、門徒訓(xùn)練和社區(qū)發(fā)展都至關(guān)重要。

“耶穌說過我們會成就更偉大的事，”他說?！拔艺J(rèn)為（人工智能）是這更偉大事的一部分?！?/p>

人工智能正在悄然改變?nèi)藗兊墓ぷ鳌⑸詈蛻賽鄯绞??；蛟S，它滲透到人們的宗教信仰中也只是時間問題。然而，隨著信徒和宗教領(lǐng)袖開始將這項技術(shù)融入他們的宗教生活——從模擬與耶穌的對話到撰寫講道稿——一些學(xué)者和宗教領(lǐng)袖警告說，這項技術(shù)可能帶來風(fēng)險和潛在危害。

公開的無神論者 Siraj Raval 說，是孤獨和對存在的恐懼讓他發(fā)現(xiàn)了“TalkToHim”，這是一個人工智能聊天機(jī)器人，可以模擬與耶穌的對話。

“我曾有過這樣的體驗：我感覺自己被一種神圣的存在所傾聽，”他談到這款應(yīng)用程序時說道。他曾用這款應(yīng)用程序來尋求關(guān)于精神問題的答案，例如如何與內(nèi)疚共存，如何在看似不可能的情況下原諒他人，以及如何以道德的方式行事。

“它比教科書好多了，”拉瓦爾說道，他經(jīng)常去愛達(dá)荷州的一家非宗派基督教教堂?！八茸x圣經(jīng)還好?！?/p>

人工智能的這種應(yīng)用方式并非僅限于個人層面。去年，瑞士圣彼得教堂與當(dāng)?shù)匾凰髮W(xué)合作，在其告解室安裝了一個人工智能耶穌化身，作為一項實驗性藝術(shù)裝置。教堂神學(xué)家馬可·施密德最驚訝的是，人們對這種體驗的認(rèn)真程度，甚至有人對聊天機(jī)器人表示感謝。

“你會在用完電腦后對電腦說‘哦，謝謝你，電腦’嗎？”施密德說?！暗憧矗驗橄到y(tǒng)太好用了，人們才會賦予它如此多的個性化和人性化元素?！?/p>

休斯頓伊曼努埃爾會堂的拉比喬什·菲克斯勒是 ChatGPT 的早期使用者。2023 年猶太新年期間，這位 41 歲的拉比播放了一段自己討論人工智能對人類影響的錄音，令他的教眾震驚不已——而他后來透露，這段布道是由人工智能生成的。

但與其他采用這項技術(shù)的人不同，他對它的結(jié)果并不完全滿意?！澳谴尾嫉乐?，我對這項技術(shù)的倫理以及人們對技術(shù)的過度關(guān)注都深感擔(dān)憂，”他談到自己的人工智能實驗時說道，此后他再也沒有重復(fù)過這項實驗。主要原因是：聊天機(jī)器人給出的一些信息根本不屬實。

“聊天機(jī)器人引用了一位名叫邁蒙尼德的偉大猶太學(xué)者的話，但據(jù)我所知，這句話是它編造的，”菲克斯勒說。

從20世紀(jì)60年代電視福音布道的興起，到新冠疫情期間宗教場所廣泛采用Zoom等在線通訊工具，科技長期以來一直是宗教創(chuàng)新的驅(qū)動力。然而，盡管這些工具主要擴(kuò)大了現(xiàn)有宗教活動的覆蓋范圍，人工智能似乎正在重塑人們學(xué)習(xí)、詮釋乃至體驗信仰的方式。

牛津主教史蒂文·克羅夫特說：“我認(rèn)為基督教社群的本質(zhì)具有獨特性，它強(qiáng)調(diào)人與人之間的面對面交流，以及深刻的人性關(guān)懷。其原因在于基督教信仰對耶穌的理解：上帝在耶穌里成為人。因此，基督教本質(zhì)上是個人化的?！?/p>

克羅夫特的猶豫也引起了其他宗教領(lǐng)袖和學(xué)者的共鳴，他們中的許多人表示，對人工智能提供可靠宗教建議的能力缺乏信任。蘇黎世大學(xué)數(shù)字宗教助理教授貝絲·辛格勒回憶起Character.ai的“佛陀”就曾錯誤地聲稱佛教有五圣諦，而不是四圣諦。但她擔(dān)心的不僅僅是這些錯誤。

辛格勒說：“關(guān)于宗教領(lǐng)袖形象的倫理問題一直存在爭議，尤其當(dāng)聊天機(jī)器人說出褻瀆神明甚至危險的話時。我們已經(jīng)看到一些具體案例，有人因為與聊天機(jī)器人的對話而走上自殺之路。關(guān)于這種情況發(fā)生的頻率，有一些非?？膳碌慕y(tǒng)計數(shù)據(jù)?！?/p>

劍橋大學(xué)利弗休姆未來智能中心訪問學(xué)者雅庫布·喬杜里也質(zhì)疑人工智能是否是傳遞有效且可追溯的宗教信息的最佳媒介——尤其是在他所信仰的伊斯蘭教的背景下，伊斯蘭教認(rèn)為《古蘭經(jīng)》是上帝的直接且未經(jīng)篡改的圣言。

“如果是由大型語言模型（LLM）將他所學(xué)的知識混雜在一起，就能真正傳達(dá)伊斯蘭教義嗎 ？”他說道，“這在區(qū)分清真、禁忌、推薦、允許、禁止和令人厭惡的事物方面，確實是個大問題?！?/p>

菲克斯勒表示，盡管人工智能可以為用戶提供探索自身信仰的新方法，但它不太可能取代人們對人際交往的基本需求。

“我認(rèn)為宗教的作用不是讓機(jī)器變得更像人，”他說?！白诮痰淖饔檬亲屛覀兯腥硕寄艹蔀樽钕袢说娜??！?/p>

From churches to chatbots: How AI is fusing with religion
From writing sermons to simulating conversations with Jesus, religious leaders and worshippers alike are experimenting with AI — though not without controversy.
By Hani Richter
February 7, 20267:00 PM GMT+8Updated February 7, 2026

REUTERS illustration/Anurag Rao
REUTERS illustration/Anurag Rao
In 2024, Justin Lester, a pastor of Friendship Baptist Church in Vallejo, California, built a custom GPT for his church that uses his sermons to develop small group materials and allows other church leaders to build lessons based on those sermons.
Lester has no qualms about deploying AI in this way. As he sees it, using these tools is important for spiritual growth, discipleship, and community development.
"Jesus said we will do greater things,” he says. “And I think (AI) is part of the greater."
AI is quietly reshaping how people work, live, and love. So perhaps it was only a matter of time before it crept into how they worship, too. But as worshippers and faith leaders alike begin to integrate this technology into their religious lives — from using it to simulate conversations with Jesus to writing sermons — some academics and religious leaders warn about the risks and potential harms it could cause.
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An avowed atheist, Siraj Raval says it was loneliness and existential dread that led him to finding “TalkToHim,” an AI-powered chatbot that simulates conversations with Jesus.
"I had an experience where I felt listened to by a presence that was divine," he says of the app, which he used to seek answers to his spiritual questions, such as how to live with guilt, forgive when it feels impossible, and to act morally.
"It was better than a textbook,” Raval, who regularly attends a non-denominational Christian church in Idaho, says of the app. “It was better than reading the Bible."
Incorporating AI in this way isn’t just happening at the personal level. Last year, St. Peter's Chapel in Switzerland installed an AI Jesus avatar in its confessional booth as part of an experimental art installation with a local university. What most surprised Marco Schmid, a theologian at the church, was how seriously people took the experience, with some even thanking the chatbot.
"Do you say to your computer when you finish, 'Oh, thank you, computer?’ No,” Schmid says. “But you see how much people personalized and humanized the system because it was so good."
Rabbi Josh Fixler of Congregation Emanu El in Houston was an early adopter of ChatGPT. During the Jewish High Holidays in 2023, the 41-year-old shocked his congregants when he played a recording of himself discussing the impact of AI on humanity — a sermon that he later revealed was AI-generated.
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But unlike other adopters of the technology, he wasn’t wholly impressed with its output. "I came away from that sermon with real concerns about both the ethics of the technology and also the hyperfocus on the technology," he says of his AI experiment, which he hasn’t replicated since. The main reason: some of what the chatbot came up with simply wasn't true.
"[The chatbot] quoted a great Jewish scholar named Maimonides, but as best I can tell, it made up that quote," Fixler says.
Technology has long driven religious innovation, from the rise of televangelism in the 1960s to places of worship's widespread adoption of online communication tools like Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic. But while those tools primarily expanded the reach of existing worshipping practices, AI appears to be reshaping how people learn about, interpret, and even experience their faith.
"I think there is something distinctive about the nature of Christian community, which is about being in person and face to face and being deeply human,” Steven Croft, the bishop of Oxford, says. “The reason for that is rooted in Christian faith's understanding that in Jesus, God became a human person. So Christianity is inherently personal."
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Croft’s hesitancy is shared by other religious leaders and academics, many of whom cite a lack of trust in AI’s ability to provide sound religious advice. Beth Singler, an assistant professor in digital religion at the University of Zurich, recalls an instance when a Character.ai "Buddah" erroneously claimed there were five noble truths in Buddhism, instead of four. But it’s not just inaccuracies that she’s concerned about.
"There are questions about the ethics of representations of religious leaders,” Singler says, especially if the chatbot says something profane or, worse, dangerous. "We've seen specific examples of people being pushed towards suicide by conversations with chatbots. There (are) some really scary statistics about how often that happens.”
Yaqub Chaudhary, a visiting scholar at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge, also questions whether AI is the best medium to deliver valid and attributable religious information — particularly in the context of his faith, Islam, which considers the Quran the direct and unaltered word of God.
"Is that a true communication of the Islamic meaning if it is produced by an LLM, mixing together whatever it has in its training set?” he says. "That is a really huge problem in terms of knowing the halal, the haram, the recommended, the permissible, the impermissible, the disliked."
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As much as AI may offer users new ways of exploring their beliefs, Fixler says it’s unlikely to replace people's fundamental need for human connection.
"I think that the work of religion is not trying to get machines to be more human,” he says. “The work of religion is trying to get us all to be the most human human."
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Editing by Yasmeen Serhan and Aurora Ellis
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