The Pope, the Moon, and the Machine
In an age where artificial intelligence is shaping everything, the Church reminds us who the real Creator is.
(Note: New Earth continues below the commentary. Read the whole series here.)
Things are about to get even weirder.
As I’ve written many times before, the advances in A.I. are permeating every aspect of society. There are new foundations being poured as our world is quietly being rebuilt upon them. Though the changes come in small increments, life is shifting day by day.
A new mobile application launched last week that allows users to create any video simply by describing what they want. Think of it as TikTok—but for A.I. content. There are guardrails to prevent abuse, but time will tell how well they work. It’s called Sora 2 and it’s from OpenAI (the same company behind ChatGPT). You can even put yourself into the A.I. videos. Here it is:
And we’re still only at the beginning of the A.I. revolution.
The Church’s Voice in the A.I. Age
There’s a wonderful article titled, The Odd Man Out: The Pope in the AI 100. It’s by Sebastian Barros on Word on Fire about the importance of Pope Leo XIV being named to Time’s AI 100 list. Others on the list include Sam Altman (OpenAI), Elon Musk (xAI) and Mark Zuckerberg (Meta). He was included in the Thinkers category because of the Vatican’s engagement with A.I. since 2019 as I wrote about in this earlier post. The stance centers on a few key points:
A.I. should be used for truth and beauty—not to isolate or divide us.
A.I. is not human.
A.I. is a tool—that’s it.
And most importantly, A.I. is not God.
In short, God is the all-knowing Creator. Whether we reach into the farthest galaxies or delve into the microscopic depths of biology and chemistry, we are still exploring His blueprint.
As we gather new information and feed it into large language models (LLMs), A.I. can help us explore and understand the wonder of creation. Indeed, A.I. is an incredible tool—but that’s all it is.
Remembering God’s Place in Our World
Look at your neighbor and see a miracle. God created them. We too are creators—for the Creator. He designed us to experience the beauty of creation itself—and to feel the sorrow when those creations leave this world. We are made from God’s love to love. When we love, we are closest to Him and united to each other through Him. Succumb to the hate, anger or idolatries permeating the world, God ends up in the junk drawer.
When we elevate anything above God, things go wrong.
And in 1968, there was a lot going wrong. The Vietnam War was raging. Our country was on fire with protests. During Christmas, the Apollo 8 astronauts wanted to send a uniting message to Earth. But they were afraid that whatever they wrote would be politicized, very much like today. So, instead of crafting a new statement, astronauts Bill Anders, Jim Lovell, and Frank Borman read something already written. During their ninth orbit of the Moon on Christmas Eve, they read live, to over a billion people, God’s creation of the universe—Genesis 1:1-10. And here is that reading:
And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth.
Peace.
New Earth, Chapter 4 Continues
Read the whole series here.
Tao looked back and saw Max standing in the giant window of the Welcoming Station. Max pointed to the side and his staff ran in that direction.
Reed drifted ahead of Tao. Both floated in space toward the far end of the station where the black spaceship was docked. It was their escape ship—if Liberty could make it there in time.
But how were they supposed to get inside? There hadn’t been any planning or discussion at all.
“Reed, can you hear me?”
Reed glanced back, pointing toward the ship. “We’ve got to move faster! Max’s men are going to beat us there.” His arms and legs stretched in and out as if he were swimming.
Tao raised his hands, “Remember—hands and fists together.” His boots vibrated as the thrusters engaged, propelling him past Reed. “Try to keep up!”
Reed activated his thrusters. Through the windows he could see Max’s men sprinting across the station. “We need to go faster,” he said.
Tao looked at his palms, recalling Liberty’s only advice: focus on the foot thrusters. “I think we should stick with the boots.”
“Come on, now, this ain’t nothing a space cowboy can’t handle.” Reed lifted his hands and turned around, floating backward. “I’m just going to try these palm thrusters.”
“I don’t think you should—”
Reed spread his fingers apart and his hands began to vibrate. “Nothing I can’t handle!” The angle was awkward and his arms flailed apart. The sudden force launched him past Tao and past the spaceship.
“Whoaaaaa!”
“Close your fingers,” Tao shouted. But it was too late. Reed spun helplessly into the blackness of space.
Tao focused his mind. “Reed,” he said, “don’t thrust. I’ll find you!” He had to get on that spaceship and find Reed before his air ran out. He checked his visor: oxygen, thirty minutes left.
As he approached the station, faces appeared in the window. Max was there among his staff in their white uniforms. Someone was shoved to the front. A woman—it was Liberty! They captured her.
Now what? She was supposed to get us on that spaceship. Oxygen, twenty minutes left. An entrance hatch glowed.
“I’m sorry about Reed,” Max said. “Come back inside, where it’s safe. And let’s hope nothing happens to Liberty.”
Tao gripped the handles. The door began to slide open. But something caught his eye—a glow on the spaceship. He turned back to Liberty.
She jerked her head toward it.
Tao looked at the spaceship and then back to Liberty.
Liberty nodded.
Tao spread his fingers, fighting the wild surge of energy from his palm thrusters. He shot toward the spaceship.
“You must be insane!” Max shouted. He turned to Liberty. “What is he doing?”
Liberty shrugged. “He’s crazy.”
Tao adjusted his hands, angling himself toward the glowing light on the side of the spaceship. He hoped that light was the entrance.
Then the spaceship jolted. The stars around it seemed to shimmer. Red lights flashed on the Welcoming Station. Was the spaceship getting ready to leave?
Tao pushed harder and began to veer off course. Stretching out his hand, he grabbed onto the ship. At last, he slipped inside and tore off his helmet.
“Whoever’s flying this thing,” he shouted, “we have ten minutes to save Reed!”
A woman stepped into the room. Liberty smiled. “Well then…let’s go save our space cowboy.”
“But how—?”
“No time to talk!” She ran to the flight deck.
As they undocked from the Welcoming Station, the massive planet filled the background as they sped off in the opposite direction toward Reed. They hoped it would be the last time they ever saw New Earth. And it was.
Read the whole New Earth series here.