I’ve been in countless conversations with those in business and ministry about the issues of the real and the artificial that I’m raising here. Honestly, it makes most people uncomfortable.

We’re in the process of looking at Five Lies of the Artificial. The first lie is that the artificial is real. (If you missed that reading, you can find it here: The Artificial Isn’t Real).

“The Machine” is how many have come to define the rise of the artificial. It doesn’t simply refer to technology in a generic way, but to the overall system that is undergirding and infiltrating every aspect of life.

Next time you’re at a restaurant, lift your eyes from your own phone for a second and look around. Practically everyone—whether with a family, on a date, or with friends— is staring at their screen. Even when people are together, they find what’s on the screen more fascinating than who’s sitting across from them.

Where is the pull for instant answers most enticing in your life?

We’ll never find our way to the real through the artificial. The artificial is what’s in the way of the real.

When we’re talking about technology, it’s good to note if you find yourself quick to defend all the recent advances or benefits that AI brings. Or if you automatically want to dismiss anything about detaching from technology as irrelevant because it will only continue to accelerate. I understand the pull to do so. At the same time, I’d simply ask you to push through and stay with it. Along the way, remain curious about what your resistance may be rooted in. Don’t worry, the artificial won’t take it personally because, well, it isn’t a person.

The emergence of the new generations of AI will challenge our concept of reality in unprecedented ways we can’t fully fathom.

Our world is moving more virtual every day. We spend more time staring at screens than interacting with real people . . . or real life. Many reading this will even challenge what real means anymore. That’s how comfortable we’ve come to be with the artificial. It reflects our Partificial Daze

Ancient wisdom that’s proven true for centuries somehow suddenly seems irrelevant for our lives today. This assumption is rooted in an odd mix of arrogance and ignorance.

Most of us have little understanding of how our fascination with screens is changing us. We have trouble focusing on anything for more than a few seconds. We know a little about everything but no longer have the patience or desire to think or reason. And why should we? There’s an app to do that for us. Or we can ask ChatGPT to evaluate our options.

It’s an odd phenomenon. The less real something is, the more we tend to trust its version of reality.

What ground has the artificial gained in your life recently? It’s an important question to consider.

The enemy has always rebelled against God and his created reality. Which is why he specializes in artificial reality. I’m not simply referring to AI here but a counterfeit narrative for every part of our lives.

This last tenet provides the essential reminder that God must come before all else. If there is anything we are holding back, it will prove a foothold for the enemy. This is the most costly tenet. Because Jesus asks us to give him everything.

As we pursue the real, the counterfeit will try to convince us to embrace it instead. This bait and switch tactic often proves more convincing than we’d like to think.

In the Old Testament, those who knew God best experienced ongoing relationship with him. There was intimacy, not simply obedience, information, or reverence.

Adam and Eve began their story in Paradise. We don’t know how long they savored God’s presence and spent time enjoying creation. But we do know that time was far shorter than it was meant to be. When the serpent came to sway them away from God, he did so by distorting reality. He offered them a different way to see God and their story.

God is the first and most real being ever. He is the Creator of reality. But he isn’t just that. He’s the ongoing source of all reality. Anything that wants to be real must align with him, measure itself by him, and remain dependent on him.

The right way to see everything is through God’s interpretation of it.