What Is Truth?

Do you recognize this beautiful scene? Think hard. Maybe you’ve been here before and memories come rushing back. Remember? Recognize? Well, don’t work too hard and give yourself a headache. You haven’t been there. There is no “there” because the fake-photo is the product of two words put into the hands of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The publishing service that I have used for almost 15 years of Shining Spirit has added an AI component, which means that if I don’t have the photo I want to use, I can create one. In the case of the beautiful sunrise here, I wrote two words, “mountain sunrise” in the AI box and twenty seconds later, here it is.

Everyone has known for a long time that the implications and opportunities of AI are staggering. What is real? What is true? Honest? Suddenly we have shifted to a conversation about ethics and honesty, about truth. What is true? And this is a topic that has clear relevance to our daily activities. It seems that you and I were made to live life fully in what Jesus called “the Kingdom of God.” That is not a specific place on the roadmap. No, it is a state of mind, a perspective, an outlook built on a particular foundation, one laid by Jesus. In this Kingdom relationship with Christ, everything we do or say is held up to spiritual principles: truth, mercy, compassion. This Kingdom of God in which we live every day is all about ethical and moral principle. There is nothing Artificial about it. I pray that life in the future, the days of our great grandchildren and beyond, will maintain the balance between what is real and what is artificial. When He said: “I am the way, the Truth, and the light…” he meant it and he laid out the principles that must guide human beings through life. What is truth? An urgent question in today’s culture.