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Gary discusses several recent examples about people believing absurd things just because of something they saw online.
For many religious seekers, belief in the supernatural is attractive, no matter what the source. “Human beings are spiritual creatures. We hunger for an encounter with the spiritual. We seem to know instinctively that there is more to this life than what we are able to experience with our five physical senses. Implanted in all of us is a desire to understand the ultimate meanings of things.” As a result, “millions of people are turning to occult practices for answers to life’s questions.”
John W. Whitehead expresses a similar sentiment: “Ultimately, it seems that people are generally hungry for transcendence. Many want to know God or a God-force. Seeking spirituality, they investigate the occult, astrology charts, angels, UFOs, and extraterrestrial beings. This sometimes leads to tragedy, as in the March 1997 mass suicide of thirty-nine Heaven’s Gate cult members who sought union with extraterrestrials supposedly following the Hale-Bopp Comet.” This one fact is used by some very talented but evil people to draw spiritual seekers into dangerous metaphysical movements. The vulnerable and desperate are the most susceptible. They may be shown what seems to be supernatural phenomena to attract them to a particular cult, pseudo-Christian religious group, or the paranormal worldview in general. If these genuine seekers are particularly depressed, confused, or just desperate for answers, they can find themselves attracted to some of the most bizarre and sinister religious movements.
Thinking Straight in a Crooked World
The nursery rhyme "There Was a Crooked Man" is an appropriate description of how sin affects us and our world. We live in a crooked world of ideas evaluated by crooked people. Left to our crooked nature, we can never fully understand what God has planned for us and His world. God has not left us without a corrective solution. He has given us a reliable reference point in the Bible so we can identify the crookedness and straighten it.
Buy NowGary discusses several recent examples about people believing absurd things just because of something they saw online. AI is only as good as the database it searches, and if errors exist in the data, the answers the AI gives will always be wrong. People need to learn to be discerning and check information out before repeating it.