Deus ex machina: Half of US Christians trust AI's spiritual advice

[erronis]

https://www.theregister.com/ai-ml/2026/05/21/deus-ex-machina-half-of-us-christians-trust-ais-spiritual-advice/5244371

AI sycophancy + spirituality = uh oh

Who needs a minister when you have an LLM? America's Christian population appears to have found God in precisely the place you'd expect a manifestation of the divine to be spotted in 2026: Amid AI chatbot responses.

A survey of Americans published this week by Evangelical polling outfit Barna sought to discover what Christians thought about AI's ability to serve as a spiritual mentor, and the split is surprisingly even: A full 48 percent of practicing US Christians told the organization that they trusted AI's advice to aid their spiritual growth.

Potentially more surprising than that, 34 percent said spiritual advice dispensed by an AI was just as trustworthy as what they'd get out of a flesh-and-blood pastor. That share rises, unsurprisingly, among younger Christians, with 39 percent of Gen Z respondents and 44 percent of Millennials agreeing that preachers and AI are at trust parity.

. . .

"Christians say they trust AI with spiritual growth, and a meaningful share say its spiritual guidance is as trustworthy as a pastor's--yet large majorities are simultaneously concerned about AI misinterpreting scripture, replacing God, or undermining the role of spiritual leaders, Barna VP of research Daniel Copeland said of the findings, which he called "confounding."

. . .

[malaise]

1. Well they trusted and continue to trust the scoundrel

televangelists and mega church thieves didn’t /don’t they?

[erronis]

2. Comments from the article seem to mirror our sentiments...

Christians

are by definition gullible, lacking a reasoning ability, so this comes as no surprise. More woo on top of woo.

Re: Christians

You'd think that believing spiritual advice dispensed by an AI was just as trustworthy would show some degree of self-awareness, but I suspect the opposite is true.

[ZDU]

3. Bless their hearts...

... in the utmost Southern sense

[lame54]

4. In Futurama there is...

A robot God
A robot Jesus
And a robot devil

[stopdiggin]

5. I'm not at all sure why this is supposed to surprise

there is something unique about spiritual guidance .... ?
(as opposed to financial, or health, scientific, or historical ..?)
That would cause me to particularly eschew advice on that topic?

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[DBoon]

6. Do they say how many non-believers trust AI for spiritual advice?

I bet the percent is very very low

[Maru Kitteh]

7. These psychos are going to be talking to their God necklaces, like they always have BUT

now a handful of glitchy, amoral, hallucinating chat bots will be SPEAKING BACK to them in soothing, flattering tones.

yikes. they really nailed the target demo.there.

[wiggs]

8. Sounds like the basis of a sci fi novel from Asimov! In fact, there is something similar: read Asimov's 'Entropy' nt

[msongs]

9. vs invisble old man in sky?

[lindysalsagal]

10. Gullible is gullible.

No surprise, there.