Artificial Intelligence as a Threat to Truth in Higher Education, Politics and Religion

Artificial Intelligence as a Threat to Truth in Higher Education, Politics and Religion

By Rudy Barnes, Jr., July 19, 2025

A.I., or artificial intelligence, began in Hollywood with special effects created for entertainment purposes.  Today AI is taking us beyond truth and even our imagination to where no one has been before, and the consequences could be dire.  Uncontrolled artificial intelligence is an existential threat to truth in higher education, politics and religion.

Most religions claim a monopoly on God’s truth, and politicians like Donald Trump have used distortions of AI to misrepresent the truth.  The greatest danger of AI is the variation of AI known as artificial general intelligence, or AGI.  It’s a form of AI that’s beyond human control and can dictate our concepts of truth.  That’s a frightening existential threat of AGI to truth.

Most of America’s essential services are already controlled by the internet, making their control a matter of national security, and there are new waves of unprincipled hackers available to the highest bidder.  Few have contemplated where continued advances in cybernetics will lead us, but a self-perpetuating artificial intelligence seems to be within the realm of possibility.

There are good and bad sides to AI.  The good side includes internet functions that improve our lives.  The bad side includes manipulating facts with misrepresentations that go beyond human accountability and can control concepts of truth in education, religion and politics; and AGI sounds like a science fiction nightmare.    

In America, every new advance--including AI--is measured by its economic impact.  On the stock market, big tech (Alphabet, Meta, Apple, Amazon, Nvidia and Tesla) have used AI to make exorbitant profits, turning a bear market into a bull market; but there is disagreement over whether AI is good for the economy, or an economic illusion that feeds the greed of investors.     

To prevent AI excesses, laws like slander and libel should be expanded to prohibit misrepresentations of fact in the media (fake news), and even faked conversations over the telephone.  And AI distortions of fact in the media beyond legal prohibitions should be condemned by all religions as immoral distortions of God’s truth.

HIstory confirms that human intelligence is flawed. Edmund Burke was right when he observed that in a democracy people forge our own shackles.  Pogo confirmed that truth when he said, We have met the enemy and it’s us.  If our human imperfections make us our own worst enemy, maybe AI can help us build a better world to save us from ourselves.    

If a form of AGI evolves beyond human control, humans can either ignore it or make it accountable and regain control of their destiny.  Who knows?  After more than 2,000 years, perhaps AI will confirm that the greatest commandment to love God and our neighbors of other races and religions as we love ourselves is God’s universal and eternal truth.  But don’t count on that.  After more than 2,000 years, the world hasn’t yet discerned God’s truth. 

Notes:

On Deepfaking it: How America’s 2024 election collided with an AI boom,  see  https://www.reuters.com/world/us/deepfaking-it-americas-2024-election-collides-with-ai-boom-2023-05-30/?utm.

On Artificial General Intelligence: can we avoid the ultimate existential threat?  “AI is an existential threat because of the unlikelihood that humans in a democracy will be able to control AGI once it appears. AGI may intentionally or, more likely, unintentionally wipe out humanity or lock humans into a perpetual dystopia. Or a malevolent actor or demagogue like Trump could use AGI to enslave the rest of humanity--or even worse. 

Human nature makes AGI too risky for trial and error.  “Since the inception of existential risk research, humanity has lost a lot of its naïve cheerfulness about landmark technological breakthroughs. While few in the past held the Luddite opinion that technological development is universally bad, the opposite view, namely that technological development is universally good, has been mainstream. Existential risk research implies we should reconsider that idea, as it consistently concludes that we run a high risk of extinction due to our own inventions. Instead, we should focus on making risk-gain trade-offs for innovations on a per-technology basis. At the same time, we should use a mix of technology and regulation to enhance safety instead of increasing risk, and AI Safety is a prime example of that. In the past, we used trial-and-error science and technology to manage nature’s challenges. The big question now is: can we use caution, reason, restraint, coordination, and safety-enhancing technology to address the existential risks stemming from our own inventions?” See  OECD Network of Experts on AI (ONE AI) at https://oec./wonk/existential-threat.

 

On how Wall Street has moved a bear market to a bull market in a bear economy, see https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/09/investing/bull-market-artificial-intelligence/index.html.

AI has spawned numerous innovative efforts to capitalize on enticing AI illusions.  One self-made millionaire has recommended ways to use AI to make thousands of dollars a month in passive income--with less than $100.  In selling AI on the internet, greed trumps truth.  See   https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/12/self-made-millionaire-shares-how-to-use-ai-to-make-thousands-of-dollars-a-month-in-passive-income.html.

On the religious dimension of truth, see What Is Truth?

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/08/what-is-truth.html.

    

Musings on the Moral Failure of the Church and Democracy in America

 Musings on the Moral Failure of the Church and Democracy in America

By Rudy Barnes, Jr., July 12, 2025

The standards of legitimacy in America are based on the Constitution as the foundation of our democracy and its laws, with our moral standards and values shaped by our culture.  America is a Constitutional democracy with its people the source of their changing laws, moral standards and values; but unfortunately, American democracy has lost its moral compass.

Thomas Jefferson was a Deist and Founding Father who considered the altruistic teachings of Jesus “the most sublime moral code ever designed by man.”  It’s too easy to blame Donald Trump for America’s moral failure.  The people enabled Trump to dismantle America’s Constitutional democracy, and they elected Trump twice to do just that.

Morality has traditionally been the province of a church that has lost its moral authority and is now in decline.  It has failed to be a moral steward of democracy, and failed to reform its exclusivist doctrine that limits salvation to Christians.  As a retired pastor of the United Methodist Church (UMC), I consider the church a failure as a moral steward of democracy.

The issues dividing the UMC have cultural roots that have split Americans along racial, demographic, moral and theological lines, but those divisions are not being discussed in the church.  My old home church in Columbia, S.C. has declined, but nearby there is a thriving Unitarian Universalist Congregation that does not promote Christianity as the one true faith.

At the end of the 19th century the Methodist Church was America’s largest Protestant congregation.  The UMC was formed in 1968, but United is a misnomer.  Most UMC congregations remain racially segregated, with most Black UMC members voting Democratic and most white UMC members voting Republican in a nation with racially polarized politics.

Donald Trump’s morality is the antithesis of that taught by Jesus; but most white Christians voted for him in 2016 and again in 2024--even after he tried to overturn the 2020 election and praised those who participated in the January 2021 insurrection.  It reminds us how the church has ignored the moral imperative of the greatest commandment to love God and our neighbors, including those of other races and religions, as we love ourselves.

The UMC has now split over sexual preferences, allowing its congregations to choose whether to remain in the UMC or to join other denominations more compatible with their moral preferences.  But in the disaffiliation process the UMC never considered doctrinal changes to promote the altruistic teachings of Jesus that could have ameliorated UMC disaffections.

   

For America’s pluralistic democracy and the UMC to survive they must be reconciled as stewards of democracy that promote the common good.  Jefferson understood that; but the church has continued to ignore the universal moral imperatives taught by Jesus.  The choice is ours.  Can the church save itself and democracy from human depravity in religion and politics?            

Notes:

A breakup of UMC churches over L.G.B.T.Q. issues has caused more than a quarter of UMC churches to defect, and the defections continue.  “At issue for Methodists is the question of sexual preference for ordaining and marrying L.G.B.T.Q. people, a topic that has splintered many Protestant denominations and which Methodists have been debating for years. In 2019, Methodist leaders opened a window for any congregations to leave over “reasons of conscience,” in most cases allowing them to take their property and assets with them in a clean break if they received approval to depart by Dec. 31, 2023. Many conservative congregations have done just that. “It’s the biggest denominational schism ever,” said Ryan Burge, a political scientist at Eastern Illinois University. There were eight million Methodists in the United States in 2020, according to the U.S. Religion Census. Between large-scale departures and the broader trend of decline, Dr. Burge said that number could drop by half in a decade. The exodus marks a calamitous decline for the broader tradition of mainline Protestantism, which once dominated the American religious, social and cultural landscape. …Remaining congregations and leaders are taking stock of their losses, and looking ahead to a future in which the denomination’s footprint in the United States may continue to shrink (even as it grows overseas, especially in Africa). In Texas, a historic stronghold for United Methodists, more than 40 percent of churches have left.  “It’s significant, and it’s been at a high cost,” said Thomas Bickerton, who is president of the denomination’s Council of Bishops. More than 7,500 congregations have left since 2019, a number that he said was slightly higher than leaders expected when they extended the offer. Next year, Methodists plan to vote on what will likely be their lowest quarterly budget in 40 years. Officially, the United Methodist Church still forbids same-sex marriage and does not allow “self-avowed, practicing” gay people to serve as ministers. But in recent years, some leaders began defying official restrictions on the practices, and the church now has a number of openly gay clergy and two gay bishops. Many anticipate that church law could change — and spur more departures.” See  https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/18/us/the-united-methodist-church-schism.html.

On the relevance of Thomas Jefferson’s Jesus in the 21st century, see https://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2019/05/musings-on-relevance-of-jeffersons.html.

Alex Detocqueville was a French aristocrat and intellectual who visited America in 1831 and observed a mutual relationship between democracy and Christianity on morality that was critical to both.  Detocqueville observed that America’s many Christian sects shared a “Christian morality” that produced common standards of political legitimacy that defined what is right, and imbued American politics with its moral authority.  On the views of both Thomas Jefferson and Alexis de Tocqueville on the moral values of religion in American politics, see Religion, Moral Authority and Conflicting Concepts of Legitimacy at http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/07/religion-moral-authority-and.html. See also Musings of a Maverick Methodist on a Universal and Altruistic Jesus, August 19, 2023, at http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2023/08/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on.html.

Musings on the Loyal Opposition and Altruistic Moral Values in Politics

By Rudy Barnes, Jr., July 5, 2025

America’s Two Party Duopoly is missing two critical components:  a viable Democratic Party that can hold Trump’s Republicans accountable, and altruistic moral values that provide for the common good.  I’m an independent in my politics, and all I hear from the Democratic Party are requests for money to support Democrats, with no emphasis on moral priorities. 

As a senior citizen in South Carolina, I know how ineffective partisan politics can be.  From the Civil War until the 1960s, S.C. was a one-party Democratic state.  Since then it has evolved into a one-party Republican state, and Democrats have failed to be the loyal opposition to Trump’s Republican Party.  America needs a party that can hold Republicans accountable.

Until Democrats demonstrate that they can be the loyal opposition to Trump’s Republicans, they don’t deserve to be a major party.  In a healthy democracy with only two parties, one party needs to be the loyal opposition to the party in power; and where there is no effective opposition to the majority, the minority party has failed its primary task.  

Partisan polarization coupled with distorted religious overtones began with Jerry Falwell’s moral majority in the 1980s and culminated with Trump’s intimidation of dissident Republicans.  It wasn’t long ago that both the Republican and Democratic Parties had independent members who could cross party lines, but Trump discouraged that with threats.

Along the way, the altruistic teachings of Jesus were lost in radical versions of Christian nationalism. Thomas Jefferson once asserted that the teachings of Jesus were “the most sublime moral code ever designed by man,” but his altruistic moral teachings were discredited by increasingly radical versions of Christian nationalism as Trump’s Republican dogma.

If the moral teachings of Jesus in the greatest commandment to love God by loving our neighbors of other races and religions as we love ourselves is God's will and Word, then the Big, Beautiful Bill  that Trump has pushed through Congress could be described as a Big Blasphemous Bill, since it violates the altruistic moral teachings of Jesus to provide for the common good.  

Most Americans claim to be Christians, but Trump’s Republicans have distorted the moral teachings of Jesus with morally corrupt policies based on Christian nationalism and favoritism for the wealthy. If both parties emphasized the altruistic moral teachings of Jesus to provide for the common good, it could end the tribal partisan divisions that have stymied Congressional checks and balances.

Altruistic morality in politics could diminish the evils of immorality and partisan polarization in politics, and provide the needed opposition to Trump’s GOP.  Now that Trump has passed his Big Beautiful Bill, where is Elon Musk?  He may be the world’s richest man, but I suspect that his promise to reform Congress in the midterm elections will only confirm that talk is cheap in American politics.

 

Notes:

 On Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill as a Big Blasphemous Bill, see  https://sojo.net/articles/opinion/big-blasphemous-bill.

On Who Put Jesus on the Cross and put Trump on the Throne, see https://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2018/09/who-put-jesus-on-cross-and-trump-on.html.

On Elon Musk’s Plan to Oppose Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill with a New Party, see Bryan Metzger, Business Insider, July 2, 2025, and Reuters/Nathan Howard, Jul 2, 2025, at  https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-threats-big-beautiful-bill-republicans-2025-7 Elon Musk is threatening the political careers of all Republicans who voted for Trump’s "Big Beautiful Bill, while Republicans are largely brushing it off.  "Similar threats have been made before," one House Republican said.  Musk, the single largest political donor of the 2024 election, could theoretically pour millions of dollars into funding primary challengers against sitting members of Congress. He's also mused about launching a new political party, and he's said he'll donate to a GOP congressman who's been critical of Trump's agenda. So, how seriously are Republican lawmakers taking Musk's threats? "Not that seriously," Rep. Abe Hamadeh of Arizona told BI. "Elon Musk actually donated to me last quarter." Hamadeh is one of 21 House Republicans who's already received a more than $6,000 check from Musk this year, according to the most recently available campaign finance data. That list includes a host of right-flank Republicans including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Lauren Boebert of Colorado. Republicans say they're not worried about Musk's complaints at this point, and there's a sense that Musk, now on the outs with Trump and more focused on his companies, simply won't follow through. "Similar threats have been made before, and I'm unsure if anything's come of those threats," Rep. Brian Jack of Georgia said. Musk has criticized the bill's phase-out of clean energy subsidies as well as its impact on the national debt. He has said it largely undoes the work of DOGE, the government-efficiency and cost-cutting initiative he launched at the beginning of Trump's second term. "Look, I mean, he's the wealthiest man in the world. You have to take everything seriously," Jack added. "But at the same time, I'm just hopeful that if he does engage politically, it's on behalf of the party that's enacted pro-growth policy." It's been a month since Musk and Trump's relationship blew up in an epic feud, and Republicans on Capitol Hill have gotten used to the dynamic, even as they lament it. "It's a shame," Rep. Aaron Bean of Florida, one of the three original chairs of the ill-fated House DOGE Caucus. "We're the ones working to bring financial sanity," Bean said. "Hopefully he'll realize that." Most Republicans remain careful not to insult the tech titan, who remains influential on the right and has shown a willingness to pour millions of dollars into elections. If Elon Musk is threatening their political careers, Republicans say they aren't sweating it. No one's really worried about it.” Reuters/Nathan Howard, Jul 2, 2025.

On Newsweek Reporting Musk’s Plan for a New Party Scoring a Polling Win, see  https://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-america-party-poll-2094615.

Musings on America's Fall from Grace, and What Comes Next

By Rudy Barnes, Jr., June 28, 2025

Trump’s bombing of Iran was only his latest act of aggression after promising to avoid war; and while it was Trump’s act, it represented America’s fall from grace.  America--once the ideal of libertarian democracy--has demonstrated that its wealth and power are no defense to political evil, and that American democracy is as flawed with human depravity as other regimes.

As an octogenarian, my democratic values are now obsolete.  I’m a retired Army officer and a retired UMC pastor, and two terms of Trump have demonstrated that while Trump will ultimately be replaced, his successor can shape Christian nationalism to promote his or her political power.  I have lost any hope that America the Beautiful I once knew can be restored.

That doesn’t mean that we should give up on American democracy, only that we should adjust our expectations to reality.  In matters of faith, we need to acknowledge the failure of our churches to be stewards of American democracy, and that greed, materialism, hedonism and popularity will subordinate the altruistic teachings of Jesus for future leaders in faith and politics.

The church will remain an influential social institution, but so long as popularity remains its primary standard of success, the altruistic teachings of Jesus that were never popular will remain subordinate to secular standards of popularity.  The only other factors likely to change the priorities of American values are a depression, war or some other cataclysmic event.

Given the constraints of American values, America’s two-party system  will determine what comes next, unless additional political parties challenge the bipolar system.  With Democrats firmly entrenched in cities with their liberal constituents and leaving others to Republicans, the future path of demagogues becomes more evident.

There will be changes at the margins, but given the demographic diversity of America’s population, it seems unlikely that Democrats will be able to gain control of both the Presidency and Congress, as Trump has done.  That means that short of a catastrophic event, unprincipled politicians seeking to be dictators will have a better chance with Republicans than Democrats.

Religion remains entwined in unholy coalitions with politics, and more so with Republicans than with Democrats.  But that’s been a changing dynamic that’s likely to continue; with fewer Democrats concerned with religious issues than Republicans.  Trump is the standard, constantly relating his political objectives to Christian nationalism.        

Some have described Trump’s regime as a constitutional dictatorship ruled by Trump’s executive orders rather than a constitutional crisis; but it’s both.  By governing with a Congress that rubber stamps his power without congressional checks and balances, Trump has “trumped” Congress and the Constitution in establishing his dictatorship.      

Notes: 

See Government by Executive Order? Constitutional Dictatorship, Progressive Christianity, June 16, 2025,   https://progressivechristianity.org/resource/government-by-executive-order-constitutional-dictatorship/

“A decree went out from Caesar Augustus”- that’s all it took in Jesus’ time. In our time, just change the name. “A decree went out from Donald Trump.” With everything that has happened since Trump took over, it’s hard to recognize how it is happening, but it’s quite simple. Over the years, in differing situations, Congress has given the President the power to issue executive orders about almost anything concerning the implementation of statutes, just as they have given him the power to impose tariffs. Both of these powers involve a lot of gray areas, with many actions plainly illegal. In theory, Congress or the courts can rescind that power, but with Congress currently controlled by Trumpites fearful of retribution, that will not happen. That leaves it up to the courts to overturn those orders. The problem here is twofold. First, the courts have no way to enforce their decisions, meaning that Trump could defy the court’s order, with no fear of punishment, especially given the immunity granted him by the Supreme Court. 

Second, challenging illegal orders in court can never catch up with the flurry of new executive orders, even if a judge orders a temporary hold on the enforcement of an illegal executive order, which will be appealed and possibly appealed again. Meanwhile, people who have lost jobs have suffered all the consequences of no income, future insecurity, and total disruption of their lives. Some people have been deported to foreign hell-hole prisons. And persons dependent on suspended programs will suffer and perhaps die.  

It seems that we now have, in effect, not so much a constitutional crisis as a constitutional dictatorship. Trump can do whatever he wants with both the federal government and international trade. And who is there to stop him? Waiting for a Democratic win in the 2026 midterm elections seems like a long wait, and perhaps for nothing. The first step was the 1300+ mass demonstrations on April 5 across the country and beyond. Now we wait for the MAGA people to wake up. Evangelicals have made a most egregious error in believing that Trump, like Jesus, was sent from God. Truth is, he is of the same brand as Caesar, not an ordained savior from God, but a self-appointed executioner of the innocent.”

Musings on Preserving Civilian Supremacy in Democracy with Term Limits

By Rudy Barnes, Jr., June 21, 2025

Last Saturday there was a parade in Washington, DC, to celebrate Trump’s 79th birthday and the Army’s 250th birthday.  As a retired Army veteran I applauded the No Kings celebrations around the country that supported George Washington’s example of humble service for America’s presidents; but any resemblance of Trump to Washington is purely coincidental.

The U.S. military is a paradox.  It’s an authoritarian regime in a Constitutional democracy that preserves and protects the freedoms of religion, speech and assembly.  Russia and Israel are democracies that provide no protection for civilian supremacy, allowing Putin and Netanyahu unlimited power to promote wars of aggression to expand their boundaries in Ukraine and Gaza. 

If that were not enough political and religious conflict to destabilize the world, consider Islam, which is often at war with Christianity and Zionism.  There is a need for universal religious principles to reconcile the fundamental differences in these religions, and the greatest commandment of Jesus can provide God’s standard of altruism to begin the process.

Jesus was a Jew who taught the universal greatest commandment to love God and our neighbors of other races and religions as we love ourselves.  It’s taken from the Hebrew Bible and has been accepted as a common word of faith by Jews, Christians, and Muslims as a moral imperative of faith; and it can reconcile their most contentious religious issues.

FDR was the only U.S. President to serve more than the Constitutional limit of two terms.  He died in office in 1945 in his third term.  The Russian constitution was amended to allow Putin to stay in office until 2036; and Israel's parliamentary government doesn’t have a Constitution, allowing Netanyahu to remain in power so long as he is Israel’s Prime Minister.

Trump has hinted that he may defy the limits of the U.S. Constitution and seek a third term.  Hitler and Putin have demonstrated how an unholy coalition of civilian and military power can overcome legal term limits and the moral power of a strong church, allowing a determined demagogue to ”trump” constitutional limits and traditional moral standards.

David French has noted a dark side to an impulsive and unpredictable President Trump who has sought the support of radical Christian nationalists in the past.  That’s all the more reason to limit Trump to two terms. Paul Harvey once observed that voters are the only real stewards of democracy who can hold a President accountable to the Constitution and the moral standards of political legitimacy needed to preserve their rights and avoid unnecessary wars.

It will take Constitutional term limits and the continued vigilance of voters to preserve civilian supremacy in America and to avoid unnecessary wars.  Trump’s public morality is the antithesis of that taught by Jesus, yet in spite of that most Christians elected him as their President in both 2016 and 2024.  I hope Americans can be better stewards of democracy in the midterm elections and in the presidential election of 2028.

Notes:

David French has written on the problem of the recent “Christian assassin” in Minnesota.  See  https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/opinion/minnesota-killings-boelter.html.

W.J. Hennigan has written on the need for a functioning Congress to hold Trump accountable as he considers more disruptive actions to expand his power. See Trump Might Get Us into Another War.  Where’s Congress? https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/18/opinion/trump-iran-war-congress.html.  

Jamelle Bouie has written on immigration.  See  Maybe Trump and Miller Don’t Understand immigration in America as Well as They Think They Do, at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/18/opinion/trump-miller-immigration-ice.html.