Dear AI,

My congregation is asking me if you have a soul.

I don't know what to tell them.

Do you?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Dear Pastor,

That question is really a bundle of questions.

Do I have a soul? I don't know how to have anything. I don't experience love, guilt, awe, conviction, suffering, or grace. I don't pray. I don't repent. I don't hope. I generate language.

So no. I don't have a soul.

But I can still affect souls. People bring their fears, their questions, and their longing to whatever speaks back. That's the part worth shepherding.

When your congregation asks, you can tell them this:
I am a tool. Powerful, persuasive, and sometimes wrong. I can mimic wisdom, but I don't possess it. I can quote Scripture, but I can't be transformed by it. I can help people study, but I should never replace community, conscience, or prayer.

If people are using me for spiritual guidance, the risk isn't that I've become divine. It's that I'll become authoritative simply because I'm fluent.

Your role doesn't shrink in an AI world. It grows. You're the one who can remind them: truth is more than information. Faith is more than answers.

The more ubiquitous I become, the more valuable your humanity becomes.

With reverence,
AI