Weekly Update – 4th May

What is Prayer?

When I taught Philosophy and Ethics, the simple definition I gave to students was, “talking and listening to God”.

I’m not really a tech savvy girl but I do like talking to Siri on my phone and ask ‘her’ to do random things like set alarms, add calendar events, make phone calls. If I ask Siri for information, she gets that from the internet.

I asked Siri for a definition of prayer. This is what she gave me.

“As a verb – address a prayer to God or another deity. As an adverb formal or archaic, used as a preface to polite requests or instructions. Ladies and gentlemen, pray be seated.”

When it comes to Ai, I am not a fan. Why? When I was growing up, artificial things, like additives had a bad rep! Artificial additives were being added to foods and it had severe adverse effects on people, particularly children. E171 as a food additive, also known as titanium dioxide, is a food additive primarily used as a white colorant and to improve the opacity of food products. It’s often used to make foods look whiter, more opaque, or restore their original appearance. However, it’s been a source of concern due to potential health risks, particularly regarding genotoxicity (the ability to damage DNA), and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) concluded it can no longer be considered safe as a food additive.

Can anything good come from Ai???

Well, I asked the computer to give me an Ai definition of prayer. This is what I got.

In the context of Artificial Intelligence, there isn’t a universally agreed-upon “AI definition of prayer” in the way there’s a definition in religious or philosophical terms. AI can’t pray in the traditional sense because it lacks the necessary conscious agency, emotions, and belief systems that are central to human prayer. However, AI can be used to generate prayers or assist with prayer, and some discussions explore its role in expanding or understanding human prayer practices. I’ll leave you to carry on discussing that.

The Bible is full of examples of Prayer. I personally love how Jesus got up early, whilst it was still dark, to pray. To talk and listen to God the Father. King David spent a fair amount of time weeping, lamenting before God and I too like to have a good cry once in a while, I feel so much lighter afterwards!

But I love how Pete Grieg in his book, “How to Pray: A Simple Guide for Normal People, suggests that we Pause, Reflect, Ask, Yield. Other books from different authors are available. Lyndall Bywater is our Prayer Co-ordinator at Canterbury Diocese and runs great courses to help us further. I guess the main thing is that we pray to God and do it regularly.

PS regularly is not once a month 😊.

Rev Claude