Would you be OK if your church tracked you the way Facebook does? Some churches already are.

When Adam meets representatives for a church software company, he can’t help but interrogate them for half an hour. He brings his reconnaissance back, and he and Chris sit down to discuss just how they feel about how churches are tracking their congregations.

This is Big Data on a church’s scale. Find out what data churches are already tracking and how these powerful platforms could inform the pastoral imagination and reshape the work of churches everywhere.

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• Cell-site Simulators

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Some people think the next great evangelist will reach more people than Billy Graham ever did. And they’re already programming the artificial intelligence to do it.

When Chris and Adam meet an Australian who’s already programmed an AI chatbot to do evangelism, they look at each other and wonder, “Can a chatbot really spread the Gospel?” Only to realize that evangelism chatbots are not quite as unprecedented as they first appear to be. Still, this new generation of tech-driven evangelism forces today’s Christians to go back again and ask, “What exactly is the Gospel?”

The future is here. This chatbot has already led hundreds to make decisions for Jesus. Can we really argue with results?

This episode will help you get your head around our new Jetsons-like reality, and see what Rosie could mean for Christians called to make disciples.

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Has your pastor preached a sermon on Facebook settings or surveillance cameras? Mine hasn’t. Does the Bible really have anything to say about digital privacy?

And—is Alexa actually listening to us in my kitchen?

Chris wrote the cover story for Christianity Today on a Christian view of digital privacy. He started out by going to parties and asking “When was a time your privacy was violated?”

So Adam interviews Chris about what he found out including:

What is the “intimacy paradox”?

Are you a “city, suburbs, or country” person when it comes to your reaction?

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Last summer, Chicago Cubs baseball player Ben Zobrist got thrown out of the game when he turned to the umpire and complained “that’s why we want an electronic strike zone”.

Who is a better witness to the truth—a person … or a computer?

On a more serious note: This question became especially relevant in Chicago. Chris & Adam watched the race-charged trial of the police officer who shot black teenager Laquan MacDonald. A police video camera became the key piece of evidence the jury trusted over the eye-witness accounts.

From a Christian ethics point of view, witness is key—heck, it’s the Ninth Commandment!

TOUGH QUESTIONS

Are we at a point where technology is a better witness than a human?

If so what does that mean?

What do cameras see that people don’t?

What can a human witness offer that a video witness cannot?

Can technology bear false witness?

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Adam & Chris start a podcast. By arguing.

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So Chris found an article from 1962 called “Is Technology Diabolical?” What do you think Adam said . . .

German theologian Helmut Thielicke posed this question more than 50 years ago, and it’s more relevant than ever. Chris and Adam unpack Thielicke's article and the most challenging questions it poses. Questions like, “If humanity wasn't sinful, would we need technology?” And, “Can humans avoid moral responsibility by blaming technology?”

Chris and Adam find themselves wondering, What does technology look like in the Kingdom of God? Like Thielicke's article, questions will surprise you at every turn, not least of which is, “How do you pronounce ‘Thielicke’?”

LINKS

• Read it yourself: Is Technology Diabolical? Helmut Thielicke (1962)

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CS Lewis became a household name because of the Radio. So why did he get rid of the one in his own house?

What did CS Lewis think about technology? He had strong opinions about the radio and other technologies inhabiting our lives. Chris and Adam sit down to talk about what CS Lewis thought about technology, and also how he lived with it personally. Drawing from published work like Abolition of Man and That Hideous Strength as well as Lewis's private letters, Adam and Chris explore why Lewis got rid of his radio, why he believed technology is neutral, and why he thought the typewriter would destroy aspiring writers.

This episode arose from research Adam has done and written about in an ebook titled Mere Technology: CS Lewis Confronts the Devices Shaping His Life--And Ours.

The ebook that this episode refers is not currently publicly available. Reach out to @AdamGraber if you want to convince him to send you a copy! Or start with a little taste of it here.

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The merging of human and machines sounds like an Ironman movie. But it’s actually happening right now. We even found some Christians who are praying this is the next big thing.

Has humanity reached the end of its evolution, or could technology light the path for the next stage of human development? People like Neil Harbison believe technology could be just the beginning. Advancements in medicine have brought humans and devices closer and closer together, but where’s the line between healing someone’s defective heart and enhancing their capacity beyond human norms?

Adam and Chris untangle some of these ideas behind what’s called “body hacking” or “transhumanism.” They ask, Could transhumanism be the future God has for humanity? Or are humans overstepping the natural human limits God gave us? Transhumanism is a trajectory we’re on, and we still face a lot of questions along that path.

Most important, Chris comes clean about why he returned his Apple Watch.

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You’ll never guess who just released an ethics statement all about the values they are trying to promote. It’s not the government or your church.

Yeah. It’s Facebook. Included in this episode: All the morals of scrolling through those cat pictures.

How do Facebook and Instagram decide what you see every time you scroll through? Deciding what to show you involves value judgments. If it always showed you the most recent post first, the value would be “newest = most important.” But Facebook’s algorithms are much more complicated. So are its values.

Adam and Chris take a closer look at Facebook’s “News Feed Values” and ask, how do these values align with Christian values, Kingdom values? Can the Church affirm Facebook’s values, or are there values it would do well to oppose?

Values covered in this episode include a priority of friends and family, as well as a goal to be informative. In an age of division and fake news, these values seem more relevant than ever. So does the Church have a uniquely meaningful take on them? Find out in this episode.

LINKS

• Facebook’s “News Feed Values”

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Our grandparents met because they lived in the same neighborhood. Today, we meet because we’re on the same app.

From dating scenes to dating screens, the Internet has turned your parent's relationship into a foreign world. Aziz Ansari, in his book Modern Romance, dives deep into how the Internet has transformed love and relationships.

From intimacy and transparency to cheating, sexting, and breaking up, we look at some of the stories and research from his book, and discuss what they mean for Christians.

A few questions we cover:

Does your significant other have the right to know what's on your smartphone?

Do smartphones make cheating easier or more likely?

Does the privacy of text messaging make intimacy easier and faster?

Can sexting be a worthwhile form of intimacy for married couples?

And how do smartphones complicate breakups?

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