The Book of Mormon contains a formula for discernment:
”Wherefore, everything which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God.” (Moroni 7:13)
In a recent video, President Christofferson advocated for this method as a key for avoiding deception in our modern world of AI.
How would this work?
For example, consider an AI deepfake in which Jesus returns.
I am reminded of Wendy Nelson’s talk where she said,
“What if you learned that the Savior had already returned to this earth, that he, as part of his second coming, had already met with some of his true followers in several large, marvelous gatherings?”
Say, for example, there were videos that surfaced of Jesus’s return and of these supposed gatherings. The videos were moving and convinced many people to believe in Jesus and to come back to church. A lot of people changed their lives and repented of their sins.
According to the Book of Mormon formula for discernment, wouldn’t those videos be “true”?
The problem with this formula for discernment is that it asks us to accept something not based on evidence, but based on motives.
Leave a Reply