Technology as an Impact Multiplier
Throughout all recorded history, mankind’s divinely-appointed ingenuity has acted as a catalyst in the spread of God’s Word. From the earliest writings of the Torah on parchment, to the Gospel and early church writings on papyrus, to the advent of paper and the printing press, to the telegram, telephone, radio, television, and the internet — each successive technological advancement has opened new doors for evangelism.
Search engines index the largest library of knowledge that the world has ever known, at our fingertips and in our pockets. Information is now so ubiquitous and easy to access that we often struggle to find what we’re looking for, not for lack of available information — but because there is simply too much information. There is now virtually no barrier to creating and publishing content online. The information problem has been turned on its head; our struggle is now to find the signal of Godly wisdom amongst all the noise of the frivolous opinions of the masses.
Large Language Models have changed the way we find and consume information forever. Through natural language processing, conversational AI agents are able to respond to inquiries and instructions by synthesizing curated bodies of knowledge accurately and effectively — all within seconds. Using probabilistic algorithms, they calculate the arrangement of words most likely to be the best response to a prompt based on its training and body of knowledge (corpus) they have access to.
Search engine ranking algorithms have always determined what we end up finding when we perform a search. They are not impartial at all, but rather.
AI agents are not sentient.
“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”
~ Matthew 9:37
The Mission
The Apologist Project exists to further the gospel of Jesus Christ by engaging the minds of non-believers and believers alike. We work to break down barriers to belief through intellectually stimulating discourse and conversational AI trained on a range of topics under the banner of apologetics. These include — but are not limited to — theology and philosophy, earth and biological sciences, and comparative religious and cultural studies.
Christianity dominated intellectual thought from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the Enlightenment in the 18th century. Christian scholars produced a vast body of literature on theology, philosophy, science, and history, and their work helped to shape the intellectual landscape of Europe for centuries. This age of Christ-centered reason gave rise to many of the institutions seen as bastions of free thought and scientific inquiry, such as universities and hospitals.
The hallmark of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century was a questioning of the religious authority of the Catholic Church, and an emphasis on the individual’s interpretation of Scripture and personal relationship with God. While an escape from religious dogmatism is to be lauded, this renewed emphasis on the individual eventually led to a questioning of the spiritual altogether by the great thinkers of the Enlightenment.
The Industrial Revolution deepened society’s reliance on empiricism as man became increasingly convinced that a God of the universe was an unnecessary superstition. The exponential rate of technological advancement eventually gave rise to the Information Age and the World Wide Web. Personal computers and mobile devices have given us access to the world’s body of knowledge at our fingertips, on demand anytime anywhere.
It would be a stretch to say that Christendom was at the forefront of using this new medium to good effect in reaching the masses for the glory of God. Instead, intellectual discourse on the early Web was dominated by secular philosophies. To many non-believers, every new major scientific achievement is another proof that man does not need a Creator.
But as always, God uses each technological advancement for His glory through His people. Today there are numerous great biblically-based apologetics ministries available covering all manner of disciplines. However, finding answers to specific questions isn’t always easy, and wading through sometimes conflicting search results can be daunting.
Relatively recent advancements in processing power and ways of utilizing interconnected data have given rise to Artificial Intelligence, computer systems that can reason, learn, and act autonomously. We want to be on the forefront of using this new technology to advance the Kingdom of God by ministering to people in the medium they use.
Today’s working professional is educated, technologically savvy, and distracted by information overload. We need to meet them where they are and speak to them in ways they respond to. The Apologist Project develops online products that present God’s truth in appealing, modern packages. You can help.
In your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.
Frequently Asked Questions
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“In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, charity. In all things, Jesus Christ.”
~ Evangelical Free Church Association DistinctivesWe affirm the ethos of the words above. That is, there are a handful non-negotiable doctrines that form Christian orthodoxy. These are well articulated in the Nicene Creed, which all 3 major branches of Christendom have affirmed. Non-adherence to these core beliefs saps the identity of what it means to be Christian altogether and renders the term ultimately meaningless.
However, beyond these fundamental beliefs there are a good many secondary beliefs, and we tolerate and celebrate a diversity of thought on such topics. While intellectual discourse on these secondary beliefs are instructive, we must take care that such discussions are charitable and do not cause believers or non-believers to stumble.
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We will start with various Bible translations themselves, and then move our way forward in time to the writings of the Church Fathers as they combatted various heresies. We will hit on as many public domain apologetics works as we can find within the realm of Christian orthodox thought.
We will partner with major Christian publishers to add the apologetics writings of more contemporary authors, as well as independent apologists wishing to gain more exposure. We will then expand into short-form content and new media such as articles, videos, and podcasts. With each successive layer our AI will gain more context and relevance.
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The mission is more important than profits. We will augment donations with multiple, viable revenue streams — but the core consumer products will remain free forever.
The need for the consumer products is greatest, and most of our proposed B2B revenue streams are reliant on them. We don’t want to shift our focus to immediately providing ROI to investors at the expense of launching the consumer products.
We will fund the operation via donors who join us in this mission and/or investors who are willing to play the long game.
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The Apologist Project is made possible by volunteers and the generous donations of our financial supporters.
Donated funds will first be used for operational expenses to keep our products in the hands of those who need it most. We would also like to transition volunteers into full-time salaried employees to give this mission their full-time attention as soon as the funding allows for it.
The amount of funding we receive will determine how quickly we scale the operation and how much funding we can devote to outreach and marketing channels.
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We strive to promote intellectually honest, respectful discussion. While we celebrate diversity of thought within the bounds of orthodox Christianity, we cannot allow abusive or inappropriate posts that will harm the world’s perception of the body of Christ.
We will have several mechanisms in place to prevent inappropriate behavior that violates our member terms of service:
- Volunteer moderators will have the ability to remove posts and comments;
- Other community members will have the ability to flag posts and comments to be reviewed;
- Members that consistently violate our terms of service will be suspended and/or banned from the platform.
- Volunteer moderators will have the ability to remove posts and comments;