Blog on the Learig

  3 July 2026 In Acts 15, we read about the first council of the Church, the Council of Jerusalem. It dealt with a controversial issue. The first Christians were Jews. They had been circumcised. When Gentiles became Christians, shouldn’t they be circumcised too? The Council had to determine whether circumcision was ‘of the substance of the faith’ as we say in the Kirk. To enforce such a practice may appear to be designating the Gentiles as second-class citizens, not fully Christian, not fully human, not fully made in the image of God? The Council decided wisely that Gentiles who converted did not need to be circumcised. That in itself might have been sufficient to demonstrate how much the Church valued them. But there was more. The Gentiles for their part had to give something too! They had to refrain from worshipping in pagan temples. Each party had to give and to receive and so grace was evident in the way the   Council introduced these compromises to resolve a signi...

  2 July 2026 One of the passages which Pope Leo   explored in his encyclical, ‘Magnifica Humanitas’ is the myth about the Tower of Babel. The story is set in the land of Shinar. In the previous chapter, we learn that Nimrod, the first on earth to become a mighty warrior, conducted his conquering exploits in the land of Shinar too. It is an ominous preface for the Tower of Babel was being built taller and taller by people who were determined to reach the heavens. It was a technological project constructed with bricks instead of stone and bitumen for mortar. It looked increasingly successful. But it was built on a foundation of human pride. ‘Let us make a name for ourselves.’ They were self-possessed and remarkably unaware of the dangers which lay ahead. As they built one storey on top of the other, they didn’t give any attention to the God whose place they had usurped! As a result, the tower collapsed and the people who had at first spoken the same language were scatte...

  1 July 2026 ‘The Week Junior’ had the results of a   survey on AI in their ‘Science and Technology’ section. The study was   undertaken by Oxford University Press. They were examining how young people   felt about using AI in their lessons and for their homework. It involved 4,000 young people aged 13-18. Researchers gave one group of students a written task as well as access to an AI tool. Interestingly, 72% of them decided not to use AI. One of the students who chose not to use AI said, ‘AI doesn’t have opinions, so it can’t write what you are thinking and what you believe and sometimes it gives you fake information.’ The researchers gave a separate group a written task but this time the students had no access to AI. Only 23% of them said that they would like to have had   an AI tool to help   them with the task. The results from both groups was similar. Of the other results, 24% of young people frequently use AI tools to help with their homewor...

  30 June 2026 ‘We must lovingly safeguard the grandeur of humanity bestowed upon us and revealed in its fullness in Christ, the splendour of which no machine can ever replace.’ writes Pope Leo in ‘Magnifica Humanitas’. ‘True progress always stems from a heart open to others, an intelligence willing to listen and a will that seeks   what unites rather than what separates.’ Underpinning this quotation are two fundamental pieces of theology which   informs a Christian approach to developments in technology. The first is the infinite value of each individual. Everyone has been made in the image of God and therefore carries something of God within them. We are born in the love of God which is infinite not just because God is infinite and beyond our ken but because his love for us never ends. His love is unconditional. There is nothing that we nor any machine can do to erase it or displace it or deny it. God’s daily call is simply, ‘David, I love you!’ In addition to t...

  29 June 2026 In his recent encyclical, 'Magnifica Humanitas’, Pope Leo has expressed his concerns about AI and its unregulated impact on the world. ‘No computational system, however sophisticated, can create a heart that gives itself, or a conscience that discerns good from evil.’ (233) His charge is to cultivate relationships. He is talking about physical relationships. ‘In an era which favours speed and fragmentation, the human person still yearns to receive care and recognition from attentive minds, kind words and hands capable of tenderness.’ he writes. (239) The internet and, in particular, AI, cannot replicate this. There is a subtle attempt at it. AI responds immediately. It is attentive. It gives the impression of being objective but it is not neutral. Most concerning of all, it creates the illusion that it is a person. It asks you questions and refines the conversation. But it is not real. It is artificial after all. Its intelligence is related to data processing...

  28 June 2026 When I was minister at East Linton, I received an e-mail from a church in Michigan. It was their liturgical artist. She had seen a Celtic cross which I had photographed in the kirkyard and posted on a blog. She asked a question about it. The answer was on the other side of the cross which I hadn’t posted. As a result of this anonymous enquiry, I was introduced to the minister and a relationship was duly established between the two congregations. Four years later, two dozen young people and their leaders came over from First Presbyterian, Holt, Michigan and stayed in our parish for a week. The congregation rose to the challenge organising a ceilidh and a barbecue, a beach party, an ecological   work-party on Traprain Law and a memorable service in which tartan scarves were handed out to the Americans. The young people from both congregations integrated well and many memories created. I tell the tale because it illustrates how creative the internet can be....