Comment by Onawa
5 days ago
> I personally believe the ultimate work of Christianity in humanity is to turn us all to repentance and bring us closer to God, not to reject the sinners.
I'm Native American (indigenous, or whatever other moniker you've heard). Both of my paternal grandparents were subjected to the horror of boarding schools. So forgive me if I'm a bit cynical when it comes to the methods deemed appropriate by Christianity to "turn us all to repentance and bring us closer to God."
I would argue that instead of being a tool to try and convince more people that the Abrahamic god is the "right one", maybe think about using LLMs to challenge your own biases regarding religion and to question the myriad of moral and logical issues presented within your holy book.
Just a suggestion from someone also looking at the idea of utilizing LLMs to preserve and explore indigenous language, culture, and wisdom without becoming a slave to the technology.
Late to the party, but speaking of "challenge your own biases", have you considered that "Christianity" as a blanket term equally covering
* historical American Puritanism (of the kind you rightly opposed)
* modern "rock concert and a TED talk" Evangelicalism
* Traditional Orthodoxy such as that of the Jordanville Fathers of the linked article
may not be the most accurate classifier? Anything more than a cursory inspection would reveal these are all very different things, even if they all use some overlapping vocabulary from time to time (word-concept fallacy).
We're all sinners in Christianity. The cynicism is earned and why we're not saved by works but by Grace.
LLM's here are a tool for accessing old works, which happen to coincide with my faith.
If you're using LLMs to preserve and explore indigenous texts and languages, that is an absolutely wonderful thing to do. I wish you great success.
There are an increasing number of orphan / dying / dead languages, and there could be a project to 'resurrect them' and comprehensively translate their texts to spread them more widely.
I wish you great success on your journey!