We live in an age where artificial intelligence can write essays, compose music, and even hold a conversation. ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude — they’re fast becoming part of everyday life. And while these tools can be incredibly useful, they also raise deep questions:
What does it mean to think for ourselves? To make real choices? To be truly human?
If Søren Kierkegaard were around today, scrolling through search results or testing out a chatbot, he might not be impressed. But he wouldn’t dismiss AI out of hand either. More likely, he’d ask:
How is this shaping your relationship with yourself — and with God?
AI Makes Things Easy — Maybe Too Easy
Let’s face it: AI is convenient. It can help you decide what to eat, plan a trip, summarise a book, or answer difficult questions in seconds. But Kierkegaard was wary of anything that made life too easy.
Why? Because ease can make us lazy with the things that matter most — like truth, responsibility, and selfhood.
For Kierkegaard, becoming a self isn’t something you outsource. It’s something you wrestle with. It requires decisions made in solitude. Honesty about who you are. And a willingness to stand before God without excuses, filters, or borrowed opinions.
Instant Answers vs. Inward Truth
One of Kierkegaard’s central themes is inwardness — that real truth isn’t just factual or logical, but personal. It’s about how you relate to what you know. You can have all the right answers and still live a lie.
In the age of AI, information is cheap. But wisdom? That still takes time, silence, and struggle.
So would Kierkegaard use ChatGPT? Maybe — to look up a train timetable or translate a text. But when it comes to the deeper stuff — Who am I? What should I do with my life? What does it mean to live well? — he’d say: don’t ask a chatbot. Ask yourself. Ask God.
Authenticity Requires Risk
Kierkegaard talks a lot about the crowd — the temptation to blend in, to think what others think, to avoid standing alone. AI can easily become part of that crowd. Not in the form of people, but of convenience, prediction, and detachment.
Real authenticity, Kierkegaard insists, involves risk. Making decisions you can’t automate. Holding beliefs you’ve fought for. Choosing faith in the face of doubt. AI might be able to simulate human reasoning — but it can’t become a self.
Only you can do that.
So, Where Does Faith Fit In?
Kierkegaard’s answer to modern confusion wasn’t to think harder — it was to leap into faith. Not blind belief, but a deep, personal trust in something bigger than yourself. He believed that only through God could we become whole — not just informed, but transformed.
In a world overflowing with data, faith asks something different:
To be still.
To be honest.
To be real.
And that’s something no algorithm can do for you.
💡 If you’re wondering how to stay grounded in a world of noise, tech, and constant advice, Kierkegaard might be the voice you need. Discover his powerful reflections in The Sickness Unto Death: A Modern Translation for the 21st Century