People ask Siri, Apple's "personal assistant" application for iOS, all sorts of odd things.
Where do babies come from?
What are you wearing?
Who's going to win the Super Bowl?
Will you marry me?
And, it turns out, some folks are also turning to Siri for some deep religious conversations.
To be honest, it turns out that Siri isn't so deep in this area. (And, certainly, she's nothing like Scarlett Johansson in "Her.")
Recently, a pair of writers have tried their hand at engaging Siri in theological discussions. Yasmine Afiz of The Huffington Post writes "that the spiritual teacher you've been looking for may have been in your pocket all along."
Maybe.
Hafiz asked: "Siri, do you believe in God?"
Siri responded: "I would ask that you address your spiritual questions to someone more qualified to comment. Ideally, a human."
Later, Hafiz asked her iPhone: "Do you love Jesus?" and was answered with "My policy is the separation of spirit and silicon."
Hafiz summed up by saying Siri, as a digital theologian, has a "Sphinx-like inscrutability makes it difficult to pin down any sort of traditional personal belief system."
Meanwhile, Kristin Johnston Largen, an associate professor of systematic theology at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, also wrote about tackling the Bigger Questions with Siri. She didn't fare much differently than Hafiz.
One exchange went like this:
Question: Do you believe in the problem of evil?
Answer: It really doesn't matter what I believe.
Furthermore, when asked "What's the meaning of life?" Siri responded with "a movie." So the digital assistant has a little Monty Python in her, it turns out. Perhaps there is hope for her, after all.
Johnston Largen knows well that iPhones and computer technology are not the right path for those seeking faith, as she notes: "I want the youth of our church to ask their pastors these questions, not their phones -- but in order for that to happen, we have to [intentionally!] create an environment in which they are encouraged and welcomed to do so."
So, in the meantime, we'll have to stick to using Siri to remind us to buy cat food and pick up the kids at soccer practice.
