Author: John Stonestreet and Abdu Murray
Right now, a university student—let’s call her Amira—has the Qu’ran open on her desk. She has just read Surah 4:157, which says that Jesus was neither killed nor crucified; it was only made to appear so. Her Christian roommate insists otherwise. So, she does what millions now do. She opens ChatGPT and types: Did Jesus really die on the cross?
Amira’s question is one of roughly 70 million people put to ChatGPT about religion every week. That figure comes from Faith, Community & AI, a report that OpenAI released this month. Its analysis of a year’s worth of requests found that 45% concern Islam and 34% concern Christianity. About 22 million questions a week involve studying sacred texts.
Numbers like these invite quick conclusions, like “Islam is winning the West,” or “Muslims are secretly searching for Jesus.” I want to suggest we slow down. The data tells us what people ask, not who is asking, or why.
So, consider who is likely asking. ChatGPT’s users span the globe. Muslims make up about one-quarter of the world’s population, and Christians a bit less than a third. So why do questions about Islam outnumber questions about Christianity?
The report offers a clue: 39% of Islam-related questions concern what is halal or haram—permitted or forbidden—or the rules for religious rituals. Having grown up Muslim, I’m not surprised. Islam is a religion of law and naturally generates technical questions. Is this food halal? Does this break my fast? How do I make up a missed prayer? So, many questions are not from seekers weighing conversion. Tellingly, questions about Islam spiked during Ramadan and Eid al-Adha, when observance raises practical questions. Other questions likely come from non-Muslims curious about a faith that makes headlines almost daily, sometimes for deeply troubling reasons.
So, the data doesn’t reveal a groundswell of conversions to Islam. Nor does it show that interest in Christianity is fading. Christian questions climbed around Easter, and nearly half dealt with the Bible itself. What the data does reveal is that for millions of people, the first interpreter of Scripture is now a machine.
AI can be a useful research tool. It can locate a verse, summarize a commentary, or lay out different interpretive traditions. Used that way, it’s a fine place to start. But it’s a poor place to stop. It needs to be tested by the text and in conversation with people who have studied and lived these truths. After all, AI isn’t neutral. One research consortium found that AI models routinely leave faith out of their answers to life’s deepest questions—and subtly steer users toward some faiths and away from others when they ask about conversion.
OpenAI seems to grasp AI’s limits, saying that spiritual guidance and religious authority belong “with people and their communities.” They’re right. When God answered humanity’s deepest questions, he didn’t send a summary. He came in person. “The word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). God’s ultimate answer to our questions is a Person who can be known.
That brings us back to Amira. Her question wasn’t just about a historical fact. Underneath it lurks harder ones. If the crucifixion happened, could the Qur'an be wrong? What would my family say if I believed it? Why would God allow a righteous prophet to die in such shame?
No algorithm can address such questions the way they deserve because the question isn’t the primary focus. The person asking it is. Paul instructs us to prepare ourselves to answer “each person” (Col. 4: 6 ). And Peter teaches us to give “a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15). AI can answer a question, but because it’s not a person, it can’t answer people. And because it’s a machine, it doesn’t have hope, let alone a reason for having hope.
When I was a Muslim investigating the claims of Christ, evidence and arguments mattered enormously to me. But they came to me through people—Christian friends who treated me with dignity, even while I argued hard against them and understood how the price I’d pay kept me from embracing the gospel.
ChatGPT can’t sit across the table from Amira. It can’t pray for her. It can’t love her. Seventy-million questions a week tell us that people are still asking. So, when your Muslim neighbor finally wonders about the hope Jesus offers, be the one she asks.