https://brahmakumaris.uk/event/?id=7202811
Notes
- AI as source of mental health advice to young people
- accessibility is the biggest benefit
- purpose built AI HITL - AI enabled service delivery “hybrid” approach
- safeguard built in
- engaged with specialists GPs and so on
- Social media ban - good or bad?
- mindfulness and story of Esther Grey
- Ban only successful if a good alternate is provided?
- to foster friendships and community and remain accessible (walk bike instead of car trips) and Fun!
- need to meet basic dopamine needs to have a chance against simulation provided by digital technologies
- politician in room spoke up!
- How can Faiths and Humanisn pool efforts together to deal with Politics and Policy for better AI and Social Media that meets UK needs?
- EU wide initiative to counter balance the US
- research Ethical AI as a non functional requirement for future products and services
- Jeff @ Watford Interfaith https://www.wifa.org.uk/
Framing the conversation for the event
I couldn’t reliably open the exact event page — it timed out — but I can help you prepare a thoughtful contribution around faith, humanism, younger and older generations, and digital technology. Brahma Kumaris UK describes itself as a diverse spiritual community focused on Raja Yoga meditation, personal transformation, peace, and working with people from many backgrounds and life experiences. (brahmakumaris.uk)
A useful way to frame your theme could be:
How can faith-based, humanist, and secular perspectives work together across generations to help us use digital technology with wisdom, compassion, and responsibility?
1. Opening reflection
You might begin by saying something like:
“We live in a time when technology connects us faster than ever, yet many people feel lonely, anxious, distracted, or divided. Faith traditions often ask: who am I, what is my purpose, and how should I live? Humanism asks similar ethical questions from a non-religious standpoint: how can human beings create meaning, act responsibly, and care for one another? Perhaps the real question is not whether technology is good or bad, but whether our consciousness, values, and relationships are strong enough to guide it.”
Humanism, in the UK context, is often described as a non-religious worldview centred on human welfare, reason, compassion, dignity, and responsibility for shaping one’s life and society. (humanists.uk)
2. Open questions on faith
You could invite discussion with questions such as:
- What does “faith” mean today — belief in God, trust in life, trust in humanity, or trust in inner values?
- Can faith help people stay calm and morally grounded in a fast-changing digital world?
- How do different faith traditions understand the relationship between inner silence and outer action?
- Does digital life strengthen faith communities by connecting people, or weaken them by reducing depth, attention, and presence?
- Can online spiritual content replace in-person community, or is physical presence essential?
A related point: research from Pew in the US found that online religious services and religious apps have become part of religious life for many people, but in-person worship remains more preferred overall. That suggests digital tools can support spiritual life, but may not fully replace embodied community. (pewresearch.org)
3. Open questions on humanism
To include humanist voices respectfully, you could ask:
- If someone does not believe in God, where do they find meaning, moral strength, and hope?
- What values do faith and humanism share — compassion, dignity, service, truth, peace, responsibility?
- Can a faith-based person and a humanist disagree about metaphysics but still cooperate ethically?
- Is the future asking us to move beyond labels — religious, secular, spiritual — and focus more on character and care?
- How do we build a society where both faith and non-faith perspectives are treated with dignity?
A good bridge sentence:
“Faith may speak of the soul, God, and spiritual purpose; humanism may speak of human dignity, reason, and shared responsibility. But both can ask: how do we become better human beings?”
4. Young and old: intergenerational questions
This could be the richest part of the discussion.
Questions for younger people
- Do young people experience technology as freedom, pressure, or both?
- Are digital platforms helping young people explore identity and spirituality, or creating comparison, anxiety, and distraction?
- Do younger people trust traditional religious institutions, or do they prefer personalised forms of spirituality and ethics?
- How do young people distinguish wisdom from information?
- Can social media activism become a form of moral or spiritual service?
Questions for older people
- What wisdom can older generations offer about patience, silence, discipline, and community?
- Do older people see digital technology mainly as a threat, or also as a bridge to younger generations?
- How can elders avoid dismissing young people’s digital lives, and instead listen with curiosity?
- What traditional values are worth preserving in a technological age?
- How can older people remain digitally included without feeling overwhelmed?
Questions for both generations
- What can young people teach older people about openness, creativity, and digital connection?
- What can older people teach young people about attention, resilience, and long-term perspective?
- Can intergenerational dialogue itself become a form of spiritual practice?
- How do we move from “young versus old” to “young and old learning together”?
5. Digital technology as an opportunity
You could explore the positive side first.
Digital technologies can:
- Connect isolated people to communities, meditation, prayer, learning, counselling, or ethical dialogue.
- Give young people access to wisdom traditions they may not encounter locally.
- Help faith and humanist groups collaborate on climate action, peace, mental health, education, and social justice.
- Amplify marginalised voices and create spaces for people who feel excluded from traditional institutions.
- Support reflection and wellbeing through meditation apps, online talks, podcasts, and digital learning.
- Enable interfaith and belief dialogue across countries and cultures.
Ofcom’s 2025 Online Nation work describes how UK adults and children experience life online, including the growing role of AI in search and everyday digital behaviour. (ofcom.org.uk)
A discussion question here:
“Can technology become a tool for compassion, learning, and service — if it is guided by inner values?”
6. Digital technology as a challenge
Then move to the risks.
Digital technologies can also:
- Shorten attention spans, making silence, prayer, meditation, and deep reading harder.
- Increase comparison and anxiety, especially among young people.
- Spread misinformation, polarisation, and distrust.
- Turn identity into performance, where people feel pressured to display virtue, faith, beauty, success, or happiness.
- Replace relationship with reaction, encouraging outrage rather than understanding.
- Deepen generational divides, where young people feel judged and older people feel left behind.
- Commercialise spirituality, turning wisdom into content, branding, or influence.
Ofcom has highlighted misinformation as a major online harm and notes that AI is changing how people search for and encounter information online. (ofcom.org.uk) The UK’s online safety framework also reflects growing concern about children encountering harmful content online. (ofcom.org.uk)
A strong open question:
“If technology is designed to capture attention, how do we protect the inner freedom to think, feel, pray, meditate, and choose wisely?”
7. AI, consciousness, and moral responsibility
Given current interest in AI, you might ask:
- Can AI provide information about faith and ethics, but not wisdom itself?
- What is the difference between intelligence and consciousness?
- Can a machine simulate compassion without experiencing compassion?
- Who is responsible when algorithms shape what people believe, fear, or desire?
- How do we ensure that AI serves human dignity rather than reducing people to data?
- Do faith and humanist traditions need to work together to create ethical frameworks for AI?
A useful line:
“AI may be able to process knowledge, but wisdom requires conscience, humility, empathy, and self-awareness.”
8. Possible dialogue structure for the event
You could propose a simple flow:
| Theme | Open question |
|---|---|
| Identity | Who am I beyond my online profile? |
| Faith | How does faith help us live wisely in a digital age? |
| Humanism | How do non-religious people build meaning, ethics, and hope? |
| Generations | What do young and old need to learn from each other? |
| Technology | When does technology connect us, and when does it disconnect us? |
| AI | Can artificial intelligence help human wisdom, or weaken it? |
| Action | What one digital habit could make us more peaceful and compassionate? |
9. Questions you could ask the panel or group
Here are some polished questions you can take with you:
-
How can faith and humanism have a respectful conversation when they may disagree about God but agree on human dignity?
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What are young people searching for today — belief, belonging, mental peace, justice, identity, or purpose?
-
Do older generations sometimes underestimate the moral and spiritual pressures young people face online?
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Can digital technology help create spiritual community, or does true transformation require face-to-face presence and silence?
-
How do we teach young people not only digital skills, but digital wisdom?
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What would a compassionate internet look like?
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How can meditation, reflection, or ethical self-awareness help us use technology rather than be used by it?
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Is the real challenge artificial intelligence — or the quality of human consciousness guiding it?
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Can faith communities and humanist groups work together on shared concerns such as loneliness, misinformation, climate anxiety, and youth wellbeing?
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What daily practice can help people of all ages remain centred in a world of constant notifications?
10. Possible closing thought
You could end with:
“Perhaps the question is not whether the future will be religious, humanist, spiritual, or technological. Perhaps the deeper question is whether the future will be humane. Faith can remind us of the sacred, humanism can remind us of dignity and responsibility, and technology can either serve or distort both. The choice depends on the quality of our awareness, our relationships, and our values.”