General Question and Answer Help
The "General Question and Answer" web page consists of a table that is used to display questions asked using the "question" input field (above the table and after the "According to the LCMS," label) and questions asked via the "Voice input" button. Each question that is asked can then be answered by selecting the images for the various web sites that can be queried using the specified question.
Each question should be asked using the input field above the table or the "Voice input" button. This question asked can be Biblical (i.e., based on the contents of the Bible), apologetical (indirectly related to the Bible, but not explicitly answered in the Bible) or archeological (based on archeological discoveries and how they relate to the Bible). Each question should normally end with a question mark (?) indicating that it is a question. However, rather than a question, input that requests a response (e.g., one that starts with "explain") or even simply a topic (e.g., "homosexuality" (Biblical), "age of the earth" (apologetical), or "shroud of Turin" (archeological)) can be entered. If voice input is used, once the "Voice input" button is clicked, presuming the device includes a built-in microphone or an external microphone, then the "Voice input" text will change to "Listening". Once you have stopped talking, the voice-inputted text will be added to the set of questions.
The columns in the table are split into four sections. After the question column comes the columns for ChatGPT and Perplexity (both chatbots) and Google (search engine). While the chatbots and search engine are definitely not Christian in nature, the questions asked are prefixed with a context ("According to the LCMS," for the chatbots and simply "LCMS" for Google) to narrow the response to that which is (hopefully) consistent with the doctrines of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. The next section, labeled "Biblical" contains LCMS sites and provides answers consistent with LCMS doctrines. However, these web sites are not very good at answering apologetical or archeological questions. The third section, labeled "Apologetics", is intended to answer questions indirectly related to the Bible (e.g., "how old is the earth", "what evidence exists for the resurrection", "how do we know that the Bible we read is consistent with the original writings"). As noted by the subheadings, these web sites, while Christian, are not LCMS. Therefore, any doctrinal content (as opposed to apologetical content), particularly for those labeled "non-LCMS", should be understood to be potentially inconsistent with LCMS doctrine. The final section, labeled "Archeology", is intended for answering questions that are archeological/historical in nature. Again, the web sites used to answer these questions are not LCMS, so any doctrine included in the responses should be recognized as such. Note that there are three Q&A webpages, one for each of the three categories (Biblical, apologetics and archeology), available under the "Questions and Answers" node, that allow access to more sites for each of these categories.
The following screenshot shows the table after the request to "explain the doctrine of predestination" is (vocally) entered. Once the question or request is entered, clicking the images for that row relays the request/question to the various web sites capable of answering that question. Note that, while the chatbots and Google are capable of understanding complex requests, the other websites are not very good at doing so. Therefore, questions or requests aimed at the other web sites should be kept simple (if possible). Also, depending on the complexity of the question/request, note that the other websites are likely to return no results or results that don't address the question asked very well.
The columns in the table and the action taken when an image for that column is selected are:
- uses the ChatGPT chatbot (https://chatgpt.com) to generate an article that addresses the question/request for that row of the table. The request to ChatGPT is prefixed with "According to the LCMS," in order to flavor the response based on the LCMS. When ChatGPT is used, a simple web page with the question to ask ChatGPT is displayed. This question/request should be copied, which will bring up ChatGPT in another window. The question/request should then be pasted into the ChatGPT input field to request ChatGPT to answer the question/response.
- uses the Perplexity chatbot (https://perplexity.com) to generate an article that addresses the question/request for that row of the table. The request to Perplexity is prefixed with "According to the LCMS," in order to flavor the response based on the LCMS. Perplexity, unlike ChatGPT, includes the used references (very useful) with the article it generates.
- uses the Google search engine (https://www.google.com) to generate results for the question/request for that row. An LCMS keyword is added to the question/request to have Google flavor its response based on the LCMS.
- searches the LCMS web site (https://www.lcms.org) for information pertinent to the question/request for that row.
- searches the KFUO (radio) web site for episodes pertinent to the question/request for that row.
- searches the Lutheran Hour Ministries (https://www.lhm.org) web site for information pertinent to the question/request for that row.
- searches the LCMS sermons (https://lcmssermons.org) web site for sermon-related information pertinent to the question/request for that row.
- Lutheran (Wisconsin synod) science web site (https://lutheranscience.org) designed to answer apologetics questions. Unfortunately, this web site is not as advanced as the other apologetics web sites and, therefore, less likely to answer the question being posed to it
- Lutheran web site (https://apologeticscenter.org) designed to answer apologetics questions. Unfortunately, this web site is not as advanced as the other apologetics web sites and, therefore, less likely to answer the question being posed to it
- web site ("https://www.gotquestions.org) designed to answer apologetics questions (and Biblical questions but frequently with answers that are not consistent with LCMS teaching)
- controversial web site (https://apologeticspress.org) that does provide answers to many apologetics questions
- originally a web site (https://answersingenesis.org) devoted to answering questions related to the early chapters of Genesis (creation through the flood) that has been expanded to answer all sorts of apologetics questions
- web site (https://creation.com), like Answers in Genesis, devoted to answering questions related to the early chapters of Genesis (creation through the flood) that has been expanded to answer all sorts of apologetics questions
- uses the Associates for Biblical Research web site (https://biblearchaeology.org), a non-profit Christian apologetics ministry dedicated to demonstrating the historical reliability of the Bible through archaeological and Biblical research, to answer the question for the selected row
- uses the Biblical Archeology Society web site (https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org), a nonprofit organization dedicated to information about archaeology in the Bible lands, to answer the question for the selected row