KarensKael’s review of Discovering the Inner Christ : In the Footsteps of Saint Augustine > Likes and Comments
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I would also note that the reviewer's public profile shows an unusually large number of one-star ratings across many books. Readers can decide for themselves how much weight they wish to give any individual review.
Ultimately, the best judge of a book is the person who reads it.
Nobody is questioning whether the ideas are yours. Hell, I'll gladly grant that the ideas are yours.
Just like the prompt fed into the chatbot was yours. The credit card used to pay for the chatbot was yours. The decision to hit "generate" was yours.
A person can have brilliant ideas while taking a dump. The world is full of people with brilliant ideas. The reason we don't call them authors is that ideas are the starting line rather than the finish line.
The book wasn't being judged on the contents of your imagination, only on the prose you put in front of readers.
I mean, cool, props to you for at least being honest about using ChatGPT for images in your end credits, but let's be real - the same goes for the writing. I mean, "silence" appears 48 times in a 96 page book, literally once every other page, it's obvious this went through a machine.
Atilion wrote: "I would also note that the reviewer's public profile shows an unusually large number of one-star ratings across many books. Readers can decide for themselves how much weight they wish to give any i..."
You wanna know why there's so many one-stars? Some of it is indeed for AI slop, which gets an automatic 1 from me, but I also slam pedophile books with 1 stars too because I have zero tolerance for pedophiles and books that promote/glorify pedophilia.
If not for pedophiles and sloppers, my average rating would hover closer to a 4.
I understand your observation regarding the repeated use of words such as "silence."
However, this book was intentionally written within the contemplative tradition of Christian mysticism and was deeply inspired by Saint Augustine. Repetition of key themes and words is not unusual in that tradition. Augustine himself repeatedly returns to the same spiritual motifs throughout his writings: the heart, interiority, silence, God, light, grace, and the inner journey.
You are, of course, free to dislike that style. But repetition alone is not evidence of AI authorship; it is often a characteristic of contemplative and devotional writing.
I would simply encourage readers to become familiar with Augustine's own writings before concluding that contemplative repetition is evidence of machine-generated text.
At the same time, if we are going to discuss AI seriously, I believe we should avoid assumptions, labels, and AI-generated accusations by bots and ai generated texts from bots, and focus instead on the actual content of the book itself.
A camera does not take great photographs by itself. A photographer does.
A pen does not write a book by itself. A writer does.
Tools help create. They do not replace the person behind them.
Atilion wrote: "A camera does not take great photographs by itself. A photographer does.
A pen does not write a book by itself. A writer does.
Tools help create. They do not replace the person behind them."
... Sighs and facepalms.
Atilion wrote: "A camera does not take great photographs by itself. A photographer does.
A pen does not write a book by itself. A writer does.
Tools help create. They do not replace the person behind them."
A prompt typer does not write a book. A chatbot does.
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I would also note that the reviewer's public profile shows an unusually large number of one-star ratings across many books. Readers can decide for themselves how much weight they wish to give any individual review.Ultimately, the best judge of a book is the person who reads it.
Nobody is questioning whether the ideas are yours. Hell, I'll gladly grant that the ideas are yours.Just like the prompt fed into the chatbot was yours. The credit card used to pay for the chatbot was yours. The decision to hit "generate" was yours.
A person can have brilliant ideas while taking a dump. The world is full of people with brilliant ideas. The reason we don't call them authors is that ideas are the starting line rather than the finish line.
The book wasn't being judged on the contents of your imagination, only on the prose you put in front of readers.
I mean, cool, props to you for at least being honest about using ChatGPT for images in your end credits, but let's be real - the same goes for the writing. I mean, "silence" appears 48 times in a 96 page book, literally once every other page, it's obvious this went through a machine.
Atilion wrote: "I would also note that the reviewer's public profile shows an unusually large number of one-star ratings across many books. Readers can decide for themselves how much weight they wish to give any i..."You wanna know why there's so many one-stars? Some of it is indeed for AI slop, which gets an automatic 1 from me, but I also slam pedophile books with 1 stars too because I have zero tolerance for pedophiles and books that promote/glorify pedophilia.
If not for pedophiles and sloppers, my average rating would hover closer to a 4.
I understand your observation regarding the repeated use of words such as "silence."However, this book was intentionally written within the contemplative tradition of Christian mysticism and was deeply inspired by Saint Augustine. Repetition of key themes and words is not unusual in that tradition. Augustine himself repeatedly returns to the same spiritual motifs throughout his writings: the heart, interiority, silence, God, light, grace, and the inner journey.
You are, of course, free to dislike that style. But repetition alone is not evidence of AI authorship; it is often a characteristic of contemplative and devotional writing.
I would simply encourage readers to become familiar with Augustine's own writings before concluding that contemplative repetition is evidence of machine-generated text.
At the same time, if we are going to discuss AI seriously, I believe we should avoid assumptions, labels, and AI-generated accusations by bots and ai generated texts from bots, and focus instead on the actual content of the book itself.
A camera does not take great photographs by itself. A photographer does.A pen does not write a book by itself. A writer does.
Tools help create. They do not replace the person behind them.
Atilion wrote: "A camera does not take great photographs by itself. A photographer does.A pen does not write a book by itself. A writer does.
Tools help create. They do not replace the person behind them."
... Sighs and facepalms.
Atilion wrote: "A camera does not take great photographs by itself. A photographer does.A pen does not write a book by itself. A writer does.
Tools help create. They do not replace the person behind them."
A prompt typer does not write a book. A chatbot does.
I respect that the book was not for you. However, I would like to clarify that the reflections, interpretations, and spiritual insights presented in this book are my own. The ideas come from years of study, contemplation, and personal experience.
Readers are, of course, free to judge the writing for themselves. But I would not want anyone to assume that the thoughts expressed in the book were generated independently of the author, because they were not.
I appreciate you taking the time to share your perspective.