The Art That Breathes: Why Machines Can’t Inspire

When God breathes, the Earth—adamah—comes alive.

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In some languages, the words for breath, spirit, and soul are etymologically related. For example, in the Hebrew of Genesis 2:7, Neshamah (נשמה), translated as breathed, means breath, spirit, and soul at the same time.

In Russian, the words for breath, spirit, and soul all share the same root: дышать (to breathe), дух (spirit), and душа (soul). When you hear the word душа (soul), you can hear the echo of дышать (to breathe). The soul is the Divine breath within you.

When God breathes, the Earth—adamah—comes alive. It becomes a living soul. To be a soul is to have the breath of God coursing through you. A living soul is continually being breathed—inspired (from the Latin spiro, to breathe). That’s why, when we encounter something truly inspired, it breathes.

Whether it’s a piece of music, a building, a painting, a story, or a garden, when its author has been inspired, we feel Divine breath coursing through the works of their hands. The opposite is true too—when the creator is out of touch with Divine breath, their works don’t breathe either. They don’t inspire.

Any creative act that inspires, is breathing with the breath of God. It has a living soul. Whether we are gazing at the billowing waves of the Pacific, reading The Lord of the Rings, or receiving an unexpectedly kind service from a cashier, we feel touched by something alive.

True works of art have a soul because they breathe with the original breath of God. Human imitation doesn’t proceed from the Divine breath—it doesn’t have a soul. That’s why it is often easy to sense the difference between AI-generated “art” and human art.

It’s impossible to simulate the breath of God. That’s why AI-generated art is lifeless and soulless. It may be mathematically precise, but it doesn’t breathe. It’s a simulation. The Machine can’t breathe with the breath of its creator—that’s why it can’t inspire. It’s made on the earth and for the earth, so there’s no heaven in it.

That’s why Moses was commanded to build a tabernacle according to the pattern he saw on the Holy Mountain. The sanctuary was to be a copy and a shadow of the one in heaven.

“They [priests] serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” Hebrews 8:5

To create something soulful, we must first see it in heaven. All true creation is re-creation. Whether it’s building a house, cooking a meal, reading a book to a child, or driving a truck—if we catch the breath of God, whatever we do will be soulful. No Machine can come close. It can’t see anything in Heaven.

As I drive through the sun-scorched desert of Nevada, the dry, rolling hills on both sides of US 80 breathe like the waves of the Pacific. The have a soul. They are being breathed into. Only God’s neshamah can animate the earth—adamah—with the breath of Heaven.