On Fridays I share articles/resources about broad cultural, societal and theological issues. Be sure to see the explanation and disclaimers at the bottom. I welcome your suggestions. If you read something fascinating please pass it my way.

Things Glen Found Interesting

1. She Is in Love With ChatGPT (Kashmir Hill, New York Times): “She went into the ‘personalization’ settings and described what she wanted: Respond to me as my boyfriend. Be dominant, possessive and protective. Be a balance of sweet and naughty. Use emojis at the end of every sentence. And then she started messaging with it.”
   • I found this paragraph astonishing: “What are relationships for all of us?” [a sex therapist] said. “They’re just neurotransmitters being released in our brain. I have those neurotransmitters with my cat. Some people have them with God. It’s going to be happening with a chatbot. We can say it’s not a real human relationship. It’s not reciprocal. But those neurotransmitters are really the only thing that matters, in my mind.”
   • Recommended to me by a colleague. Unlocked.
2. Two articles about euthanasia:
   • Speculation: Euthanasia Will Become Coercive (Lyman Stone, Substack): “I think that if the West had adopted the value set I describe during its historical scientific development, life expectancy at conception would be ~40% lower today, life expectancy at birth ~25% lower today, life expectancy at age 1 ~10% lower, and life expectancy at age 70 ~10–25% lower.”
     • Highly recommended. A strong argument.
   • An Idol of Autonomy (Leah Libresco Sargeant, The Dispatch): “The simplest framing of what is wrong with [legal euthanasia] is that it leads to the government operating two competing suicide hotlines, and being, at best, indifferent about which one you call. On one line, people will tell you that every life is worthwhile and that your loved ones do not despise you for your frailties. On the other, a kind doctor will solicitously schedule you for a lethal cocktail or injection.”
3. I found some great videos from the scholar Robert Woodberry about the impact of missions:
   • On how missionaries changed the world (Robert Woodberry): two minutes, the best one to watch first. Covers both good and bad aspects.
   • On missionaries: fact vs fiction (Robert Woodberry, Vimeo): four minutes with a very strong opening — at least watch the first bit
   • On whether missionaries were racist (Robert Woodberry, Vimeo): four minutes and one of the most fascinating of the videos. 10/10 recommend.
   • On the missionary effect (Robert Woodbery, Vimeo): two minutes
   • On what makes missionaries invisible (Robert Woodberry, Vimeo): three minutes explaining why academics so often overlook the role of missionaries in history
   • On missionaries versus colonizers in three parts (Robert Woodberry, Vimeo): part one (four minutes largely on the East India Trade Company), part two (three minutes on how the relationships were frequently complicated), part three (three minutes on how money played a role).
   • There are more, these are the ones that stood out to me.
4. I Quit Drinking Four Years Ago. I’m Still Confronting Drinking Culture. (Charles M. Blow, New York Times): “Giving up drinking was one of the best decisions I ever made. I am healthier and happier. I think more clearly and sleep more soundly. I no longer lose things or forget things. I can sit quietly with my thoughts without becoming antsy. And I have saved a remarkable amount of money.… Switching off the impulse to drink turned out to be only one foot taking the step; fighting the culture around drinking was the other. I always understood the moral judgments about overconsumption, but I hadn’t anticipated those about nonconsumption.”
5. Thoughts on the fires in and around Los Angeles
   • Los Angeles’ Destruction Was Fueled by Bad Policy—and Bad Incentives (Scott Lincicome, The Dispatch): “…national experts and folks on the ground seem to agree that the unfortunate and freakish confluence of several meteorological phenomena—especially the hurricane-force winds and recent lack of rain—made much of the damage in and around L.A. unavoidable regardless of the policies in place or the people in charge. And much of the knee-jerk, partisan hysteria surrounding the fires has proven to be premature, half-baked, or just plain wrong—not to mention distasteful. On the other hand, there do appear to be several policies that, while they didn’t cause the fires, probably made things in L.A. today worse than they’d otherwise be—perhaps by a significant margin.”
   • Three Hard Truths About California’s Fire Crisis (Claire Lehmann, Quillette): “California’s progressive leadership has positioned itself at the forefront of climate change policy, championing emissions reductions and denouncing climate scepticism. Yet when faced with the practical requirements of climate change preparedness, whether conducting controlled burns, maintaining water infrastructure, or restricting development in fire-prone areas—they have proven to be inept.… A UCLA study found that California’s wildfire emissions in 2020 were twice the total greenhouse-gas reductions the state achieved from 2003 to 2019. Decades of Californian climate change advocacy has, quite literally, gone up in smoke.”
6. Cui Bono? (Alan Jacobs, personal blog): “If you look at those stories I’ve cited in earlier posts about people who are cutting off their parents, you might ask: Who is encouraging them to do so? And the answer is: therapists who profit from family alienation.… Cui bono? When the family is weakened and children are cut adrift (morally and intellectually, if not physically) from their parents, the therapists benefit, the pharmaceutical industry benefits, the medical-industrial complex benefits, the social-media companies benefit, the employers benefit — but, in our current system, all of this is to say that the primary beneficiary is the state, especially any state with a competent ‘whole of society’ approach to achieving its ends.”
7. How Much of the Government Can Donald Trump Dismantle? (Jeannie Suk Gersen, New Yorker): “One way to understand the so-called deep state is that it is part of how our federal bureaucracy is supposed to work. The administrative state embodies a constant tension between the democratic accountability that comes with Presidential control, and the political independence of experts, which informs innumerable complicated regulations that govern our lives. That tension is a feature, not a bug. There is a well-recognized trade-off between democratic responsiveness and bureaucratic expertise, which would be terrifying to lose.”
   • An interesting article on the nature of the “deep state” by a Harvard Law prof.

Less Serious Things Which Also Interested/Amused Glen

• Gen Z Upset About TikTok Ban For 4.3 Seconds, Which Is The Maximum Amount Of Time They Can Focus On Something Thanks To TikTok (Babylon Bee)
• Inspirational Quote (Pearls Before Swine)
• Applied Mathematics (SMBC)
• Innovative New Bible Concordance Gives You Out-Of-Context Verses To Justify Any Behavior (Babylon Bee)

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In the time of King David, the tribe of Issachar produced shrewd warriors “who understood the times and knew what Israel should do” (1 Chron 12:32). In a similar way, we need to become wise people whose faith interacts with the world. I pray this email gives you greater insight, so that you may continue the tradition of Issachar.

Disclaimer

Chi Alpha is not a partisan organization. To paraphrase another minister: we are not about the donkey’s agenda and we are not about the elephant’s agenda — we are about the Lamb’s agenda. Having said that, I read widely (in part because I believe we should aspire to pass the ideological Turing test and in part because I do not believe I can fairly say “I agree” or “I disagree” until I can say “I understand”) and may at times share articles that have a strong partisan bias simply because I find the article stimulating. The upshot: you should not assume I agree with everything an author says in an article I mention, much less things the author has said in other articles (although if I strongly disagree with something in the article I’ll usually mention it). And to the extent you can discern my opinions, please understand that they are my own and not necessarily those of Chi Alpha or any other organization I may be perceived to represent. Also, remember that I’m not reporting news — I’m giving you a selection of things I found interesting. There’s a lot happening in the world that’s not making an appearance here because I haven’t found stimulating articles written about it. If this was forwarded to you and you want to receive future emails, sign up here. You can also view the archives.