Glen & Paula Davis

You’ve heard of TGIF? This is TGFI: Things Glen Found Interesting

On Fridays I share articles/resources about broad cultural, societal and theological issues likely to be of interest to Christians in college. Be sure to see the explanation and disclaimers at the bottom. I welcome your suggestions, so if you read something fascinating please pass it my way.

Things Glen Found Interesting

1. The best defense is a good offense (Sarah Salviander, Substack): "My own journey to Christianity began with examining the atheistic worldview I had inherited. I was raised atheist in secular Canada by lapsed Catholic parents. For the first twenty-six years of my life I simply assumed certain things that were important to me: the existence of individual rights, the sanctity of human life, and the importance of rule of law. When I finally tried to trace those beliefs back to their foundation, I experienced a crisis. I couldn’t reason my way from the most foundational thing I could think of—fundamental forces and particles in the first moments after the Big Bang—all the way to the present-day conviction that every human life has intrinsic value. There was no rational, natural progression from one to the other—it was as though some unexplained leap occurred somewhere in the middle, and suddenly human life, cobbled together from quarks and electrons and the forces of nature, possessed intrinsic value. When I turned to atheist intellectuals for answers, I was sorely disappointed. Their arguments offered little to no help. They usually asserted that rights just exist, or make some utilitarian argument, or effectively stated that harming someone unprovoked is always wrong just 'because.' I was shocked by how meager the philosophical underpinnings of my values were."
2. Harvard Is Selling a $699 Course Taught by A.I. Clones of Its Faculty (Sarah Kessler, New York Times): "The school aims to use Foundry to scale the school’s offerings far beyond the 900 or so M.B.A. students it admits each year. In that way, it is something of a case study for companies facing a similar problem: Consulting firms like PWC, law firms and, at least in one case, a church, are also experimenting with how A.I. can expand their services far beyond their human bandwidth. So are some movie directors — an A.I. version of the actor Val Kilmer, who passed away in 2025, recently appeared in the historical drama 'As Deep as the Grave.'"
3. Campus Keepers of the Faith (Mary Eberstadt, National Review): "In sum, the decline of Christian faith in the West, well-documented since the 1960s and beyond, must be weighed today, perhaps unexpectedly and if only in America, against several countervailing factors: the proliferation of homeschooling and classical institutions that protect and encourage religious practice; rising awareness that the ills plaguing this country aren’t helped by rejection of the Christian rule book; the round of recent converts, social leaders and quiet believers alike; and other evidence suggesting that the secularist desert of the past couple of decades has proved a durable training ground for renewed resolution. All of which summons another pertinent fact about the First Great Awakening. Back then, Jonathan Edwards and John Wesley and their fellows put Evangelicalism ahead of denomination, offering a new kind of unity to the divided Protestants who chose it. Today, a different kind of Christian unity appears to be afoot: one that bridges not only denominations of Protestants but Protestants and Catholics."
   • I do see a tighter alliance between Catholics and evangelicals than I used to. I think there are a lot of reasons for that. First, many American Catholics are functionally Protestant. Second, we often find that we are saying the same things in response to whatever the latest campus trend in sexual absurdity is. Third, most Christians just don't know that much theology (Protestant and Catholic alike) and so fail to appreciate the magnitude of the differences between us. So I'm pleased to cooperate with Catholics on a whole host of issues, but I urge all Protestants to remember that we're right and they're wrong on - and I do not think I am exaggerating when I say this - every single theological point of disputation.
4. A Drone Killed Three Ukrainians. It Was Guided Entirely by A.I. (Andrew Kramer, New York Times): "The drone was programmed by human operators to travel toward a particular gas station, but once it got close, it chose its exact target — most likely propane tanks — on its own, based on its training to recognize such tanks and strike them, the experts and military officials said. It is a development long watched for in the war in Ukraine, presaging a dystopian future in which killer robots roam the skies making life-or-death decisions that reduce targets to data points."
5. This Is the Only Durable Way to Stop Students From Cheating (Adam Grant, New York Times): "A.I. hasn’t just made cheating harder to catch. It’s made cheating so effortless, enticing and available that many students no longer believe it’s wrong. One Ivy League student in my survey wrote, 'Cheating is a creative expression and a form of problem solving. If you can get around the restrictions put in place and not get caught, then good on you.' Really? How would you feel if you found out your surgeon cheated to get into medical school — or cheated in medical school? ....The heart of integrity is recognizing that the ends don’t justify the means. What we achieve may define our success. How we achieve it determines our character."
   • The author is a psychologist at Penn. His solution is lacking, btw. For those readers who call Christ Lord, a simpler and more powerful rationale is that cheating displeases God, so don't.
6. No Easy Fix for Bogus Respondents in Online Opt-In Polls (Andrew Mercer, Pew Research Center): "Later in the survey, we asked respondents if they had ever visited the International Space Station; 10% said they had. Finally, we asked if they had ever served on a Polar-class icebreaker ship, only two of which were ever built and only one of which remains in active use by the U.S. Coast Guard; 8% answered in the affirmative. A total of 1,963 cases (18%) answered 'Yes' to one or more of these trap questions and were flagged as bogus."
   • The trap questions aren't the point of the article, but they made me very happy. There are several more trap questions and that section, at least, is worth your while.
7. They Spent Our Trust. Now the Bill Is Due. (Erick Erickson, Substack): "Delta’s CEO has said his company will use AI to maximize its prices and boost profitability by charging different customers different rates, though Delta later clarified it was charging based on route demand, not based on individual consumer profiles. Do you believe that? ...People oppose data centers because they do not trust artificial intelligence. They also do not trust the people who manage it. And, given the claims made by AI’s advocates, you can’t really blame them.... When you negotiate in secret with people who tell you they might enslave you or, at a minimum, take your job and that of your child, you have earned every bit of the suspicion you get."

Less Serious Things Which Also Interested/Amused Glen

• We Asked AI To Give Us The Unbiased Facts About AI Data Centers (Babylon Bee, YouTube): three and a half minutes
• Texas High School Proposes Adding Academics To Its Football Program - (Babylon Bee)

Why Do You Send This Email?

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.