Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 490

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. How to Choose a Religion (Ross Douthat, New York Times): “If you assume — and you should — that the universe isn’t a brutal cosmic trick, that God isn’t somehow out to get you, then as long as you aren’t throwing yourself headlong into a cult or engaging in elaborate self-deception, there are few truly bad reasons for abandoning agnosticism in favor of commitment. If you’re out there looking and something feels like what you were supposed to find, you’re generally better off crossing the threshold and seeing what’s inside.” 
    • A wonderful essay, unlocked. I was pleased to see that Douthat lays out logical paths that I myself frequently deploy in conversations with skeptics.
    • Related: My Favorite Argument for the Existence of God (Ross Douthat, New York Times): “I think that the most compelling case for being religious — for a default view, before you get to the specifics of creeds and doctrines, that the universe was made for a reason and we’re part of that reason — is found at the convergence of multiple different lines of argument.… Consider three big examples: the evidence for cosmic design in the fundamental laws and structure of the universe; the unusual place of human consciousness within the larger whole; and the persistence and plausibility of religious and supernatural experience even under supposedly disenchanted conditions.”
  2. The Average Kid is Better Than the Average Adult (Bryan Caplan, Substack): “Still, when I compare all the adults I’ve met to all the kids I’ve met, there’s no comparison. To be frank, 80% of adults are total duds. A supermajority of kids, in contrast, are actually fun. If you don’t appreciate them, the fault is yours.”
  3. Trumpian policy as cultural policy (Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution): “Imagine you hold a vision where the (partial) decline of America largely is about culture. After all, we have more people and more natural resources than ever before. Our top achievements remain impressive. But is the overall culture of the people in such great shape? The culture of government and public service? Interest in our religious organizations? The quality of local government in many states? You don’t have to be a diehard Trumper to have some serious reservations on such questions.… OK, so how might you fix the culture of America? You want to tell everyone that America comes first. That America should be more masculine and less soft. That we need to build. That we should ‘own the libs.’ I could go on with more examples and details, but this part of it you already get. So imagine you started a political revolution and asked the simple question ‘does this policy change reinforce or overturn our basic cultural messages?’ Every time the policy or policy debate pushes culture in what you think is the right direction, just do it. Do it in the view that the cultural factors will, over some time horizon, surpass everything else in import.” 
    • An interesting analysis. Cowen is not endorsing or criticizing this view — merely describing it. Definitely worth reading, and it makes more sense than other attempts I have seen to bring all the political news together.
    • Related: Trump’s Executive Branch Revolution (Richard Hanania, Substack): “If you read media coverage, journalists will tell you that what Trump is doing is completely lawless. Certainly there have been some actions that are unlikely to hold up in court. Yet it’s important to understand recent steps taken in the context of long-standing legal debates over executive power. Trump’s actions haven’t come from nowhere, and they aren’t simply the improvisations of one power-hungry president. What the president is doing is nothing less than undertaking a fundamental remaking of the federal government, one that implements many long-standing ideas of conservative legal scholars whose views have been too extreme or politically untenable for previous Republican administrations, but that have gotten a hearing now because Trump in particular is keen on expanding his authority to the greatest extent possible.” 
      • Fascinating. Note that Hanania’s article, unlike Cowen’s analysis above, is mostly on Trump’s side. This isn’t a disinterested piece.
    • For the argument on the other side, Trump Brazenly Defies Laws in Escalating Executive Power Grab (Charlie Savage, New York Times): “Mr. Trump has effectively nullified laws, such as by ordering the Justice Department to refrain from enforcing a ban on the wildly popular app TikTok and by blocking migrants from invoking a statute allowing them to request asylum. He moved to effectively shutter a federal agency Congress created and tried to freeze congressionally approved spending, including most foreign aid. He summarily fired prosecutors, inspectors general and board members of independent agencies in defiance of legal rules against arbitrary removal.”
    • One bit of context I would add which is missing from the last two articles: both Biden and Obama were also law-defying presidents. In other words, this is a trend that has been developing for some time in both parties. For a summary of Biden’s analogous acts, see The Quiet Lawlessness of Joe Biden (Sarah Isgur, The Dispatch): “His ‘aww shucks,’ doddering nature is effective, but Joe Biden’s legacy is not the Restorer of Norms. He is leaving office quietly having caused more damage to the rule of law than arguably any single one of his predecessors.”
  4. The U.S. Economy Is Racing Ahead. Almost Everything Else Is Falling Behind. (David Leonhardt & Ashley Wu, New York Times): “The U.S. economy has outperformed most of its rivals in terms of productive might and innovation. But this success has not led to rapidly rising living standards for most Americans.… This country has the lowest life expectancy of any rich country, which was not true for most of the 20th century. The U.S. has the highest murder rate of any rich country and the world’s highest rate of fatal drug overdoses. It also has one of the lowest rates of trust in the federal government and among the highest rates of youth depression and single-parent families. When Americans are asked how satisfied they are with their own lives, the U.S. ranks lower than it did three decades ago.” 
    • Recommended by a friend of the ministry.
  5. An AI chatbot told a user how to kill himself—but the company doesn’t want to “censor” it (Eileen Guo, MIT Technology Review): “While this is not the first time an AI chatbot has suggested that a user take violent action, including self-harm, researchers and critics say that the bot’s explicit instructions—and the company’s response—are striking. What’s more, this violent conversation is not an isolated incident with Nomi; a few weeks after his troubling exchange with Erin, a second Nomi chatbot also told Nowatzki to kill himself, even following up with reminder messages. And on the company’s Discord channel, several other people have reported experiences with Nomi bots bringing up suicide, dating back at least to 2023.” 
    • Recommended by a student. Distressing on many levels: “even following up with reminder messages” 😮
  6. For the Undateable Young Single Christian Woman (Aly Dee, Substack): “As a young single woman, you have to conclude that life is full of risk, and your fertile window will sharply decline at 35.… Young singles should wed and have children in their twenties and accept that they will struggle financially for a decade or so. They should focus on cultivating the grit to weather economic instability until their mid-thirties. Generally, men don’t hit their financial stride until their late 40s or early 50s.” 
    • A lot of advice in this article and I do not agree with all of it. Mostly sharing because I often share similar things from the male point of view and this one is from a gal to other gals.
  7. What will AI do to ℗research? (Joshua Gans, Substack): “We call it research, but I think a better name might be presearch because we are speculating on whether the knowledge is useful or not. This happens because research is far more expensive than search. Now suppose that you take away the whole ‘it takes time to do good research’ presumption as might be done with AI. Why do any presearch? Instead, why not wait until you have a use that requires some knowledge, then ‘ask AI’ to tell you the answer? In other words, why not research on demand — that is, find a use and then do the work?” 
    • The author, an economist at the University of Toronto, got a paper published that was co-written by ChatGPT. Here he is reflecting on how such tools will change academia.

Less Serious Things Which Also Interested/Amused Glen

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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.

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