{"id":6743,"date":"2021-10-29T13:18:22","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T21:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=6743"},"modified":"2021-10-29T13:18:22","modified_gmt":"2021-10-29T21:18:22","slug":"things-glen-found-interesting-volume-324","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2021\/10\/29\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-324","title":{"rendered":"Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 324"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-4396\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?resize=300%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?resize=768%2C768&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?resize=1024%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?resize=1200%2C1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?w=2048&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/issachar-update-logo-wordswag.png?w=1680&amp;ssl=1 1680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\"><\/a>     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&nbsp;way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is volume 324, which is 18<sup>2<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Things Glen Found Interesting<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"simple-list wp-block-list\"><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/ct\/2021\/november\/church-empty-pews-are-american-public-health-crisis.html\">Empty Pews Are an American Public Health Crisis<\/a> (Tyler J. VanderWeele and Brendan Case, Christianity Today): \u201cReligious participation strongly promotes health and wellness. This means that Americans\u2019 growing disaffection with organized religion isn\u2019t just bad news for churches; it also represents a public health crisis, one that has been largely ignored but the effects of which are likely to increase in coming years.\u201d<ul><li> The authors are part of the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard. I have quoted Tyler VanderWeele\u2019s research several times in the&nbsp;past.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>Some perspectives on the American church:<ul><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/frenchpress.thedispatch.com\/p\/jd-vance-and-the-great-challenge?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxMzIyMjQyLCJwb3N0X2lkIjo0MzAxNjM2MywiXyI6InphbFI4IiwiaWF0IjoxNjM1MTY2NzE5LCJleHAiOjE2MzUxNzAzMTksImlzcyI6InB1Yi0yMTc2NSIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.cPd3EeIkjKrSUcCB3iNGmdjwMJHJyFaKa6xVQ_HXclM\">J.D. Vance and the Great Challenge of Christian Malice<\/a> (David French, The Dispatch): \u201cThe real crisis [in American Christian political engagement] is instead a crisis of the heart. Our orthodoxy is undermined by our actions, and our actions spring forth from the deepest parts of our being. At a time of rising antipathy, a Christian political community should blaze forth with a radiant countercultural embrace of kindness and grace. Instead, all too many of us have forgotten a fundamental truth. There are no \u2018right people\u2019 to&nbsp;hate.\u201d<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/26\/opinion\/evangelical-republican.html\">Why \u2018Evangelical\u2019 Is Becoming Another Word for \u2018Republican\u2019<\/a> (Ryan Burge, New York Times): \u201cFor instance, in 2008, just 16 percent of all self-identified evangelicals reported their church attendance as never or seldom. But in 2020, that number jumped to 27 percent. In 2008, about a third of evangelicals who never attended church said they were politically conservative. By 2019, that had risen to about 50 percent.\u2026 [also] more people are embracing the label who have no attachment to Protestant Christianity. For example, the share of Catholics who also identified as evangelicals (or born again) rose to 15 percent in 2018 from 9 percent in 2008. That same pattern appears with Muslims. In fact, there\u2019s evidence that the share of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Orthodox Christianity and Hinduism who identify as evangelical is larger today than it was just a decade ago.\u201d<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2021\/10\/evangelical-trump-christians-politics\/620469\/\">The Evangelical Church Is Breaking Apart<\/a> (Peter Wehner, The Atlantic): \u201cScott Dudley, the senior pastor at Bellevue Presbyterian Church in Bellevue, Washington, refers to this as \u2018our idolatry of politics.\u2019 He\u2019s heard of many congregants leaving their church because it didn\u2019t match their politics, he told me, but has never once heard of someone changing their politics because it didn\u2019t match their church\u2019s teaching. He often tells his congregation that if the Bible doesn\u2019t challenge your politics at least occasionally, you\u2019re not really paying attention to the Hebrew scriptures or the New Testament.\u201d<\/li><\/ul><ul><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crossway.org\/articles\/church-membership-is-not-a-one-way-street\/?utm_source=Crossway+Marketing&amp;utm_campaign=324bc539ab-20211025+-+General+-+Membership+One-Way+Street&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_0275bcaa4b-324bc539ab-292773917\">Church Membership Is Not a One-Way Street<\/a> (Alex Duke, Crossway): \u201cThink of your church as a lightbulb hooked up to a dimmer switch in a dark room. Everything we do makes our witness brighter or darker. Practicing meaningful membership is one of the surest ways to turn that dimmer switch up; ignoring it is one of the surest ways to turn it down. Meaningful membership is more important than you&nbsp;think.\u201d<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/samueldjames.substack.com\/p\/the-problem-with-dave-chappelle?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxMzIyMjQyLCJwb3N0X2lkIjo0MzEwOTgzMywiXyI6IkZZWndCIiwiaWF0IjoxNjM1MjY1NDY2LCJleHAiOjE2MzUyNjkwNjYsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0yMTE3MyIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.KCAdTWbIEygdtJm5G-J13Q_Ln6NAfR1Qp_Iq2X_R-Bw\">The Problem With Dave Chappelle<\/a> (Samuel D. James, Substack): \u201cChappelle is not a hapless victim of a crushing ideological agenda; he\u2019s not Barronelle Stutzman or James Eich. Chappelle is, like many before and many after him, a Robespierre of the very revolution that\u2019s after him now. His fortune was made inside the same progressive sensibility that threatens him, and it is precisely Chappelle\u2019s (and many other comedians) skill with which he dismissed any notion of the sacred that has taken root in the people who are walking out on his un-PC act.\u201d Really solid insights here.<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theweek.com\/life\/parenting\/1005725\/the-parenting-problem-the-government-cant-fix?utm_source=links&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=twitter\">The parenting problem the government can\u2019t fix<\/a> (Stephanie H. Murray, The Week): \u201cThere is a cultural weight dangling from the yoke of modern American parenthood \u2014 one that is probably beyond the government to alleviate.\u2026 Children are a personal choice and therefore a personal problem, many people seem to believe. Have as many as you want \u2014 just make sure they don\u2019t bother the rest of us. The problem is that this credo is totally out of step with reality.\u2026 parenting is an inherently social occupation. Trying to cram it into an individualist framework, where the costs and consequences of children fall on parents and no one else, distorts the whole endeavor.\u201d<ul><li>I have long thought that disliking children is profoundly hypocritical. You were once a child who craved affection and understanding, how rude to reject children now that you have learned to navigate the world more effectively.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/futurism.com\/delphi-ai-ethics-racist\">Scientists Built an AI to Give Ethical Advice, But It Turned Out Super Racist<\/a> (Tony Tran, Futurism): \u201cAnd as is often the case, part of the reason Delphi\u2019s answers can get questionable can likely be linked back to how it was created. The folks behind the project drew on some eyebrow-raising sources to help train the AI, including the \u2018Am I the Asshole?\u2019 subreddit, the \u2018Confessions\u2019 subreddit, and the \u2018Dear Abby\u2019 advice column, according to the paper the team behind Delphi published about the experiment. It should be noted, though, that just the&nbsp;<em>situations <\/em>were culled from those sources \u2014 not the actual replies and answers themselves.\u2026 the team behind Delphi used Amazon\u2019s crowdsourcing service MechanicalTurk to find respondents to actually train the&nbsp;AI.\u201d<\/li><li>About Israel and Jewish people:<ul><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/bariweiss.substack.com\/p\/when-your-body-is-someone-elses-haunted?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxMzIyMjQyLCJwb3N0X2lkIjo0MzA5NDg5NiwiXyI6IktZZDBvIiwiaWF0IjoxNjM1MjQ2NjQzLCJleHAiOjE2MzUyNTAyNDMsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0yNjAzNDciLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.WcnFEvEQ8sUtQC89Apvx7uG3MmFKmULwg1H7l_PCU40\">When Your Body Is Someone Else\u2019s Haunted House<\/a> (Dara Horn, Bari Weiss\u2019 Substack): \u201cThose girls were not stupid, and probably not even bigoted. But in their entirely typical and well-intentioned education, they had learned about Jews mainly because people had killed Jews. Like most people in the world, they had only encountered dead Jews: people whose sole attribute was that they had been murdered, and whose murders served a clear purpose, which was to teach us something. Jews were people who, for moral and educational purposes, were supposed to be&nbsp;dead.\u201d<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/10\/25\/world\/middleeast\/israel-jews-palestinians-journey.html\">Whose Promised Land? A Journey Into a Divided Israel<\/a> (Patrick Kingsley &amp; Laetitia Vancon, New York Times): \u201c\u2018I believe in the country as long as it doesn\u2019t fight religion, as long as it doesn\u2019t fight me,\u2019 he said. In his view, the new government has undermined Israel\u2019s Jewishness, undercutting the state\u2019s legitimacy. \u2018If it\u2019s not a Jewish state, then we have no right to exist here,\u2019 he said. \u2018Our right to exist here is based on the fact that God gave us the&nbsp;land.\u2019\u201d<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2021\/10\/israeli-palestinian-conflict-ferguson\/620471\/\">Palestine Isn\u2019t Ferguson<\/a> (Susie Linfield, The Atlantic): \u201cAny useful analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict requires engaging with an unresolved, frustratingly complex, grievously resilient struggle between two national movements, each with a justified claim to the land. Once that effort is abandoned, a vacuum ensues. It is filled by the transformation of a country into a metaphor; by the rewriting (or ignoring) of history; by Manichean thinking; and by the conversion of language into a means of performance rather than a description of reality.\u201d<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/scholars-stage.org\/learning-from-our-defeat-the-skill-of-the-vulcans\/\">Learning From Our Defeat: The Skill of the Vulcans<\/a> (Tanner Greer, personal blog): \u201c\u2026both of these relative non-entities were pulled aside from their regular positions and handed an additional responsibility\u2014 coordinator of the American effort in Afghanistan.Read that again: they were both given the same job at the same time. Yet the problem was worse than just duplication of effort and confused lines of authority. The two men were <em>not even aware <\/em>the other man was working the same portfolio!\u201d<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Less Serious Things Which Also Interested\/Amused Glen<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"simple-list wp-block-list\"><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.smbc-comics.com\/comic\/natural\">Babies Are Natural Scientists<\/a> (SMBC)<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2021\/oct\/26\/hiker-lost-on-us-mountain-ignored-calls-from-rescuers-because-he-didnt-recognise-the-number\">Hiker lost on US mountain ignored calls from rescuers because he didn\u2019t recognise the number<\/a> (Samantha Lock, The Guardian): \u201cA man who became lost for 24 hours while hiking on Colorado\u2019s highest mountain ignored repeated phone calls from rescue teams because they came from an unknown number, authorities say.\u201d Recommended by a student.<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/transcripts\/1049274894\">Spiders can have arachnophobia!<\/a> (NPR): recommended by an alumnus. Both amusing and interesting.<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SwZWaw2NCrM\">Kids Don\u2019t Know How To Read<\/a> (John Branyan, YouTube): recommended by an alumnus. 25 minutes (a full stand-up special). The end sounded familiar and I realized I had shared an excerpt from it back in <a href=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2020\/12\/26\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-281\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2020\/12\/26\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-281\">volume 281<\/a>, but I had never seen the whole&nbsp;thing.<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4Aaf57RwOl4\">Only Americans Can Make Fun Of Walmart<\/a> (Ali Sultan, YouTube): four minutes of standup comedy<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=HAvplXWufNQ\">Clever Linking Rings Routine<\/a> (Penn &amp; Teller Fool Us, YouTube): ten minutes of&nbsp;magic<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Ixk03OO7qD4\">You\u2019ll Never Know Everything About Your Wife<\/a> (Joe Deuce, YouTube): four and a half minutes of standup comedy \u2014 the really funny stuff starts about one minute in<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=kC0TBtkccCU\">The Magic of Pro Wrestling With The Shocker!<\/a> (Penn &amp; Teller Fool Us, YouTube): nine minutes of unorthodox magic<\/li><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=M0zzUmva9gI\">A Magic Story<\/a> (Penn &amp; Teller Fool Us, YouTube): seven and a half minutes of&nbsp;magic<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Things Glen Found Interesting A While&nbsp;Ago<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Every week I\u2019ll highlight an older link still worth your consideration. This week we have <a href=\"http:\/\/slatestarcodex.com\/2018\/07\/03\/ssc-journal-club-dissolving-the-fermi-paradox\/\">Dissolving the Fermi Paradox<\/a> (Scott Alexander, Slate Star Codex): \u201cImagine we knew God flipped a coin. If it came up heads, He made 10 billion alien civilization. If it came up tails, He made none besides Earth. Using our one parameter Drake Equation, we determine that on average there should be 5 billion alien civilizations. Since we see zero, that\u2019s quite the paradox, isn\u2019t it? No. In this case the mean is meaningless. It\u2019s not at all surprising that we see zero alien civilizations, it just means the coin must have landed tails. SDO say that relying on the Drake Equation is the same kind of error.\u201d&nbsp; First shared in <a href=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2018\/07\/06\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-159\">volume 159<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>Why Do You Send This&nbsp;Email?<\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In the time of King David, the tribe of Issachar produced shrewd warriors \u201cwho understood the times and knew what Israel should do\u201d (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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>Disclaimer<\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Chi Alpha is not a partisan organization. To paraphrase another minister: we are not about the donkey\u2019s agenda and we are not about the elephant\u2019s agenda \u2014 we are about the Lamb\u2019s agenda. Having said that, I read widely (in part because I believe we should aspire to pass <a href=\"http:\/\/econlog.econlib.org\/archives\/2011\/06\/the_ideological.html\">the ideological Turing test<\/a> and in part because I do not believe I can fairly say \u201cI agree\u201d or \u201cI disagree\u201d until I can say \u201cI understand\u201d) 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\u2019ll 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.\n\nAlso, remember that I\u2019m not reporting news \u2014 I\u2019m giving you a selection of things I found interesting. There\u2019s a lot happening in the world that\u2019s not making an appearance here because I haven\u2019t found stimulating articles written about it.\n\nIf this was forwarded to you and you want to receive future emails, sign up <a href=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/\">here<\/a>. You can also <a href=\"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/category\/links\">view the archives<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>some pre-Halloween links<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"This is 18^2 of these posts. I learn so much preparing them. Enjoy!","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16],"tags":[124,219,303,302,160,148,304,117],"class_list":["post-6743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links","tag-apologetically-interesting","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-children","tag-comedy","tag-how-the-church-is-perceived","tag-israel","tag-jewish-people","tag-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1KL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6743"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6746,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6743\/revisions\/6746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}