{"id":7899,"date":"2026-01-30T16:59:34","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T00:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=7899"},"modified":"2026-01-30T16:59:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T00:59:34","slug":"tgfi-volume-540-marrying-atheists-and-using-ai-to-avoid-awkwardness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2026\/01\/30\/tgfi-volume-540-marrying-atheists-and-using-ai-to-avoid-awkwardness","title":{"rendered":"TGFI, Volume 540: marrying atheists and using AI to avoid awkwardness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/a>\n<\/p>

You\u2019ve heard of TGIF? This is TGFI: Things Glen Found Inter\u00adest\u00ading<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Fri\u00addays I share articles\/resources about broad cul\u00adtur\u00adal, soci\u00adetal and the\u00ado\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal issues like\u00adly to be of inter\u00adest to Chris\u00adtians in col\u00adlege. Be sure to see the expla\u00adna\u00adtion and dis\u00adclaimers at the bot\u00adtom. I wel\u00adcome your sug\u00adges\u00adtions, so if you read some\u00adthing fas\u00adci\u00adnat\u00ading please pass it my way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things Glen Found Interesting<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  1. Tough Love: Can I Mar\u00adry an Athe\u00adist?<\/a> (Abi\u00adgail Shri\u00ader, The Free Press): \u201cYou can have all kinds of suc\u00adcess\u00adful rela\u00adtion\u00adships with some\u00adone whose world\u00adview is pro\u00adfound\u00adly dif\u00adfer\u00adent from yours\u2014but not mar\u00adriage. I\u2019ve only been mar\u00adried 18 years, but I know this: Good mar\u00adriage requires, at a min\u00adi\u00admum, stay\u00ading on the same page as your spouse. Com\u00adpro\u00admise on the small stuff, fine. Not on the foun\u00adda\u00adtions of the home. That can only cre\u00adate dis\u00adtance between you, a dis\u00adtance that will grow as your chil\u00addren ask you to inter\u00adpret their world.\u2026 Don\u2019t mar\u00adry a woman you hope, even secret\u00adly, will change.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Stu\u00addents Are Skip\u00adping the Hard\u00adest Part of Grow\u00ading Up<\/a> (Clay Shirky, New York Times): \u201cOne study found that 18-to-25-year-olds alone account\u00aded for 46 per\u00adcent of Chat\u00adG\u00adPT use. And this analy\u00adsis didn\u2019t even include users 17 and under. Teenagers and young adults, stuck in the grad\u00adual tran\u00adsi\u00adtion from man\u00adaged child\u00adhoods to adult free\u00addoms, are both eager to make human con\u00adnec\u00adtion and exquis\u00adite\u00adly alert to the pos\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty of embar\u00adrass\u00adment.\u2026 teens were adamant that they did not want to go direct\u00adly to their par\u00adents or friends with these issues and that the steady avail\u00adabil\u00adi\u00adty of A.I. was a relief to them. They also reject\u00aded the idea of A.I. ther\u00ada\u00adpists; they weren\u2019t treat\u00ading A.I. as a replace\u00adment for anoth\u00ader per\u00adson but instead were using it to sec\u00adond-guess their devel\u00adop\u00ading sense of how to treat oth\u00ader peo\u00adple. A.I. has been trained to give us answers we like, rather than the ones we may need to hear. The result\u00ading stream of praise \u2014 con\u00adstant\u00adly hear\u00ading some ver\u00adsion of \u2018You\u2019re absolute\u00adly right!\u2019 \u2014 risks erod\u00ading our abil\u00adi\u00adty to deal with the messi\u00adness of human rela\u00adtion\u00adships. Soci\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgists call this social deskilling. Even casu\u00adal A.I. use expos\u00ades users to a lev\u00adel of praise humans rarely expe\u00adri\u00adence from one anoth\u00ader, which is not great for any of us but is espe\u00adcial\u00adly risky for young peo\u00adple still work\u00ading on their social skills.\u201d\n