23AR28-26

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AR 28:26 - AI, genuine threat, or premature hysteria?

In this issue:

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE - "ban the release into the public domain of any more revolutionary AI tools"

ATHEISM - attorney's Christian apologetic judged "highly intriguing and readable" in a 5-to-2 decision on argument success-rate

HOMOSEXUALITY - how many people are truly "preferentially gay?"

PRAYER - at the intersection of the National Day of Prayer and Star Wars, what else would you expect to find?

Apologia Report 28:26 (1,623)
July 19, 2023

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

"Could ChatGPT create a new RELIGION?" by Jim Norton (UK Daily Mail, May 2 '23) -- Yuval Noah Harari <www.bit.ly/3zJZSwS> appears to think so. However, our hype alarm has been triggered.

   "Speaking at the Frontiers Forum event <forum.frontiersin.org> in Switzerland, [Harari] warned machines now had the tools to 'cocoon us in a Matrix-like world of illusions', referring to the 1999 sci-film film." (Too late? Haven't social media's self-destructive fear engines already enabled us to bring this upon ourselves?)

   "He said: 'Contrary to what some conspiracy theories assume, you don't really need to implant chips in people's brains in order to control them or to manipulate them.' ...

   "Harari said that software such as Chat GPT has mastered the human language and can use that skill to mold culture."

   And he warns: "We need to act quickly before AI gets out of our control." Then, reminding us of Tony Fauci, he adds: "Drug companies cannot sell people new medicines without first subjecting these products to rigorous safety checks." (Uh huh.)

   "Similarly, governments must immediately ban the release into the public domain of any more revolutionary AI tools before they are made safe." (Will this one day become another excuse for governments to call for the use of "emergency" powers?) <www.bit.ly/46O8DnM>

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ATHEISM

"Newsworthy question (again): Does God exist?" by "The [Religion] Guy," Richard Ostling (GetReligion, May 8 '23) -- "Though it hardly qualifies as the start of the New Anti-Atheism, a recent book.... Turns out to be a highly intriguing and readable project...."

   The title in question is Atheism on Trial: A Lawyer Examines the Case for Unbelief, by W. Mark Lanier. <www.bit.ly/44okgQW>

   Lanier explains his driving perspective: "I cannot find any real argument of substance that proves there is no God." 

   He interacts "mostly with ivory-tower heavyweights and downgrades those best-selling Four Horsemen, <www.bit.ly/44KpRR8> [who are] said to employ 'sleight of hand,' 'logical fallacies' and emotion-ridden arguments. For example, they accumulate accurate history on atrocities committed by professed believers. 

   "Flipping that argument around, Lanier contends this approach falls flat if we also remember the body counts from modern atheists and skeptics like Hitler, Mao, Stalin, the Kim dynasty or Pol Pot, who ranks #1 in genocide relative to population.

   "The attorney's best material reasons that the existence of the traditional one God best explains how the cosmos is configured, the way people are, humanity's instinct to acknowledge some higher power and the near-universal belief in moral rights and wrongs. Interestingly, he does not think the existence of beauty is a compelling argument for God. 

   "Fellow journalists will decide for themselves but The Guy finds him less successful with two classic imponderables, the reality of suffering, especially when it results from natural causes [and] the mystery of well-meaning prayers that God does not answer." <www.bit.ly/46MpgAi>

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HOMOSEXUALITY

"Are a Quarter of Young Americans Actually LGBTQ (etc.)? Don't Bet on It (Why the surge in LGBT identity deserves a closer look)" by Wilfred Reilly (Associate professor, political science, Kentucky State University) -- "According to new data reported <www.bit.ly/3YfZYqJ> in The Hill, the actual percentage of LGBT young Americans is closer to 25–26 percent."

   The stats were "originally sourced from the ... Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) <www.bit.ly/3ruuD74> administered by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, [which found that] only 75 percent or so of American high-school students now identify as heterosexual. Roughly 3 percent - combined - ID as gay and lesbian, while 12.2 percent identify as bisexual, 5.2 percent as 'questioning,' and 3.9 percent as 'other' (trans, nonbinary, etc. would presumably fall here). In what may be a measure of reading comprehension rather than sexual openness, fully 1.8 percent of responding young scholars said that they could not understand the question. Overall, 'the number of LGBTQ students went from 11% in 2015 to 26% in 2021.' ...

   "The percentage of Baby Boomers who identify as LGBT is 2.7 percent, and the main change in the 'stock' of the United States since the 1960s and 1970s has been large-scale in-migration of Latinos from some of the world's more conservative Catholic societies.

   "Popular 'culturalist' explanations like 'increased social tolerance for gays' or 'more exposure to pornography' also basically fail. It seems wildly unlikely that either of those variables has shifted upward by 240 percent since 2015 (not 1966) alongside the growth of the non-straight population. Further, and importantly, mass rates of LGBT identification seem confined almost entirely to young folx [sic]. ...

   "[A] surprisingly large chunk of today's heavily female cohort of 'bisexuals' seems to be spaghetti-straight in practice. According to data <www.bit.ly/44TtFjm> from the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology, 55 percent of self-declared bisexual women under age 30 have had only heterosexual sex....

   "This 55 percent figure represents a 412 percent increase in - if you will - bisexual heterosexuality since just 2010, when the 'men only' figure recorded for the identical cohort of women was only 13.3 percent. Further complicating this picture is the fact that sexually active people of any kind are rapidly becoming a minority among the young. ...

   "Andrew Sullivan, the well-known gay columnist [responded:] 'The most plausible explanation is that everyone wants to be 'LGBTQ+' now - so why not lie and be cool? Only problem is that this makes the 'LGBTQ+' community majority straight.' ... If we all set politics aside and simply look at the data, it seems empirically obvious that the best explanation for today's patterns of sexual identification is ... social contagion.

   "Not only is there already significant evidence of contagion ('rapid onset gender dysphoria,' etc.) occurring specifically within the context of 'gender' and sexual identity, this is obviously also something our society and others witnessed during the growth of the great youth 'scenes' such as goth and rave, the spread of negative social trends like anorexia, and even the post-1960s popularization and acceptance of teen sex itself. ...

   "And, dead seriously, there is a rather obvious reason why we would be seeing this pattern now. In an era when multiple major left-wing organizations use the 'progressive stack' <www.bit.ly/44TQLXa> ranking of victimization to decide which speakers to prioritize.... For example, in a recent study of young people who identified as transgender, nonbinary, gender queer, etc., 34 of 36 respondents were white, 80 percent were female, and almost all seem to have been middle-class.)"

   Reilly concludes that "the percentage of people who truly are preferentially gay likely hasn't changed at all." National Review, May 2 '23 <www.bit.ly/3NNVp1K>

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PRAYER

"A new survey explores how and where Americans seek divine connection - and who they pray for" by Kelsey Dallas -- There are times when a survey's description and findings suggest more than the publisher appears to comprehend. 

   In this case: "The new survey ... was conducted by City Square Associates on behalf of Skylight, <skylight.org> an initiative of the Radiant Foundation.... <radiant.org>

   "Skylight's mission is to use technology to help young people embrace God-centered spiritual habits. Like the Deseret News, it's part of Deseret Management Corporation." (A search for "Deseret" in Apologia's past issue archive <www.bit.ly/46H6c6G> reveals the name's unique LDS/Mormon history.)

   "Eighty-four percent of respondents agreed that "their higher power hears and responds to the prayers of those of all religious traditions, and even those of the nonreligious or religiously unaffiliated," Skylight reported. ...

   "When asked what and who they pray for, 76% of respondents said their prayers focus on loved ones in crisis and 71% said someone who is sick. Fewer (56%) prayed for themselves during an illness or for good results on an upcoming job interview (33%) or exam (30%)." (If all this seems to lack eternal perspective, steel yourself for the next paragraph.)

   "In a nod to the fact that the National Day of Prayer and Star Wars Day - 'May the 4th be with you' - fall on the same day this year, researchers also asked who respondents would like to pray or meditate with from the 'Star Wars' universe." (You'll want to see the detailed results for yourself. But, don't get your hopes up.) Deseret News, May 4 '23, <www.bit.ly/3pHYk46>

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