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Artificial Intelligence Will be Tough on Religion

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Readers are welcome to correct my understanding of AI. Seeing it work, I see it as a way to summarize lots of information and present it in a way that has been predetermined by those who program the reading and summary. Wikipedia was/is similar in that readers can edit what appears and monitors can correct of challenge what is written. The difference is that Wikipedia posts were written, hopefully, by individuals and not by a computer.  It was fascinating to me to read an analysis of AI on a Christian site, Christian Post. The link is a discussion of a survey which, apparently, asked various parts of Christianity whether they used AI to interpret the Bible. Included were preachers who were asked if the approved or disapproved of those in the pews asking AI their questions about the Bible. A majority of the preachers did not approve of using AI to learn about the Bible. They are afraid the interpretation provided by this computerized summary of published views will be incorrect. A m...
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What Can Trump say to the Rural Midwest

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Trump is already sending some cabinet members to the Middle West to improve his polling. The local paper which covers most of the state of Iowa posted an article asking what I've wondered, why should rural Iowans, or rural Midwesterners, vote for Trump? There is a pattern of imposing tangible losses and offering in exchange abstract and unmeasurable benefits. The reporter asked several Republican operatives what the message is from Trump and his Republican messengers. What all the local Republicans said was the message is not clear. The tariffs on Chinese goods caused U.S. farmers to lose much of the Chinese market. The "unfair" Chinese trade terms prior to Trump has\d no harmful effect on rural America. Trump's efforts to "correct" the terms of trade has done tangible harm. Precisely the same pattern has been seen with Iran. That Iran owns some uranium has the abstract threat of a nuclear weapon. This weapon is of little to no threat in the U.S. Middle West...
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International Trade is Counterintuitive and Trump Won't Study It

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There was a headline article in the heugh Iowa paper today about the damage done by Trump's tariffs. Unfortunately, it was mostly about small businesses who import products and not about low farm prices and high farm costs which are even more important. Trump, as readers know, carried states like Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota 60-40. Trump voters in these states need to heed the advice of the late columnist Ann Landers, "Wake up and smell the coffee."  There has been a pattern in U.S. trade policy Since trade policy is largely under the control of U.S. Presidents, it is important they understand the basics. The basics are that countries have unique weather, soil and people that make it advantageous to produce some things and import others. This is counterintuitive because our instinct is to believe it is better if we product stuff ourselves instead of pay others. Republican Presidents come from an ideology that markets generally make better decisions than governments...
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The Left in Religion Will Win

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For the decade I've been reading Christian sites, books about religion and entertaining myself by writing this blog, I've become convinced the Christian left would survive the downward drift of religion longer than the right. If history repeats itself, neither will last forever. A new unexpected development is  several "mainline" preachers running for high political offices and polling well. While predicting the outcome of elections has been embarrassing for me and many others, I think some of these mainline preachers will win. When they do it will energize, perhaps only a little, the view that Christianity is not exclusively gay bashing, anti women and anti abortion. The term "real Christian" or "genuine Christian" will broaden to include something besides the right wing. One of the pleasant recollections of my many years as a mayor was sitting at head tables of conferences and banquets waiting to give a welcome from the city. Often, a pastor was ...
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After a Divorce, Does the Most Religious Parent Get to Train the Children

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Where is the line that gives a each divorced parent the same right to child's religious instruction? This case is fascinating .  The mother is a devout member of a Calvery Christian church. The couple has a daughter who is now either a teenager or nearly so. While the article does not reveal much about the charges and counter charges a commenter writes that the father says the mother has taken the girl to church for services several hours a week. The child complained of being frightened by threats of fire and hell for non believers and had physical problems because of that. The father's lawyer had retained a sociologist who studied religions. The sociologist labeled that church a cult. The court's decision was that since the mother's religion is a cult, the father's decisions about the girl's religious instruction must prevail. That is, the court ruled in favor of the father and against the mother. Of the thousands of divorces that happen every year, there must ...
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Can Religion Make You Happy

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I suppose since the first imaginary god was invented someone advised another person, "I believe in a god. See how happy I am. If you believed in a god, no make that my god, you would be happy too." That advice never stops and I suppose never will. The link provides us with the most recent of a gazillion surveys which show religious people are happier than those without religion. We have to ask about the old correlation versus causation question: If two things happen at the same time, does this mean one caused the other." Maybe happy people are prone to like religion. Or maybe religious people learn they are supposed to say they are happy. I've heard it said, not true so far as I know, that the less one knows the happier he is. Old people like me tend to get a little cranky. One thing I have less and less tolerance for is advice that our country would be better off if more people were Christians. A person cannot be a Christian, Hindu or Jew unless the person believes ...
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"Higher Education" is a Dying Industry

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Tons of stuff is written about "higher education." I put the term in quotes because what it actually refers to is quite imprecise. Changes are killing institutions. Why so many are closing and/or contracting can be explained somewhat by demographics and but even more by economics. Most days, an article is published in a conservative source blaming the problem higher ed is having on "woke." This is the myth that liberals run universities and their goal is to convert students to be liberals in social and economic policies. Since parents and their children are not attending university as much as they did in the past. The example cited often is a recent article about Syracuse University which, while well known, is struggling to survive.  The conservative link should be versed in a conservative understanding of reality. That reality is the marketplace. Buyers of higher ed want the best deal they can find. Sellers of higher ed want to maximize their profit, both the profi...
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