The World and Everything in It: January 31, 2023

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

The artificial intelligence tool known as ChatGPT is causing real headaches for educators.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Also today, a new drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease has promise, but it’s still early.

Plus a memorable trip to a monastery with a group of high-school students.

And the problem of relativism in the fight for religious liberty.

REICHARD: It’s Tuesday, January 31st. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

REICHARD: Time for news. Here’s Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Blinken in Israel » Speaking in Jerusalem, Secretary of State Tony Blinken Monday urged Israel and the Palestinians to ratchet down tensions.

BLINKEN: There is no question that this is a very difficult moment. We’re seen the horrific terrorist attacks in recent days. We have seen over many months rising violence that is affecting so many.

He said the United States condemns recent terrorist attacks by Palestinian militants. And he called a Friday’s attack outside an East Jerusalem synagogue “especially shocking.”

Blinken also met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the growing threat posed by Iran. Netanyahu told reporters that Iran exports aggression and terror …

NETANYAHU: Beyond its border and beyond the Middle East. And I think there’s a common consensus that this regime must not acquire nuclear weapons.

Netanyahu said he hopes to expand the so-called “Abraham Accords” — normalizing relations with several Arab countries.

Having a common adversary in Iran played a large role in forging those ties.

Sixth officer suspended in Memphis » The Memphis Police Department has relieved a sixth officer of duty in connection with the death of Tyre Nichols. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: Civil rights leaders and members of Congress are calling for action after seeing video footage of officers beating Nichols after a traffic stop.

Five officers have already been charged with second-degree murder and other crimes after the 29-year-old died in a hospital from his injuries.

The Memphis Fire Department also dismissed three employees who were at the scene.

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

Finland remains set to join NATO with Sweden » Turkey says it could greenlight Finland’s membership in NATO before that of Sweden. Turkey says Finland’s application as “less problematic” than that of Sweden.

But Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haaivisto poured cold water on that idea, saying the two Nordic countries should join NATO at the same time.

HAAIVISTO: Finnish and Swedish security goes together. We share the common shore of the Baltic Sea. And whenever NATO is planning its defense in this region, it has to put to the map both Finland and Sweden.

All current NATO members must agree for a new member to join. And Turkey is especially hesitant to approve Sweden’s application. It accuses Stockholm of failing to crack down on terrorism.

Pakistan attack » AUDIO: [Mass funeral]

Reporters captured heartbreaking images from a mass funeral on Monday as Pakistani police gathered to honor the nearly 60 victims of a suicide bombing.

A terrorist entered a mosque in the city of Peshawar and detonated an explosive vest.

A commander in the Pakistani Taliban, known as the TTP, has claimed responsibility for the attack. But hours later another TTP official disputed that claim.

Mark Houck Acquitted » A Pennsylvania jury has acquitted pro-life activist Mark Houck on charges of obstructing an abortion facility. Last fall FBI agents arrested Houck at his home for allegedly assaulting a 72-year-old volunteer at a Planned Parenthood in Philadelphia.

Houck’s attorney Peter Breen:

BREEN: This is a sidewalk squabble that has now been turned into a federal case. It should have ended in the state courts, which threw this matter out.

Federal law makes it a crime to block access to abortion facilities.

Breen called Houck’s arrest an abuse of power by the Justice Department that was intended to intimidate pro-life Americans.

Texas border » Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced new measures to combat illegal immigration in his state, including naming a new “border czar.” He said the role —quote—“requires a leader whose only focus is responding to President Biden’s open border policies.”

ABBOTT: We found the right person for the job in Mike Banks.

Banks is a former Border Patrol agent.

Abbott also discussed his state’s efforts to build more sections of border wall along the Texas-Mexico border. He said the tough part is getting the land rights.

ABBOTT: With the work of the Facilities Commission, we have accelerated the process of acquiring the land rights. And now we’re able to be able to build even more wall going forward.

Abbott said state authorities have turned back more than 32,000 illegal immigrants trying to enter the country.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: how an AI tool is causing problems for educators.

Plus, a group of high schoolers visit a monastery.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Tuesday, January 31st, 2023. You’re listening to WORLD Radio and we’re so glad to have you along today. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. First up on The World and Everything in It. Artificial intelligence.

The debate over AI has made its way from the offices of computer scientists into classrooms. Students have more technology at their fingertips than ever before, but educators are divided on how to help young people use it wisely.

WORLD’s Lauren Canterberry reports.

LAUREN CANTERBERRY, REPORTER: Jason Thacker teaches philosophy, ethics, and worldview at Boyce College in Louisville, Kentucky. This winter, he added a new section to the plagiarism and cheating policies on his class syllabus. It explained his expectations about artificial intelligence and programs that automatically generate text.

THACKER: There is some temptation I see and why students might be tempted to use that but we need to say, full stop, that any attempt to pass off work of someone or something else’s as your own is deceptive. And that is the definition of plagiarism.

Today’s artificial intelligence, or AI, can answer test questions, write essays, and figure out math problems in seconds.

In November, the artificial intelligence research company OpenAI launched ChatGPT. The AI program can hold conversations, create computer code, and write in a variety of styles. OpenAI trained the program with data gathered from books, internet articles, and human feedback.

As ChatGPT gained popularity, educators began raising concerns about cheating.

New York City schools blocked the ChatGPT website on school devices and networks in January. Shortly after that, some universities in Australia caught students using AI to write essays and switched to handwritten exams. In the United States, colleges are scrambling to adjust curriculum and policies to account for AI tools.

Thacker says simply banning the technology won’t work.

THACKER: In certain situations, it would be beneficial to ban a technology like this, but reality is you're not going to ever truly ban it. You're never going to be able to keep students from using it because if you banned it on school computers the next thing you know they're using their smartphone tablets or they're using it at home.

In response to cheating concerns, a Princeton University student created the app GPTZero to detect whether an essay was written by a human or AI.

But cheating is an age-old issue. Some teachers say the problem can only be addressed by convincing students that honest hard work benefits them more than taking an easy route to good grades.

Kyle Kellogg is a high school chemistry teacher in San Antonio.

KELLOGG: There have always been ways for students to try to get around and cut corners. And technology has made that easier for them in a lot of cases but it’s about the idea that it’s a people business and so trying to form relationships with students allows them to then understand I want what’s genuinely best for you.

Theoretically, ChatGPT can generate responses to prompts that might pass as student work. But many experts say the program still lacks the ability to go beyond basic information gathering.

The company that makes ChatGPT admits that it sometimes produces incorrect responses and does not cite its sources.

As educators wrestle through ethical concerns, some teachers are using the same AI tools to help in the classroom.

They use ChatGPT to create writing prompts, or assign older students to analyze the tool’s responses in search of errors or biases.

Luke Phillips is an administrator at Pepperdine’s Graduate School of Education and Psychology. He says ChatGPT can do things earlier AI programs could not.

PHILLIPS: It’s a lot of these things that have always been really human centric that it can actually create. You have a technology that can write songs and things that historically only humans have ever been able to do.

Regardless of how the technology fits into school curriculum, Phillips says it is important for students to learn about programs like ChatGPT.

PHILLIPS: We as educators are educating students about how to be prepared for a post, you know, 2023 world where these things are realities. You know, I think we do all of us a disservice if we don’t incorporate this kind of learning in the classroom.

Jason Thacker also heads up research in technology ethics for the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. He says the deeper question is not just about whether students should have access to AI. Instead, teachers must guide them to question the technology’s influence and become learners, not just consumers.

THACKER: We assume that technology is a tool that we use for good or for bad, but reality is that technology is also changing us. It’s shaping us in many ways, shaping our understanding of God, shaping our understanding of ourselves, shaping our understanding of the world around us and how we interact with one another.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Lauren Canterberry.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: a new drug for Alzheimer’s disease. The Food and Drug Administration recently approved the drug, but it’s not without critics. WORLD science reporter Heather Frank is here to explain the controversy.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Welcome, Heather.

HEATHER FRANK, REPORTER: Good morning, Mary!

REICHARD: Well Heather, let’s start with what Alzheimer’s disease is and how this new drug treats it.

FRANK: So many people have experience with Alzheimers disease. It’s a neurological disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills. In time, the person can no longer do simple tasks. And decades of research into a cure hasn’t turned up anything.

As for the new drug, it’s called lecanemab. Lecanemab. And it’s for early onset Alzheimer’s. The clinical trial showed it slows cognitive decline, and by quite a lot: 27 percent over an 18-month period.

What happens in Alzheimer’s is that plaques form in the brain called amyloid plaques. They seem to interfere with memory and other cognitive functions. Lecanemab is the second of two newer drugs that seems to reduce the build-up of those plaques in the brain.

REICHARD: This sounds like good news for patients with Alzheimer’s, so why is this new drug getting pushback?

FRANK: Well, some experts are concerned about safety and how well it works. There’s also a growing number of scientists who believe the build-up of amyloid plaques is not the main cause of Alzheimer’s.

REICHARD: So safety and efficacy concerns. Let’s start with the safety concerns.

FRANK: There’re a few. One is brain swelling, reported in about a tenth of participants taking lecanemab. The second is brain swelling or bleeding. These show up in about a fifth of patients. Finally, and most concerning, two patients taking the drug died. Now, the manufacturers claim the deaths are unrelated, but some Alzheimer’s researchers think it’s likely they are linked.

REICHARD: Those are the safety concerns. What about efficacy concerns - whether the drug actually works.

FRANK: Experts say the slowing of cognitive decline may not align with claims the drug manufacture makes. One issue is that the clinical trial excluded over half of Alzheimer’s patients because they didn’t fit the inclusion criteria. Like secondary illnesses, heart problems, kidney disease, things like that. And then the other issue is the large disparity between men and women. Almost half of the men in the study experienced an improvement in Alzheimer’s symptoms. But for women, that number was only 12 percent. And researchers say we can’t assume these improvements will last long-term as the trial was only a year and a half.

REICHARD: And do we even know the true cause of Alzheimer’s?

FRANK: Well, it IS called an “amyloid hypothesis.” The idea that amyloid plaque build up in the brain causes Alzheimer’s was accepted for decades. But more scientists are questioning it due to a lack of sufficient evidence. Before this drug, none of the other treatments targeting amyloid plaque did much for Alzheimer’s patients. One expert told me some elderly people never develop Alzheimer’s symptoms even with amyloid build up in their brains. At best, it’s unclear whether we understand how Alzheimer’s disease works and therefore how to treat it.

REICHARD: So upsides and downsides to any new drug. I’m assuming patients are still excited about the possibilities with some experts on-board.

FRANK: Well, Alzheimer’s patients want access to lecanemab because the trial data showed the disease progressed more slowly. While it’s not a cure, it’s better than nothing. After all, there aren’t many alternatives.

It’s true that some experts are optimistic about the new drug. I spoke to a former FDA employee about it. He thinks the agency’s decision to approve lecanemab shows FDA’s commitment to innovation. If the FDA were overly cautious, companies would be less likely to develop new drugs.

REICHARD: How might Christians approach this issue?

FRANK: I spoke with a Christian family practice doctor. His name is Cheyn Onarecker. He’s experienced in treating Alzheimer’s patients. He was sympathetic to the FDA’s decision, but he cautioned that its use should be limited until moren safety studies are done.

Dr. Onarecker said that Alzheimer’s patients don’t lose their dignity, even when they can’t clothe or feed themselves. He said our dignity lies in our identity as God’s image bearers.

He also recommended a couple of books to help caregivers dealing with the day-to-day experience of a person with dementia or Alzheimer’s: The 36-Hour Day by Nancy Mace and Peter Rabins, and Finding Grace in the Face of Dementia by John Dunlop.

REICHARD: Heather Frank is a science reporter for WORLD. Thanks for explaining the controversy here, Heather.

FRANK: I’m happy to help.

REICHARD: You can read more of this story at wng.org.

NICK EICHER, HOST: When life gives you a snowstorm, you make a snowman. When it gives you a massive snow storm, well, then you go big or you go home.

Eric Fobbe of Buffalo, Minnesota, went, well, you be the judge. He built a 30-foot snowman in his front yard. The audio here from FOX channel 9: 

ERIC FOBBE: Pile it up right here and then I take a snowblower and blow one big pile.

It took Fobbe 40 hours and a whole weekend of work. Uff da! His creation has a 75-pound hat, large wooden button eyes, a traffic cone for a nose, and custom-made mittens by Eric's wife Stacey:

STACEY FOBBE: He said can you grab me some of your mittens and I said for what? And he said the snowman and I'm like no, no I will sew some …

As Minnesotans have heard about the sculpture, they've come from all over to snap photos of the gargantuan snowman. So Eric makes sure he’s always camera-ready …

ERIC FOBBE: When it's sunny out or it's over 30 degrees. I'll come home from work and I noticed that it's shrunk a little bit. So I'm out here adding snow to it nonstop.

This isn't the first oversize Fobbe snowman. The first was 12 feet, then 20, and last year it topped 25 feet. This year he's taller and wider than ever. At what point is it no longer just a snowman, but an abominable one?

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, January 31st. Thanks for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: visiting a modern day monastery. 

WORLD’s Emily Whitten chaperoned her daughter’s school trip to a monastery this month. She says her van full of teenagers found lots to think about along the way.

MUSIC: [VIVA LA VIDA, Coldplay]

EMILY WHITTEN, REPORTER: It takes almost three hours to drive from Jonathan Edwards Classical Academy in Tennessee to Saint Meinrad, Indiana. That gives the five girls in my rental van plenty of time to enjoy some classic alt rock…

SINGING: I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing, Roman Cavalry choirs are singing…

They also talk about what they hope to see at the monastery. The school takes the 10th grade class each year, and some stories have trickled down. Elizabeth Layman shares one.

LAYMAN: The day after the guy became a part of the monastery was the day he picked out his grave plot on site. So they make caskets here. Invested for life.

The class recently studied medieval history and, specifically, the 6th century book, The Rule of Saint Benedict. So, the overnight stay at the Benedictine monastery will give them a glimpse of some elements of that history. The teens tell me they look forward to meeting real monks and understanding them better. Gracie Royalty puts a fine point on it.

ROYALTY: I know I’m going to come away feeling differently, because I know I have so many stereotypes.

Soon, our caravan turns onto a driveway snaking through evergreen trees and winter fields. Then we finally see it—St. Meinrad Archabbey church.

GIRLS: Oh, it is. It’s got like a steeple. Oh, that’s so pretty! It’s so pretty. This is probably the guest house.

After checking into the modest guest house nearby, the entire class meets up for a self-guided tour of the Archabbey church building. Their teacher, Clint Lum, notes important features, like the painting of the Christus or Christ that dominates the church.

LUM: This was painted by another Benedictine monk in the 1940s.

Soon, bells ring out in the golden sunlight, calling everyone to prayer.

AUDIO: [BELLS RINGING]

We settle into the chairs for visitors, while monks in black robes file into the front of the church through a covered hallway. They sit in two separate sections of the church, facing each other, and begin chanting and reading Psalms.

AUDIO: [Monks chanting]

We’re given handouts to read along or participate. When the service is over, the monks head back out through their covered hallway without interacting with us. To live according to the Benedictine maxim, “ora et labora”—or pray and work—most keep their distance from visitors. But one monk does make his way toward our group.

WHITTEN: What is your name? MEINRAD: I’m Father Meinrad. You can’t forget that name.

Father Meinrad took Saint Meinrad’s last name when he joined the monastery 65 years ago. And after our lunch in the cafeteria, Father Meinrad shows the students the monastery archives.

WHITTEN: So this is your archives? MEINRAD: Yes…

The monks meet four times a day for prayer and once for Mass. But the students don't continue to join them. Instead, Mr. Lum leads them in a Protestant version of daily prayers in a guest house worship room. Three more times that day and twice the next day, they read from the Book of Common Prayer.

LUM: But let’s give ourselves to prayer one more time this morning. Let’s begin with the invitation. ‘Oh, God, make speed to save us. Oh, Lord, make haste to help us. Glory be…’

At the end of one service, Mr. Lum explains that he’s glad the students have learned about Gregorian chant and other customs of the Benedictine order. But he highlights a deeper principle.

LUM: We’ve met 5 times to pray. The principle behind that is to saturate your life with prayer and Scripture…

Near the end of the trip, we visit the monastery gift shop. That may feel a bit ironic, but with so many visitors, it does help the monks find a market for their wares. The students pose for pictures in front of the Abby Casket sign.

AUDIO: [Gift shop]

And they browse trinkets as well as monk-made products like scarves, back scratchers, and peanut butter with the memorable name, Peanut Brother.

AUDIO: [Tasting peanut butter]

By the time we head home, the girls in my van are tired. But not too tired to process the trip a little. The girls are slightly disappointed they didn’t interact with the monks more, but Elizabeth Layman feels the frequent prayer helped her focus more on God.

LAYMAN: I feel like we get so caught up in the here and now in our homework and trying to finish our assignments on time that we kind of forget what we're here for.

Several girls like the idea of incorporating more silence and prayer throughout the day at school. Here’s Gracie Royalty again.

ROYALTY: You take a second of silence, and it's like, okay, reset, and you're like, Okay, God is in the forefront. Like God is in the back of your mind, instead of whatever you're worried about…

It’s too soon to gauge any long term effects from this trip. But one thing I do know for sure—stepping away from everyday life to be together, to work and talk and focus on Scripture—I recommend that kind of “ora et labora” to anyone.

MUSIC: [VIVA LA VIDA] I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing, Roman Calvary choirs are singing. Be my mirror, my sword, and shield, missionaries in a foreign field, for some reason I can’t explain, once you’ve gone it was never, never an honest word, but that was when I ruled the world.

For WORLD, I’m Emily Whitten in St. Meinrad, Indiana.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, January 31st. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Over recent decades, America has become a more secular country. Many Christians have pushed back by strengthening religious freedom protections in the law. But by taking that approach, WORLD Opinions Commentator Brad Littlejohn thinks we may have lost something.

BRAD LITTLEJOHN, COMMENTATOR: For several decades now, the conservative legal movement has been waging a war on two fronts: the battle to contract abortion rights and the battle to expand religious liberty protections. While we thought the two campaigns were advancing along parallel lines, pro-abortion activists are now trying to put them at cross-purposes.

One of the clearest signs of this conflict appeared in Indiana in December. A county judge blocked the state’s new abortion ban from taking effect on grounds that it violated the 2015 “Religious Freedom Restoration Act.” The judge ruled that since the plaintiffs insisted that it was their religious conviction that fetuses are not persons, the state could not prevent them exercising their right to abort.

In retrospect, this argument shouldn’t be surprising.

Its foundations were laid at least as early as 1990 in the infamous Planned Parenthood v. Casey case that reaffirmed Roe v. Wade. Anthony Kennedy, writing with the majority, famously opined that since the Fourteenth Amendment protected liberty, and since, “at the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life,” then the Fourteenth Amendment conferred a right to abort. Kennedy’s definition of liberty sounded an awful lot like the idea of specifically religious liberty, at least as it has come to function in modern jurisprudence.

There was a time when courts generally ruled that the First Amendment’s guarantee of “free exercise of religion” applied to religious institutions and to individuals on the basis of longstanding norms within their religious communities. Examples included the right of Quakers, Mennonites, and the like to claim the status of a “conscientious objector” to military service; a mere personal moral stance against war was not given equal weight.

As American society became more secular and individualistic, however, the boundaries widened. During the Vietnam War, courts allowed private individuals claiming a “sincere and meaningful belief” against war the benefit of a religious exemption.

The problem with such an ever-expanding definition of “religious exercise” is that it could be broad enough to encompass just about anything and subjective enough to be almost impervious to judicial scrutiny. The Indiana court simply applied the logic remorselessly.

Conservatives may certainly object that our courts tend to be very selective in what logic they choose to apply. Moreover, courts have frequently held that religious liberty cannot be used to justify harms to third parties.

On the other hand, the Indiana ruling is the flipside of Justice Alito’s finding in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby. Alito found that, since the question of when life begins was a religious conviction, Hobby Lobby should not have to comply with government requirements to provide birth control. We might object that claiming a religious right to abort is quite different, since it inflicts harm on a third party. But progressives and conservatives can rarely agree on what counts as harm.

Conservatives are sometimes tempted to use religious liberty as a judicial get-out-of-jail-free card, and progressives have now shown they can play that game too. Sooner rather than later, we will have to learn how to make and win our case for conservative principles on substantive moral grounds. After all, God did not create a world in which abortion is against “my morality” or “my religion,” but in which it violates the laws of human nature itself.

I’m Brad Littlejohn.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: digging deeper into last year’s leak at the U.S. Supreme Court. Plus World Tour.

And, the legacy of one man’s quiet generosity.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio.

WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

Jesus said to the Pharisees: “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” (Mark 7:6,7, and 8 ESV)

Go now in grace and peace.

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