politics & policy
Countdown to killer robots?
James Mildred
Date posted: 1 Jul 2023
In December last year, OpenAI launched Chat GPT-4. It’s the most advanced chatbot yet, employing cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI).
You can ask it any question and it will come up with an answer, because it has access to a colossal amount of data. This extends even to the finer points of Baptist covenant theology, as I discovered recently.
‘The car careered out of control’
Kicked out of college and hooked on drink and drugs, Pauline Hamilton drove recklessly towards a cliff near her home to end it all. At the last moment, her tyre blew out, leaving her stunned in the stationary car.
Pauline’s life changed forever. She turned at once to the God who had rescued her and, in grateful amazement, offered her whole life to Him. This dedication would eventually take her to China, where she would serve for over 30 adventure-packed years as a missionary. Through many trials Pauline never lost sight of the God who had promised never to let her go.
earth watch
Feather-brained folly?
Simon Marsh
Date posted: 1 May 2023
If you look round a typical Sunday congregation, I suspect you won’t see many women wearing hats.
Although you would never have seen my granny in church without a hat, with changing fashions, and perhaps a more relaxed interpretation of 1 Corinthians 11: 13, it’s a rare sight other than at weddings. But in the 1880s hats were de rigeur for women, and the latest millinery fashion that was storming polite society was hats with feathers. Feathers of birds like grebes and egrets, and in more extreme cases even whole birds, adorned voluminous headgear in late Victorian and Edwardian society.
history
Are evangelicals utterly ignorant of the Middle Ages?
Michael Haykin
Date posted: 1 Mar 2023
A number of years ago I was invited to give two talks at a major Reformed conference in America.
I was thrilled by the invitation as I had enormous respect – and still do, I need to add – for the ministry behind the conference.