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Monday Miscellany, 8/11/25

Monday Miscellany, 8/11/25

Last updated on: August 11, 2025 at 6:00 am by Gene Veith

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Monday Miscellany, 8/11/25 2025-08-08T18:33:09-04:00 Gene Veith

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A baby who is 30 years old. No confidentiality with AI. And Christian revival in the UK.

A Baby Who Is 30 Years Old

Thaddeus Daniel Pierce was born on July 26. He was conceived in 1994, making him 30 years old, the world’s oldest baby.

Thaddeus was frozen as an embryo. He was one of four artificially conceived in the course of an IVF treatment. His parents picked a girl to be implanted, and sure enough she was born and grew up. The other three embryos were stored away in a freezer.

Lindsey and Tim Pierce had been trying to conceive for seven years. The Ohioans decided to try adopting an embryo. They are Christians and went through a Christian fertility clinic. Thaddeus was thawed, implanted, and born. Lindsey is 35 and Tim is 34. So the mother who gave birth to him was 5 and his new father was 4 when their future child came into existence.

According to an article in the London Times about Thaddeus, there are millions of frozen embryos worldwide. It quotes John Gordon, a reproductive endocrinologist, who operates the clinic that helped Lindsey and Tim have Thaddeus:

Gordon, who is a Reformed Presbyterian, said: “We have certain guiding principles, and they’re coming from our faith. Every embryo deserves a chance at life and that the only embryo that cannot result in a healthy baby is the embryo not given the opportunity to be transferred into a patient.”

No Confidentiality with AI

More and more people are using AI for psychological therapy, medical consultation, legal advice, and even pastoral counseling. They love the anonymity AI offers and feel they can open up to the chatbot more than they would be comfortable sharing with a human being.

But those who share their deepest, darkest secrets with AI need to realize that the technology offers no confidentiality.

The tech webzine Futurism posted an article by Noor Al-Sibai with the ominous title If You’ve Asked ChatGPT a Legal Question, You May Have Accidentally Doomed Yourself in Court. He quotes the mind behind ChatGPT:

During a recent conversation with podcaster Theo Von, [Open AI head Sam] Altman admitted that there is no “legal confidentiality” when users talk to ChatGPT, and that OpenAI would be legally required to share those exchanges should they be subpoenaed.

“Right now, if you talk to a therapist or a lawyer or a doctor… there’s legal privilege for it. There’s doctor-patient confidentiality, there’s legal confidentiality,” the CEO said. “And we haven’t figured that out yet for when you talk to ChatGPT.”. . .

“If you’re pasting in contracts, asking legal questions, or asking [the chatbot] for strategy, you’re not getting legal advice,” the lawyer tweeted. “You’re generating discoverable evidence. No attorney-client privilege. No confidentiality. No ethical duty. No one to protect you.”. . .

“I think it is both, no?” needled AI CEO Malte Landwehr. “You get legal advice AND you create discoverable evidence. But one does not negate the other.”

We’ve been blogging about the seal of confession and efforts in some jurisdictions to get rid of it (see this and this). Just realize that while priests and pastors vow never to divulge information they hear in the course of confession and absolution or pastoral counseling, there is no seal of confession if you use an AI chatbot for your pastor.

Christian Revival in the UK

Great Britain has been considered one of the most secularist countries in Europe. But a study from the Bible Society in the United Kingdom suggests that may be changing.

According to the report, entitled The Quiet Revival, between 2018 and 2024, church-going has increased 56%.

In 2018, only 4% of 18-24-year-olds attended church at least once a month. In 2024, that number has grown to 16%, a four-fold increase.

The data, which is from two large data sets, indicates that much of this growth comes from men, reversing the usual pattern. In 2024, 13% of British men go to church regularly, compared to 10% of women.

The biggest growth is happening among Roman Catholics and Pentecostals. The liberal state church Anglicans, not so much.

One reason for the bigger numbers is surely immigration. The study found that 19% of churchgoers are ethnic minorities. And nearly half (47%) of young black Britons between 18 and 34–hailing mostly from the former British colonies in Africa and the Caribbean–go to church regularly. That fits the pattern of the not-so-quiet Christian revival that is taking place in the developing world, which may be spilling over into and possibly influencing the secularist West.

Christianity in the UK

frozen embryos

IVF

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