How Do We Trust Students to Not Cheat? | Austin Freeman Interview
What happens when students can outsource their thinking to AI? How should Christian educators respond? And what do Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Dante, and the classical tradition have to say about it?
In this episode, Austin Freeman (Chair of Apologetics at Houston Christian University) joins us for a wide-ranging conversation on AI, education, virtue, imagination, and the purpose of learning. Drawing from his essay “AI in the Path of Temptation,” Austin argues that the real challenge isn’t simply catching cheaters—it’s helping students understand what education is actually for.
We discuss:
Why educators have become modern-day “Blade Runners.”
How to recognize AI-generated writing
Why the goal of education is formation, not graduation
The role of imagination and reason in learning
What Tolkien and C.S. Lewis teach us about technology
AI, virtue, cheating, and the cultivation of the soul
Dante’s Purgatorio and the temptation of shortcuts
Why Austin believes educators should make AI the harder choice
The growing cultural shift back toward the analog and tangible world
Austin also shares insights from his work on Tolkien, Lewis, imaginative apologetics, and his upcoming books on Narnia and classical literature.