Joe Carter

[Note: Since I give a rather harsh—though fully deserved—critique of Rand in my On the Square column today, I thought I should add this slightly less bombastic addendum .] There once was a time when I was enamored by the philosophy of Ayn Ran. An émigré from the Soviet Union, . . . . Continue Reading »

The latest poll by Gallup reveals that theism is still popular in America : More than 9 in 10 Americans still say “yes” when asked the basic question “Do you believe in God?”; this is down only slightly from the 1940s, when Gallup first asked this question. Despite the many . . . . Continue Reading »

Over the past few years, Anton LaVey and his book The Satanic Bible has grown increasingly popular, selling thousands of new copies. His impact has been especially pronounced in our nation’s capital. One U.S. senator has publicly confessed to being a fan of the The Satanic Bible while another calls it his “foundation book.” On the other side of Congress, a representative speaks highly of LaVey and recommends that his staffers read the book… . Continue Reading »

Working with a small group of graduate students at the Stanford Literary Lab, English professor Franco Moretti fed a digitized text of Hamlet into a database in order to create and examine the play’s character-network : Most recently Moretti has turned his attention to what might be the most . . . . Continue Reading »

Although I normally despise talk of electoral politics (especially when the election is 518 days away!) this tidbit of presidential lore was too interesting not to pass along: Of the 44 U.S. presidents, all but a handful have been affiliated with a relatively narrow list of traditional Protestant . . . . Continue Reading »

Christianity Today’ s editorial explains what’s at stake in the debate about the historical Adam: This issue’s cover story, ” The Search for the Historical Adam ,” reports the claims of recent genetic research that the human race did not emerge from pre-human animals . . . . Continue Reading »

R.R. Reno’s column this week examines the paradox of liberalism : We’re happiest, the present-day liberal presumes, when we can make up our own minds about what makes life worth living—or even if life is worth living. The commitment to freedom seems complete, yet paradoxically this . . . . Continue Reading »

At The Catholic World Report , James Hitchcock examines the failings of liberal Catholicism : No one has yet managed to transcend or synthesize the concepts “liberal” and “conservative,” however inadequate those words are for denoting religious beliefs. Conservative Catholics . . . . Continue Reading »

Over on Evangel, Gayle Trotter has an interview with Bryan Caplan , professor of Economics at George Mason University, about his new book, Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids: Why Being a Great Parent Is Less Work and More Fun Than You Think . Throughout the book, Caplan shows that the . . . . Continue Reading »

[Note: At the request of a reader, I’ve decided to make the summer reading suggestions an annual tradition. Next Friday I’ll post the recommendations for 2011. But I thought since the 2010 list contains some of my favorites that I’d repost it once more. One minor change from last . . . . Continue Reading »