Here’s my rough description of my new course that I have to start teaching next week. It’s obviously too much stuff, and perhaps “the whole” only makes sense to me. So your comments are so welcome that I might even take them into account: This course is an examination of . . . . Continue Reading »
Would evidence for God mean the end of atheism and Christianity? Yes, says Matt J. Rossano, a professor and department head of psychology at Southeastern Louisiana University. In a peculiar article at The Huffington Post , Rossano argues that scientific evidence for the existence of God is fatal to . . . . Continue Reading »
New research shows that older people are not only wiser than younger people (which we already knew), they tend to be happier too : Contrary to largely gloomy cultural perceptions, growing old brings some benefits, notably emotional and cognitive stability. Laura Carstensen, a Stanford social . . . . Continue Reading »
In the above clip, Peter Singer pretends that his call for allowing infanticide is merely about preventing the suffering of infants with ultimately terminal conditions, and limited to situations in which a decision has been made by parents and doctors to let them die by withdrawing life-extending . . . . Continue Reading »
A degree of resignation over the gay marriage issue is evident from the conservative camp, marked by Matthew Lee Anderson’s exchange with Ross Douthat over how supporters of traditional marriage should respond. It seems likely that our side will lose, but in my view we should fight tooth and . . . . Continue Reading »
“The concepts of private and public have undergone a strange new shift in American culture,” notes Joseph Bottum in today’s “On the Square” article, Publicizing Privacy . He illustrates and illuminates the shift through a family eating in a restaurant, his . . . . Continue Reading »
Here’s an elaboration of an earlier post in the form of a new Spengler essay. It also answers the question, “Where are the war . . . . Continue Reading »
There was a good opinion column in the NYT today by professor of psychiatry emeritus, Allan Francis, who calls to task those who want to treat grief as a mental illness and treat it with medication. From “Good Grief:”A startling suggestion is buried in the fine print describing . . . . Continue Reading »
On the Feast of the Assumption, it might be useful to post a few links explaining the dogma and the feast, since it is one of those matters on which First Things readers find themselves divided. And quite rightly, because it expresses deep differences in the way we understand the Church, read . . . . Continue Reading »
In The Economist , Catholicism, and Europe , Samuel Gregg gives that magazine’s coverage of religion qualified praise, as better than usual “though it usually slips in one of the usual secularist bromides, as if to reassure its audiences that its keeping a critical . . . . Continue Reading »