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Dixie, U.S.A.

I went in search of Dixie, and discovered that I could find only traces of it. On a ten-day driving trip in late May with my wife through the lower South—Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, the Florida panhandle, Georgia—I encountered little of the Deep South of my cultural . . . . Continue Reading »

Stem Cells and False Hopes

We have all witnessed the transforming power of hope—the focus and sustenance hope provides when strength and reason fail to pull us through a difficult situation. Facing tragedy and loss, hope is often the only thing standing between us and the void. Life-threatening illnesses or injuries . . . . Continue Reading »

Scandal Time III

So, will there be further installments of this running commentary, Scandal Time IV through XIV, ad infinitum? Maybe not. After the Dallas meeting of bishops, some believe that while the fire is not extinguished, it appears to be contained. Dallas was about many things—there were moving, even . . . . Continue Reading »

Briefly Noted 45

Darwin’s Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society . By David Sloan Wilson. University of Chicago Press. 260 pp. $25. This is a lucid and entertaining addition to the long list of recent books on what evolutionary theory can tell us about religion. Its author teaches biology and . . . . Continue Reading »

Return to Reason

Stephen Toulmin’s Return to Reason provides an occasion to reflect on the remarkable fact that our faith in reason is currently on the decline—and that our professors are taking the lead in killing it. Of course that part of reasoning that involves the ability to calculate and create is . . . . Continue Reading »

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