Sean Carroll is a physicist who sometimes dabbles uncomprehendingly in philosophy, as in his entrée into the New Atheist genre, The Big Picture. In it, Carroll repeatedly and exasperatingly assumes his conclusion (there is no supernatural reality, therefore there is no supernatural reality), adopts a materialism-of-the-gaps outlook (any gap in our understanding of physical things […]
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Astonishment
Astonishment What is it about a newborn baby that evokes such a gushing, emotional reaction in us? We’ve all seen infants before; it’s not entirely new in the history of the world. There would be no history as such, if there weren’t a continual renewal of mankind down through generations. And yet, we see a […]
Read more...Heart of Darkness
This is a review of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. What presumption, to review at this date a classic like Heart of Darkness. Not only am I going ahead with a review, but I have the audacity to tell you I didn’t like it and why I can’t join the horde telling us how great […]
Read more...The Chosen
A review of The Chosen, by Chaim Potok I’ve long been a reader of literary fiction, and had it in mind that I would be a natural as a writer because of it. I was wrong. You learn a lot by reading, obviously, and it’s certainly true that writing will come easier if your reading […]
Read more...The Science of God
Review of The Science of God, the Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom, by Gerald Schroeder Gerald Schroeder was a physicist who studied the God of the Bible and science side-by-side, to try to make sense of the whole of reality. I appreciate that he doesn’t try to ignore physical evidence that science provides, about […]
Read more...Strong Gods
Disenchantment In Milan Kundera, I introduced his concept of subjective “lightness of Being,” citing his novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being. I read that book probably 35 years ago, but it sprang to mind instantly upon reading an article by R.R. Reno. He is the editor-in-chief of First Things magazine, and his article published there […]
Read more...Milan Kundera
Milan Kundera wrote The Unbearable Lightness of Being. It resonated with me when I read it in the 80’s, but then I put it aside for lo these many years. Recently I read an important article by R.R. Reno which brought it back to mind. I’ll tell you why in Strong Gods, but first let’s […]
Read more...Dolts and DNA
Review of A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived, by Adam Rutherford. I picked up this book because it was reviewed in the Review section of the Wall Street Journal, to which I repair religiously on Saturdays. I had in mind to get current on the state of DNA research, after hearing so much hoopla […]
Read more...Pagan Christmas
A sincere believing relative bemoaned the crass commercialization of Christmas. My reaction: “It’s worse than you think.” I mean it cheerfully, actually. I’ll try to explain. People do the whole Christmas thing regardless of their beliefs because it’s fun. There’s nothing inherently evil in it, and there’s some good. So I don’t think there’s any […]
Read more...Silence
Liam Neeson has just the right kind of face for the concerned sincerity that you would expect the devil to have. He was well-cast in this Martin Scorcese movie. Silence is about two kinds of silence: the putative silence of God about His own existence, and then that silence requited by man’s. In the early […]
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