Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2603

Rationality And Well-Being

by Zoe Pollock

The eternal fight over religion and rhetoric was reignited this week, fueled by the basic question: should atheists should be nicer? Quinn O'Neill at 3QD voted for moderation:

Let's assume that the value of reason ultimately lies in its ability
to improve well-being.  Reason and empiricism have brought us great
scientific discoveries, lifesaving medicines, and technologies that
our lives longer and healthier.  It's undeniable that rationality can
improve well-being.

It...

Everything Is Illuminated

by Zoe Pollock

New York based Photographer Cara Phillips describes her latest project, Ultraviolet Beauties:

Many medi-spas and dermatologists take reflective ultraviolet photographs to show patients their 'future' skin. Even though there is no guarantee that this unseen damage will ever appear, beauty professionals and doctors still use these images to sell treatments to their clients and patients... The idea was to offer pedestrians a chance to see their possible future and reconsider the...

As Long As This Exists

by Zoe Pollock

Bonnie Alter has found a nice epitaph for the death of the long-sick chestnut tree outside Anne Frank's attic, which finally fell this week under heavy winds. From Anne's own diary in February of 1944:

Nearly every morning I go to the attic to blow the stuffy air out of my lungs. From my favorite spot on the floor I look up at the blue sky and the bare chestnut tree, on whose branches little raindrops shine, appearing like silver, and at the seagulls and other birds as they...

Can Church Be Hip? Ctd

by Chris Bodenner

A reader writes:

I've found the recent debate about spiritual music fascinating, but I have to take issue with a comment a reader recently made:

I could see these pieces in a "Christian coffeehouse."  But if the "hip" emergent church or the megachurches have begun using this sort of material for "worship," then they have departed even further than I realized from thousands of years of Judeo-Christian tradition for gathered celebration and supplication.  And in that case, the...

Summer Skin

by Zoe Pollock

In another of Caroline Lazar reports from McSweeney's "Oh My Gawd: A Column About A Teenager Navigating Religion" we get her very contemporary and contemplative read on the end of the season:

We pack up trunks of summer skin and easy living in our attics to prepare for the chill of fall but the ream of summer scenes of the sun pinching our cheeks can stay in frames on the wall until next year. Until then, we can continue to search for summer in our worn bathing suits and straw...

In Defense Of Casual Sex

by Zoe Pollock

Tracy Clark-Flory rejoiced after science finally confirmed her long held belief that hookup culture doesn't kill off all chances for love:

University of Iowa sociologist Anthony Paik's survey of 642 adults in Chicago initially found that "average relationship quality was higher for individuals who waited until things were serious to have sex compared to those who became sexually involved in 'hookups,' 'friends with benefits,' or casual dating relationships," according to a press...

The Big C

by Zoe Pollock

Troy Patterson reviews the new Laura Linney program:

If we must take away any "messages" from The Big C —and the show, a gently mordant comedy about a
42-year-old cancer patient, insists that we try a small few—then chief
among them is this: Dying well is the best revenge.

Laura Linney - Cancer - Comedy - Big C - Health

For Stupid's Sake

by Zoe Pollock

I don't entirely agree with this read on Judd Apatow's critical success, but it's an interesting take:

They strain to wring relevance out of Apatow's pro-family message. (Who in America is against families and children?) They strain to argue for his place in a tradition. They use him as a cudgel against flawed filmmakers who are both smarter and more ambitious than he is. All the while they miss the simple moving force behind the gratuitous cameos, the accumulating in-jokes, the...

Nicholas Cage As Pop Art

by Zoe Pollock

Alex Gurnham interviewed the artist Brandon Bird about his most recent foray into pop culture madness, starring Nicholas Cage:

I think that's really what pop art, or maybe even all
art, is about. Presenting something people encounter every
day in a way they had never considered. Whether that something is a
sunflower, or a soup can, or Sam Waterston's awesome face.

(Hat Tip: Utne)

(Image: Uncanny Valley by Brandon Bird)

Brandon Bird - Sam Waterston - Arts - Zoë ...

Peeing In The Pool Of Civil Discourse

by Zoe Pollock

After being compared to a Holocaust denier because of a piece he wrote criticizing Elie Wiesel, Terry Teachout fired back:

I'd like to think that anybody who read a piece (or a posting or tweet) in which I was compared to a Holocaust denier would simply roll his eyes and move on. But I'm old enough to know better. More and more of the American people are choosing to live in closed circles of collective concurrence, and I have no doubt that in certain of those circles, those who...