Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2625

The End Is Nigh

by Zoe Pollock

Scientific American devotes its entire next special issue to "the end." They explain some of our eternal fascination with it:

The desire to treat terrible
as the harbinger of the end of civilization itself ... has roots in
another human trait: vanity.

We all believe we live in an exceptional time, perhaps even a critical moment in the history of the species. Technology appears to have given us power over the atom, our genomes, the planet—with potentially dire...

Buried in Regulations

by Conor Friedersdorf

The Institute for Justice is an organization I mentioned in my post about pragmatic libertarianism. In their video above, they highlight a defense effort they're mounting on behalf of a group of monks. They make coffins to support their cloistered lifestyle. Unfortunately, Louisiana law says that only licensed funeral directors can sell coffins, because we all know how much consumer suffering is associated with wooden boxes inside of which your corpse decays. (Perhaps...

The Death Of A Child

by Patrick Appel

Tony Woodlief attends the burial of a friend's child. Woodlief lost his own daughter a few years back:

It is a hard cruel thing, closing the lid on your child's coffin. Whatno one tells you is that in the months and years to come, people willforget, but you will not. Something in you has died as well, and itawaits resurrection with your child's body. You will carry this hole inyou all your days, and there are no words or heavenly equations to makeit good, not so long as you...

A Sacred Space, Shared

by Zoe Pollock

Paul Moses has a nice roundup of how Pope John Paul II's withdrawal of a convent near Auschwitz has been used in arguments against the Cordoba Mosque. He then offers a different anecdote about the Pope, celebrating Mass in Manger Square in Bethlehem, in 2000:

The pope had just finished his homily, ending with "Assalamu alaikum," when the Muslim call to prayer broke forth from the loudspeakers at a mosque that bordered on Manger Square. It seemed, at first, like a rude...

Cool Radiance

by Zoe Pollock

Patrick Kurp reviews the work of Polish poet and essayist Zbigniew Herbert. A quote from Herbert's essay "Animula:"

I always wished I would never lose the belief that great works of the spirit are more objective than we are. And that they will judge us. Someone very rightly said that not only do we read Homer, look at frescoes of Giotto, listen to Mozart, but Homer, Giotto, and Mozart spy and eavesdrop on us and ascertain our vanity and stupidity. Poor utopians, history's...

The View From Your Window

Krakow, Poland, 6 am

Poland - Krakow - Provinces - Malopolskie - Kraków

"People Like Me"

by Zoe Pollock

Peter Sagal, NPR host of Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me reflects after a very bad bicycle accident:

Anybody who goes through this ends up with a lot of thoughts to process; it's quite literally a near-death experience (I'm pretty sure that without my helmet I'd either be dead or near it). Right now, though, instead of thinking about What I Should Be Doing With My Life Now That I've Got a Second Chance (chances are, I'll waste it reading blogs, like I do now) I'm just… amazed at the...

Religion Switching

by Zoe Pollock

Secular News Daily compares religion switching in the US and the UK:

Some things are similar. Most notably, a lot of people have converted to
'no religion'. Unlike the UK, however, some people move from 'No
religion' into a religious group. That hardly ever happens in the UK,
and perhaps reflects the social pressures on US individuals to be at
least nominally religious.

Religion - Religion and Spirituality - Religious studies - New Religious Movements - Acade...

Atheists Vs The Mosque, Ctd

by Patrick Appel

A reader writes:

I think it needs to be said that many of us atheists part way with the louder atheists out there when it comes to Islam or other blanket condemnations of religious people.

Though I agree with 90% of what the "new athiests" say in regards to belief and doubt, the movement will never amount to anything, because they ostracize way too many like-minded individuals. Fair enough I suppose, because most atheists are happy not belonging to a group. But I have to ask...

"During The Oath, He Raised His Hand Higher Than Anyone Else"

by Chris Bodenner

A reader writes:

Back in March, my husband went home to Nowshera, Pakistan to visit.  He took many photos, one of which you featured on March 16th as The View From Your Window. Thankfully, despite the massive flooding in Pakistan, that view is still the same.  Our family was very lucky to have all survived the flooding.  Since they  live far enough from the river, their house was spared.  My brother-in-law lost his shop, another brother-in-law lost a vehicle, and one...