Dragging the net

My recent Claremont Review of Books review of Scruton’s Soul of the World and Wilson’s The Meaning of Human Existenceis now available for free online.
Should we expect a sound proof to convince everyone?  Michael Augros investigates at Strange Notions (in an excerpt from his new book Who Designed the Designer? A Rediscovered Path to God's Existence ).
Intrigue!  Conspiracy!  Comic books!  First, where did the idea for Spider-Man really come from?  The New York Post reports on a Brooklyn costume shop and an alleged “billion dollar cover up.”
Then, according to Variety, a new documentary reveals the untold story behind Roger Corman’s notorious never-released Fantastic Four movie.  (I’ve seen the new one.  It’s only almostas bad as you’ve heard.)The notion of curved space has had predictivesuccess.  But does it make metaphysical sense? At Philosophy Now, Raymond Tallis expresses his doubts.

At National Review, John O’Sullivan on Robert Conquest and his obituaries.
The famous 1968 televised duel between Bill Buckley and Gore Vidal is recounted in a new documentary, as reported by New York magazine and The Weekly Standard .
In New Statesman, John Gray on the F. A. Hayek he knew.
Did the making of the Planned Parenthood sting videos really involve lying?  At Crisis, Monica Migliorino Miller answers in the negative.  Some commentary on Miller from Brandon Watson at Siris.
The New York Review of Books gives two cheers for the Middle Ages.  And Atlas Obscura exposes the myth of the medieval chastity belt.
Atheist philosopher of religion William L. Rowe has died.
Whatever happened to the guys behind the greatly underrated, ahead-of-its-time movie Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow?  The Telegraph reports .
At Salon, Camille Paglia attacks the myth of the open-minded and well-informed liberal.
Scientism: The New Orthodoxy , edited by Richard N. Williams and Daniel N. Robinson, is reviewed at Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.
Massimo Pigliucci, at The Philosophers’ Magazine, on a false dichotomy that prevails in post-9/11 discussion of Islam.