Category Archives: culture

Mortifying

Posted on September 4, 2010 by Andrew Stuttaford

The frontier between religion and cult is ill-defined, but after reading this article in the Daily Mail it’s difficult not to conclude that one of the crossing points is to be found on London’s Chelsea Embankment: Sarah Cassidy is the … Continue reading →

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Religion & the state of Laïcité

Posted on September 4, 2010 by David Hume

The Christian Science Monitor has an interesting article on the rise of evangelical Protestantism among French Gyspies, and how that differentiates them from eastern European Roma in their anti-social tendencies: The Gypsy Evangelicals in Chaumont, France counter any stereotype. They … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, politics | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Christianity, the West, and Americanism

Posted on September 3, 2010 by David Hume

In broad brushes I agree with Daniel Larison: One of the things that always bothered me about George Bush’s revolutionary rhetoric was how he identified the expansion of political freedom with God’s design for man, which makes God’s plan one … Continue reading →

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On experts

Posted on August 31, 2010 by David Hume

On the Left right now they’re passing around a paper which suggests that immigration boosts median income. Since the modern American elite Left is pro-immigration they naturally take a shine to such papers, and my own impression from talking to … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, history | Tagged | 8 Comments

Judge them by their actions

Posted on August 30, 2010 by David Hume

Recently on bloggingheads.tv Michael Brendan Dougherty, a professing Catholic, suggested that anti-Catholic movements in 19th century America had a point. In this Dougherty seems to be aligning with Ross Douthat’s implication, that American reaction drove American Catholicism to counter-reaction, and … Continue reading →

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Wanting to Believe

Posted on August 28, 2010 by Andrew Stuttaford

Religion or, to put it more loosely, “spirituality”, will always be with us. The only question is the form that it will take. This entertaining piece from the Daily Telegraph about crop circles is, in its own way, a reminder … Continue reading →

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Apocalypse Now (Please)

Posted on August 22, 2010 by Andrew Stuttaford

I’ve long suspected that amongst those who believe that the apocalypse is just round the corner, a certain vanity may well be at work – the belief that their time is somehow special. Now there’s this from Scientific American Some … Continue reading →

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Science in Action

Posted on August 22, 2010 by Andrew Stuttaford

Via the Daily Mail: It’s the latest must-have accessory for the world’s biggest stars and it costs just £20. Robert De Niro, David Beckham, Gerard Butler, Demi Moore and Kate Middleton have all taken to wearing ‘mystical’ black silicone wrist … Continue reading →

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Che!

Posted on August 21, 2010 by Andrew Stuttaford

The cult of Che Guevara (all those posters and tee-shirts, not to speak of the recent movie hagiography) is a persistent—and rather annoying—reminder of the way that the crimes of communism still rank oddly low in the popular imagination. But … Continue reading →

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Why Obama is likely to be privately irreligious

Posted on August 21, 2010 by David Hume

The heritability of religiosity is modest in the American environment. In some environments, such as Saudi Arabia, a normal range in variation in religiosity obviously can not express itself. But under more relaxed conditions it seems that around half of … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, politics | Tagged , , | 13 Comments