No Authority As a practicing general pediatrician, I appreciated Dr. Leonard Sax’s article “Don’t Ask the Kids” in the October issue of First Things. Sax makes some very helpful suggestions for parents struggling to raise respectful children, but his emphasis is misplaced in advocating . . . . Continue Reading »
Culture I recently read Jonathan Price’s “Culture by Subtraction” (February) and thoroughly enjoyed it—not least because it grants the rather respectable name of “cultural habit” to what has so far been called my countrymen’s “arrogance”! When reading, I could not help wondering . . . . Continue Reading »
In 2003, Elizabeth Maguire, publisher of Basic Books, made a proposal: I should write Letters to a Young Catholic as part of a series she was doing that included volumes like Letters to a Young Contrarian, Letters to a Young Chef, Letters to a Young Golfer, Letters to a Young Lawyer, and so forth. . . . . Continue Reading »
Reward R. R. Reno reports that there’s a $10,000 reward for anyone who can change Sam Harris’s mind about strict materialism (“Rewriting Nature’s Laws,” May). I’ve read just a few sentences of Harris’s work, and all of it attempted to persuade. Of course if . . . . Continue Reading »
Defining Darwinisms At a time when many are attempting to foment a conflict between science and religion, Cardinal Dulles brings much-needed calm and clarity to the discussion of evolution (“God and Evolution,” October 2007). For too long, fundamentalist foes of evolution and . . . . Continue Reading »
Heated Debate Over Climate Marcuse had it right—science is no neutral arbiter of truth. That goes for the scientist arguing that humans are a major force in global warming and those who argue they aren’t. Thomas Derr (“The Politics of Global Warming,” August/September) illustrates this . . . . Continue Reading »
Living Religious Lives Permit me to add my own experience in support of “The Life and Death of Religious Life” by Fr. Benedict Groeschel (June/July). In the early 1970s, at age twenty-one, I found the courage to take the leap from Conservative Judaism into the Catholic Church. As one can . . . . Continue Reading »
Natural Law and Metaphysics I was puzzled by many aspects of Phillip E. Johnson’s exposition of the Grisez-Finnis natural law theory in his review of my book In Defense of Natural Law (November 1999). One mistake, however, is so fundamental and important that it cannot be passed over in silence. . . . . Continue Reading »
Man and Machine William A. Dembski’s “Are We Spiritual Machines?” (October 1999) challenges the spiritualistic materialism of strong Artificial Intelligence enthusiasts such as Marvin Minsky with arguments that are among the best I have ever seen. There are no doubt other Christians with Mr. . . . . Continue Reading »
The Real Story I read with interest and agreement Edward S. Shapiro’s “Blacks and Jews Entangled” (August/September). While there exist shared experiences of oppression, Shapiro notes quite correctly that a black-Jewish relationship should not be based on fanciful notions derived from . . . . Continue Reading »
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