Maybe.   But, even if so, perhaps not in exactly the way or precisely for the reason that some imagine:   http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2014/04/09/is-the-internet-killing-religion/   An interesting topic, worthy of consideration.  And perhaps a practically useful one:  If religious believers want to address the rise of the “nones,” they need to try to understand the reason(s) behind it.   Posted from Erfurt, Germany   Read more

    Last night, my wife and I attended an organ concert in the Predigerkirche, the “Preacher Church,” a medieval Dominican structure dating back to the 1200s.  (It was transformed into an Evangelical Lutheran church during the Reformation, and it remains a Protestant church still today.)   Among the previous organists at the Predigerkirche were Johannes Bach, the progenitor of the entire Bach musical line (including Johann Sebastian Bach), and Johann Pachelbel.   But the church is most famous because,... Read more

    Unsavory practices and uncanny resemblances:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/422573/planned-parenthood-body-parts-eugenics   Posted from Erfurt, Germany     Read more

    It may be that some of my critics have an excuse for perpetually being so very grumpy:   http://nypost.com/2015/08/10/belief-in-god-really-does-make-you-feel-better-study-suggests/   It’s almost enough to make me feel sorry for them.   Almost.   Posted from Erfurt, Germany     Read more

    It’s very likely that two new members will be added to the Council of the Twelve at general conference in October, if not before.   Will they be chosen by their skin color?   By their place of origin?  By their palatability to feminists and/or theological leftists?  By their capacity to represent some specific portion of the LDS demographic?   http://ldsmag.com/how-will-the-two-new-apostles-be-chosen/   Posted from Erfurt, Germany     Read more

    http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/nearly-200-retired-generals-tell-congress-reject-iran-deal_1019212.html#   Posted from Erfurt, Germany   Read more

    An unfortunate mess:   http://www.sltrib.com/news/2615369-155/debate-about-science-standards-pits-faithful?fullpage=   Just so my own position is clear:  I believe that schools ought to teach the best and most current science that they can teach.   Not to do so will be to put our students at a terrible disadvantage and to embarrass ourselves.  Among other bad things.   Posted from Erfurt, Germany     Read more

    You don’t have to be a theist to notice the strikingly precise numbers that make our existence possible.  This author, for example, supplies no indications that he’s a believer:   http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/23/science/humankinds-existentially-lucky-numbers.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Fraw-data&contentCollection=science&action=click&module=NextInCollection&region=Footer&pgtype=article   But the numbers are indeed remarkable.   And, unless one simply wants to throw one’s hands up in resignation and remain incurious, they demand to be explained.   Posted from Erfurt, Germany     Read more

    “Certainly all historical experience confirms the truth — that man would not have attained the possible unless time and again he had reached out for the impossible.” Max Weber, illustrious German social theorist (arguably the founder of sociology), born in Erfurt in 1864)   Posted from Erfurt, Germany Read more

    The first is by Dr. Charles C. W. Cooke:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/422988/terrorist-attack-french-train-armed-civilians   It makes a very important point.   As does the second, by Mona Charen:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/423044/european-train-heroes-masculinity   Her ringing defense of . . . well, manliness won’t be well received in certain quarters.  Those quarters may, in the present circumstances, be suicidal.   Posted from Erfurt, Germany     Read more