Atheists or at least non-theists have been invaluable mentors and friends. Philosophy and many other fields have been enriched by contributions of atheist scholars. Just as Christianity contains “apologists” with no training or who get way ahead of the arguments (“No rational person can doubt God’s existence!”), so atheism attracts their own crazy aficionados. Dialog enough with either camp and you run into arguments or claims that the community of pop apologists or pop atheists accept, but that are indefensible in… Read more
June 12, 2019
The Five Worst “Arguments” (or Claims) Made by Internet Atheists
June 12, 2019 By John Mark N. Reynolds
June 11, 2019
The Artful Knavery of the Intellectual Class Today
June 11, 2019 By John Mark N. Reynolds
Too often education, even classical education, is training in pompous “assery:” training in the jargon of the spirit of the age berift of actual wisdom. Many teachers do something wonderful in one field (say mathematics) and use this to become gurus for all of life. Pythagoras, he of geometrical fame,* became such a public intellectual and not everybody was happy: 256 Pythagoras, son of Mnesarchus, practised enquiry beyond all other men and selecting these made them his own–wisdom, the learning… Read more
June 10, 2019
Be Wary Of Learning Many Things (Heraclitus!)
June 10, 2019 By John Mark N. Reynolds
Wisdom cannot be Googled. As a kid growing up, I did not have Google, but a public library and the World Book. There was a good side to my inability to Google, even if it meant finding a full list of Star Trek The Original Series Episodes was hard. My brother and I were interested in everything (not opera, that came later) and that meant, if we were not careful, we kept binge reading everything while mastering nothing: one week the… Read more
June 9, 2019
Daddy King (The Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr.) an Autobiography
June 9, 2019 By John Mark N. Reynolds
The famous son should not overshadow the great father: there would be no Martin Luther King Junior without the Senior. Sadly, most who try to understand the courage and convictions of Dr. King (Jr.) spend more time on his seminary life, a relatively short period of time, and less time on his lifelong relationship with his father. Don’t make that mistake: much of the best of King (Jr.) came from his parents and Daddy King: An Autobiography is a good place… Read more
June 8, 2019
Ancient Witches V: (Guest Voice: James Harrington)
June 8, 2019 By John Mark N. Reynolds
I asked for new voices and got some outstanding writers! Today we hear from the erudite James R. Harrington. James R. Harrington earned his M.A. in Ancient History at California State University Fulleron and is a member of the Torrey Honors Institute. James has been a classical educator in a variety of settings over the past thirteen years. He lives in Houston with his wife, Sharon, and their daughter. Harrington began with a series on shields in classical literature and… Read more
June 7, 2019
The Lonesome Gods (A Problem of the 1950’s Generation AND Louis L’Amour)
June 7, 2019 By John Mark N. Reynolds
If an American Christian thinks the 1950’s were Paradise, he knows nothing about the African-American experience or what was happening in the Academy. Much of American pop culture was in the grip of scientism, American triumphalism, and elitism. This also existed in our elite educational institutions and political parties where the difference between Republicans and Democrat leaders was not as great as appeared to be at the time: Eisenhower and Kennedy were intellectual siblings. There was good in those times, but… Read more
June 6, 2019
The Mistborn Trilogy: Provoking, Entertaining Fiction (And Bonus on our Mormon Neighbor)
June 6, 2019 By John Mark N. Reynolds
The Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson is the best fantasy series I have read in years. Recall, however, that fantasy as a genre is beset with Lord of the Rings look-a-likes and much that is terrible. This is not to praise Sanderson with faint damns, but to say that while not great literature, this is very good story telling and excellent world building all too rare in the genre. Why? Fans forget the depth of Tolkien came in part from his creating an extensive… Read more
June 5, 2019
D-Day 75: Rest In Peace Cousin Paul and Twenty-Somethings Get Ready for D-Day 150 Now
June 5, 2019 By John Mark N. Reynolds
Seventy-five years ago, Cousin Paul was on a landing craft helping liberate Europe from Naziism. He was a long way from Charleston, West Virginia. He never spoke much of that time to me or about his later time (after the Battle of the Bulge) in a German POW camp. Cousin Paul sat up in the craft watching the coast come closer until the bullets got too close for sight seeing. When the boat “landed,” he watched an officer step off… Read more
June 4, 2019
What no man should want: A Lesson from Harriet Vane (Dorothy Sayers)
June 4, 2019 By John Mark N. Reynolds
A curse might be that a male gets what he thinks he wants. If all men are mortal, as the logical syllogism asserts, then another assertion might be that most mortal men do not know what they want. When male desires are turned to women (the other gender), the probability of error is increased. Dorothy Sayers saw part of the problem for these men (God forgive me!) was a desire to make women dependent on men for meaning and happiness. Males make… Read more
June 3, 2019
Ten Books Not For the Summer of 2019, But For Every Summer
June 3, 2019 By John Mark N. Reynolds
The summer book is a good read, an entertaining read, a book that works after going to Disneyland or on the beach. (I never have read a book on the beach, because in my life that meant sandcastles, giant sand tunnels made with shovels and not umbrellas and drinks. Ask Hope, Randy, and Kate. They can confirm. Yet if you are going to beach with umbrellas, then these are the books that endure.) Here are my rules for enduring summer books: They must… Read more
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