Applied Epistemology

James Wood aptly observes: "Perhaps the disciples just meant more to Jesus than a few hundred thousand Asians." He does a good job explaining J.L. Mackie's old point that the free will defense is a total failure for traditional Christianity, since the notion of Heaven (e.g.) implies a world

Alan Wolfe (whom I have long regarded as one of America's most shallow public intellectuals) read a Pew study on religions around the world and draws the obvious conclusion: that religion is slowly dying. It's gratifying to find others draw the same conclusions I did a while back.

Bryce alerted me to the grief-stricken aftermath of Flower's passing.

Animal Planet's forums are worth a browse, assuming that you're not, say, a human being from Namibia, in which case you might get offended (or maybe just hungry for meerkat). This thread in particular is theologically penetrating:

...now includes The Year of Living Biblically. What started this genre? Diet books?

Here's a link to an interesting article about a study on the religious "beliefs" of American teenagers. It certainly fits with my own anecdotal evidence on the matter. And Rev. Al Sharpton offers confirmation that the American Religion is not merely a youth phenomenon as well:

So I'm scanning the news and the use of the present progressive tense in one headline momentarily baffles me:

"Giuliani Says Saddam Paying for Offenses"

All I can think for a moment is "is this a gaffe story where Rudy, talking off the cuff, forgets that Saddam is dead?" Then I realize the correct interpretation.

A generally well-done philosophy quiz.

Following a trend that has been building momentum since the 5th century, Benedict XVI looks ready to excise the dimension of Limbo from the Catholic manual of the planes. The LAT article actually does a fair job of noting that the underlying issue has to do with the necessity of baptism and original sin.