Atlantis Found?

Maybe, maybe not. Who knows. But interesting nonetheless simply because of the sheer mystery of it all.

Taking the Hard Line

Feser (see previous post) has something to say about what he believes to be the purpose behind college education today:

Whatever bland official statement of purpose might appear in the introduction to a modern university's college catalog, its true raison d'etre is in practice nothing other than to destroy utterly whatever allegiance a young person might have to traditional conceptions in morality, religion, politics and culture, to "do dirt" on the faith of his fathers, on his country, and on what most human beings have historically understood to be the imperatives of decency. It is, in short, to propagate Leftism.

I don't know if I'd put it that strongly. In other words, I don't think that most profs are wittingly out on a search and destry mission. But it's a good general description of the situation.

Doubting Thomas

To quote Edward Feser, Thomas Nagel in The Last Word, "acknowledges that it is a "fear of religion" among contemporary intellectuals that keeps them from facing up to the deep problems facing naturalistic attempts to account for the nature of the human mind and human knowledge"

I speak from experience, being strongly subject to this fear myself: I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn't just that I don't believe in God and, naturally, hope that I'm right in my belief. It's that I hope there is no God! I don't want there to be a God; I don't want the universe to be like that. My guess is that this cosmic authority problem is not a rare condition and that it is responsible for much of the scientism and reductionism of our time. One of the tendencies it supports is the ludicrous overuse of evolutionary biology to explain everything about human life, including everything about the human mind.Wow.

That's quite an admission. Amazing. Believers aren't the only ones beset by doubts. By no means.

Feser's lead-up to the Nagel quote also frames the question of theism in a refreshing and novel manner:

The hoary "science vs. religion" conflict is, then, a myth. What exists in reality is a dispute between rival metaphysical systems: the theism, dualism, and Platonism of traditional Western philosophy and the modern naturalism or materialism that is less a result of modern science than an ideologically secularist interpretation of it. But for contemporary intellectuals there is, we might say, public relations value in maintaining the fiction that there is a war between science per se and religion, and that religion is losing: it is easier thereby to insinuate that in the real battle -- the philosophical one -- the "naturalists" rather than their opponents ought to be given the benefit of the doubt. There is, again, no rational justification for such an attitude; but there is a motive, which the philosopher Thomas Nagel has given voice to in a moment of frankness rare among the members of his profession.

The entire article, which I've linked to previously, is marvelous, and I can't recommend it highly enough. Tip: Don't let the breezy tone fool you. Read slowly and carefully. And don't miss the trees for the forest.

Bibliophilia and Real Estate

A retired professor couple moves to NYC and the main consideration is: Is there room for the books?

The whole thing's worth the read, but the last bit is priceless. Maybe now my wife will realize that I'm not the only guy like this:

...Now, Mr. Cole has a secluded study with its own window, though a brick-wall view. He sold or gave away 5,000 books. While setting up the remaining 10,000, he forgot how heavy books are. He stacked them on the mattress, which hasn't been the same since....

Mr. Cole is often asked whether he has read all those books. His answer: Of course not. But, "I think I have at one time or another consulted them," he said. "A number of them, I am still waiting to consult."

Marvelous! What fun!

What they Wrote

I was just about to get down to the task of cataloging the catalogs of some 17th and 18th century composers when I stumbled across this. This is a great start. So great in fact, I probably won't invest any more time in the project.

Rice: Renaissance Woman

Meant to blog this a while ago. Condi, she's somethin' else.

7/7/5

"Grand Union" Flag (1776). Source: Flagspot

Remember 7/7.

Cool Metaphors

Spoted at The Corner today:

Cooler than an ice sculpture of Elvis in the freezer at Graceland.

Cooler than argyle socks at a software engineers convention.

Reminds me of the old standby: Cooler than the flipside of a pillow.

Population Doom in Europe

It's not news, but this is a take I've not heard before: What's it mean for the environment and the landscape that makes Europe so postcard perfect? A fascinating article answers:

Such numbers are a harbinger of the future. Home to 22 of the world's 25 lowest-birthrate countries, Europe will lose 41 million people by 2030 even with continued immigration, according to the latest U.N. Population Division report. The biggest decline will hit rural Europe. As Italians, Spaniards, Germans and others produce barely half the children needed to maintain the status quo—and rural flight continues to suck people into Europe's suburbs and cities—the countryside will lose close to a third of its population, say both the United Nations and the EU. "It's a triple time bomb," says University of Lisbon demographer Nuno da Costa. "Too few children, too many old people and too many of the remaining young people still leaving the village."

The implications of this transformation touch on everything from tourism to retirement locales to government conservation and agricultural policies. Our postcard view of Europe, after all, is of a continent where every scrap of land has long been farmed, fenced off and settled, where every tree has been measured, counted and named. But the continent of the future may look rather different. "Big parts of Europe will renaturalize," says Reiner Klingholz, head of the Berlin Institute for Population Development. Bears are back in Austria. In Swiss alpine valleys, farms have been receding and forests are growing back in. In parts of France and Germany, wildcats and ospreys have re-established their range.

So how's Europe to halt the population drain? Whether it wants to or not, it may end up importing Arabs. States George Weigel: “Demographic vacuums do not remain unfilled - especially when the demographic vacuum in question is a continent possessed of immense economic resources.” How's the name Eurabia strike you?

More at the Corner (click here and scroll down).

Happy 4th from Scotland

Via The Corner, this article in the Scotsman:

No other country has embedded the "pursuit of happiness" - the great goal of mankind - in the foundations of the state; nowhere else is the idea of liberty so revered. There is such a thing as an American sensibility and it can be felt from the Baltic to the Pacific.

Could the United States be doing better? Wrong question. If not America, then who? No-one, that's who. At its best, America and American ideals remain, in Lincoln's famous words, "the last, best hope of mankind". The United States still believes in a place called hope.

The article's an amazing piece of work, especially as it comes to us from across the water.

What Happened to Reason in the World?

I can't get enough of stuff like this:

While the world debated whether an American guard at Guantanamo really flushed a Koran down a toilet, Robert Mugabe may have bulldozed the homes of 1.5 million Zimbabweans.

Few seem to have cared.

To do so would be a messy, complicated thing — lecturing a black third-world leader to stop tormenting his own poor; pleading with other African states not to allow the genesis of another Rwanda; and, probably, being embarrassed by someone who doesn’t give a hoot what a Western elite liberal says.

Mao, whose minions killed somewhere between 40 and 50 million, is still popular in China. That Communist country is deemed by many Western allies as less of a threat than the United States and its elected president, who routinely appears with a Hitler-moustache in European demonstrations.

The new general rule: Global morality is established by the degree the United States can be blamed. Millions of lives lost, vast corruption, thousands of refugees — all that can’t quite equate with a U.S. soldier showing insensitivity or an American detention center with mere doctors, ethnic food, and religious accommodations.

Hanson does it again. Here's the whole thing.

What Kind of Reader Are You?

Wonderful insight and advice for readers from John Derbyshire, frequent reviewer of books:

Some, like me, read for money; some read for self-advancement or -improvement; some read for pleasure. I recommend you figure out which kind of reader you are, and read accordingly. Speaking very broadly and generally, I wish more people would read for pleasure. It's hard to argue against self-improvement, though.

That's the whole quote. I sure wish he would write more on that head.

When I grow up...

I should like to be Mark Helprin.

New Trinity Baroque

There's a new early music group in Atlanta under the leadership of Predrag Gosta and John Holloway, two early music legends. I only wish they were in LA. New Trinity Baroque's web site is well worth the visit.