Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther, a German monk, initiated a split in Christianity that came to be known as the Protestant Reformation. After the Reformation, deep divisions between Protestants and Catholics contributed to wars, hostility and violence in Europe and America. For centuries, each side denounced the other and sought to convert its followers.
READ MOREMy daughter is a baker. When people ask her what she wants to be when she grows up, she responds breezily: “A baker, but I already am one.” You see, with unschooling there is no postponement of living and doing. There is no preparation for some amorphous future, no working toward something unknown. There is
READ MOREOne never knows these days what to expect out of college campuses. It seems that every time one turns around, somebody’s sensitivity is being offended. Such was the case the other week at the University of Maryland at College Park. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, college officials met to discuss ‘hate symbols’ and
READ MOREIn October the New York Times asked a question: “Why Are More American Teenagers Than Ever Suffering From Severe Anxiety?” Writing at Psychology Today, psychotherapist Amy Morin offers 10 reasons: 1. Electronics offer an unhealthy escape. 2. Happiness is all the rage. 3. Parents are giving unrealistic praise. 4. Parents are getting caught up in
READ MOREBarbara Simons is a female computer scientist, which means she’s in a minority in the male-dominated computer field. But she is also a part of a significant minority of tech minds who think that we ought to go back to paper ballots in order to ensure proper security. Simons, a retired pioneer researcher at IBM
READ MOREThere is a commercial familiar to anyone who grew up in the 1980s. It involves a white rat in a cage furiously attacking a pill. “Only one drug is so addictive nine out of ten laboratory rats will use it … and use it … and use it,” a raspy voice murmurs, “until dead.” The
READ MOREIn his 1993 book The Catholic Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, the late Christian philosopher Michael Novak wrote that certain cultures are more likely to favor capitalism. Among them were the following: Confucian, Jewish, Protestant, and Northern European Catholic. These cultures, Novak argued, possessed certain commonalities that made them more likely to engage in
READ MOREIn recent years there has been much talk about American exceptionalism. Does it—or does it not—exist? Are we truly a unique people—or are we not? Well before all this talk, G.K. Chesterton weighed in on the side of the American exceptionalists. The United States, he wrote, was the only nation “with the soul of a
READ MOREMost of us are familiar with the genetic differences between men and women. Men have X and Y sex chromosomes, and women have two X chromosomes. We know that genes on these chromosomes may act differently in men and women. But a recent paper claims that beyond just genes on X and Y, a full
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