Category Archives: Christianity

The struggle for privacy

Tiffany Jenkins's wonderful Strangers and Intimates charts the rise and fall of the private sphere.

Book review by Neil Davenport.

Excerpt:

Born out of the Protestant Reformation and further developed during the Enlightenment, the private sphere was once a refuge from the public world, a space in which to think and reflect freely. A space in which one developed one’s autonomy. That space, Jenkins argues, is now vanishing before our eyes – and we’re no longer even sure what we’ve lost.

Why Science is Fundamentally Meaningless

Article by Todd Hayen.

Excerpt:

It is a rather bold statement.

Notice, however, I was careful to use the word “meaningless” rather than “useless.” “Usefulness” is usually determined by the intention behind the knowledge or action.

Considering my article title, I could have qualified even that statement with “beneficially meaningful,” but then the title would be too long.

So, then you might ask, “beneficially meaningful to whom?”—us (humans), animals, the planet, the universe? I may touch on this dilemma a bit in this article, but that question is more for philosophers and theologians. Briefly, I would say what is beneficially meaningful to any one of these things (humans, other animals, the planet, the universe) is also beneficially meaningful to the others.

Continue reading here.