The arrogance of the "new atheists"

Some great points. An excerpt:

Which brings me to the problem with modern atheism, embodied by the likes of Harris and Hitchens, authors of "The End of Faith" and "God Is Not Great," respectively. So often it seems like a conversation ender, not a conversation starter. And the loudest voices of today's militant atheism, for all their talk of rational thought, don't seem to want to do too much thinking at all. As James Wood wrote in The New Yorker, "The new atheists do not speak to the millions of people whose form of religion is far from the embodied certainties of contemporary literalism. Indeed, it is a settled assumption of this kind of atheism that there are no intelligent religious believers."

Saints who were writers

Great list.

15 cities in gingerbread

Neat!

The coolest iPhone app ever?

This is amazing. It's an app where you can point the iPhone's camera at text in a foreign language, and it makes it appear as English (or whatever language you set it to appear as).

Listen for Epaminondas's trumpet

A must-read post for anyone who feels like their project is crashing and burning.

How the Japanese multiply

Neat!


via Faith & Family

Treasures in Heaven

A touching post by a mom who was trying to inspire her kids not to hoard their possessions, and ended up getting some painful, unexpected lessons herself.

The Scorpion Master!

7 great books for young adults

Wonderful list.

The blessings of cancer

A thoughtful, inspiring essay written by Bishop John T. Steinbock after his own cancer diagnosis.

"There's no escape from the cow"

A post detailing all the products that are made from cows.

via the Cynical Christian

Great quote

"The Catholic writer, in so far as he has the mind of the Church, will feel life from the standpoint of the central Christian mystery: that it has for all its horror, been found by God to be worth dying for."

--Flannery O’Connor

Climbing to the top of a 1,700 ft. tower

This video is just crazy. Amazing.