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I find it interesting that when Tim Keller thinks about the institutions necessary for the emergence of evangelicalism he immediately thinks of “a couple of key seminaries laid the groundwork for the movement, and Crusade, InterVarsity, and Navigators raised up the foot soldiers.” College ministry matters.

The Rise of New Calvinism, the Internet, and Two Other Factors

Tim Challies adds an important element to the ongoing discussion: the internet. I put forth two additional factors: making things free and building organizations.Tim Challies adds an important element…

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First, I find it interesting that the guy is not actually an atheist, although I can understand why they chose the title. Second, I found this bit at the end very insightful:
“Q: Can’t you do a project of this scope at a top university like Caltech?

Koch: No. Universities are great at producing individual scientists who are brilliant at pushing new ideas, but the entire scientific endeavor is constructed on the notion of being hyper-competitive and as different as possible from other people. Otherwise, you don’t get a Ph.D. You don’t get tenure. You don’t get grants. You don’t get papers in high profile journals. So it’s very difficult to focus an enormous amount of research in a disciplined way.”

On Reconciling Atheism and Meaning in the Universe

“Romantic reductionist” neuroscientist Christof Koch discusses the search for meaning in the world of science, and the philosophical influence of working with Francis Crick.

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Scott Adams is, in my estimation, one of the most gifted humor writers alive today.

http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2012–08-29/

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The answer: around 97%.

What percentage of couples are happily married? » Leadership Network

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Yikes. China gonna fall down go boom.

Christopher Balding on the real risk in China

In the past 5–8 years, and especially the past 3, China has built an enormous amount of stuff that nobody wants, needs, or uses. Fueled by a lending boom that began in late 2008 and tripled total len…

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This is unsurprising, as is other research I have seen suggesting that a surprising number of atheists pray. Disbelieving in God goes against our nature.

Underneath it all, do atheists believe things happen for a reason? — Barking up the wrong tree

Barking up the wrong tree. I want to understand why we do what we do and use the answers to be awesome at life. Happiness · Expertise. About. Eric Barker; First visit? Start here. Bakadesuyo.com is pr…

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Wow. The wages of sin is death…

Man Gets Ebola … From Phone He Stole

A Ugandan thief got a serious lesson in why you shouldn’t steal, particularly from people with deadly diseases. After breaking into a hospital isolation ward earlier this month and stealing a cell… …

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I find the idea that students start performing better as soon as they find out the results of the lottery fascinating. So much of life is about perspective and expectations.

Freakonomics » Evidence on School Choice

We then examine the impact attending a chosen school has on student test score outcomes. We find substantial test score gains from attending a charter school and some evidence that choosing and attend…

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I’ve long been a China skeptic because of things such as the ghost cities, but I must confess I never really considered the opportunity costs of their actions the way he highlights them here.

From the excellent Yichuan (Lulu) Wang

You all should be following him, or so it would seem to me. Here are excerpts from his post What China Could Be Building: The real risk is not that the housing won’t be used, but that the crash would…

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I have a lot of friends from Singapore and so I’ve heard a lot of Singaporean stories, but this one is over-the-top even for Singapore. Wow.

The culture that is Singapore

A Singapore property developer is targeting the super rich with parking problems by marketing luxury apartments that allow owners to keep their cars next to their living rooms, even if they are on the…