Claire Conger

I just finished listening to Great Ideas of Classical Physics CDs (The Great Courses). At first I thought I wouldn’t be able to listen to it, but about fifteen minutes in, Steven Pollock’s voice took on a soothing familiarity that made me want to hear more.

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Have you ever had someone say that you were wasting your talent? Or the reverse, that you must not have genius because your work is so, well, popular?

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When I saw Steve Martin on the cover of Parade Magazine with the caption “Even in tough times you can afford to laugh,” I thought He’s a millionaire, what could he know about hard times?

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This morning, NPR science writer Joe Palca called creationism a “theory” and Darwin’s ideas “notions.” Now I think he’s got that backwards! (Darwin, Britain’s Hero, Is Still Controversial in U.S.)

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The “God” Part of the Brain: A Scientific Interpretation of Human Spirituality and God . . . and a Personal Journey (2006, originally published 1996) by Matthew Alper is an essay, really, and it’s hardly scientific. Rather the book is a general and incomplete survey of religious practice and persecution undertaken by the author ostensibly to discover for himself whether there is a God, a subject of interest to him because he knows that he will, one day, die.

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