Why Faith Isn’t a Virtue

(Patheos::Godless in Dixie) – Neil Carter:

Every moral belief should be subject to scrutiny. That’s the only way to ensure we haven’t simply internalized someone else’s value system as our own. I would argue that is a primitive, less mature way of approaching life. Maybe it’s okay for very small children, but a good parent tries as early as possible to teach their children why something is good or bad. That’s the only way to equip your child to make their own decisions when presented with newer, more complicated moral questions as they grow older. There will come a day when you won’t be around to tell them what to do, and they will likely face complex situations you could never have anticipated so many years before. …

godlessindixie faith-isnt-a-virtue

The Invisible City Beneath Paris

(New Yorker::Page-Turner) – Robert Macfarlane:

Under the southern portion of the city exists its negative image: a network of more than two hundred miles of galleries, rooms, and chambers.

My last sight of the sun is a westerly blaze under rain clouds. At dusk, we push through a door in a wall marked “Interdit d’entrer,” slip through a hole in a chain-link fence, scramble down to a railway line, and crunch along the tracks toward the brick arch of a tunnel. The cutting banks are tangled with acacia trees and wild clematis. Apartment blocks rise above the cutting on both sides. Once in the railway tunnel, we keep between the tracks, because what little light there is glints on the metal and shows us the way. …

newyorker beneath-paris