English comedian, writer and ardent atheist Stephen Fry recently appeared on the Irish TV show The Meaning of Life with host Gay Byrne, who asked him what he’d say if he were “confronted by God” at the pearly gates, after his death. Fry chuckled, and then proceeded to shock his host by answering: “I’d say: ‘Bone cancer in children? What’s that about? How dare you! How dare you create a world where there is such misery that is not our fault. It’s not right. It’s utterly, utterly evil. Why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid God who creates a world which is so full of injustice and pain?’ That’s what I’d say.” Fry’s answer impressed many atheists, but one Read More ›

Nietzsche was wrong and tragic and, in the end, insane. But at least he was brave and honest. Brave enough to stare into the abyss and honest enough to report back what he saw there. He would be disgusted by the puerile, simpering cowardice that characterizes atheism in the 21st century. In Beyond Good and Evil Nietzsche writes of those who have cast off the restraints and bonds of the past: “Need I say expressly after all this that they will be free, VERY free spirit . . .” And from their vantage point of freedom these new philosophers will look down with contempt on those who espouse the ideals of Christianity and liberal democracy: What [those espousing love and Read More ›

Dominic Patten writes: Days into the controversy over whether or not he was in a helicopter that took enemy fire in Iraq in 2003, as he has claimed over the years, the NBC Nightly News anchor today told staff in a memo that he is temporarily stepping away from the anchor desk. Jaw dropping, just draw dropping. Even someone who is supposed to be a trained observer can write a gobsmackingly stupid lede. And did this person have no editor?

(Readers may remember Scruton from “Roger Scruton helps Richard Dawkins’ “meme” find its way to the wastebasket”) Here: Interesting here is the case of George Rochberg, the American composer who joined the post-war cult of serialism and made his own highly competent contributions to the genre, before admitting to himself, following the tragic death of his teenage son, that serialism is empty of expressive content, and could not be a vehicle for his grief. It took courage for Rochberg then to do what his artistic conscience told him to do, and to return to the classical tradition. “There is no greater provincialism,” he wrote in 1969, “than that special form of sophistication and arrogance which denies the past.” Thereafter Rochberg Read More ›