“Here is a statistic that does matter: Three quarters of Americans believe the Bible teaches that “God helps those who help themselves.” That is, three out of four Americans believe that this uber-American idea, a notion at the core of our current individualist politics and culture, which was in fact uttered by Ben Franklin, actually appears in Holy Scripture. The thing is, not only is Franklin's wisdom not biblical; it's counter-biblical. Few ideas could be further from the gospel message, with its radical summons to love of neighbor. On this essential matter, most Americans—most American Christians—are simply wrong, as if 75 percent of American scientists believed that Newton proved gravity causes apples to fly up.”
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“There is a tendency at every important but difficult crossroad to pretend that it's not really there.”
― The End of Nature
― The End of Nature
“TV makes it so easy to postpone living for another half hour.”
― The Age of Missing Information
― The Age of Missing Information
“In fact, corporations are the infants of our society - they know very little except how to grow (though they're very good at that), and they howl when you set limits. Socializing them is the work of politics. It's about time we took it up again.”
― The Bill McKibben Reader: Pieces from an Active Life
― The Bill McKibben Reader: Pieces from an Active Life
Alasdair’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Alasdair’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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