Neil deGrasse Tyson with James Trefil: COSMIC QUERIES

Posted on Thursday 10 September 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: StarTalk’s Guide to Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We’re Going
(National Geographic, 2021, 311pp, including 22pp acknowledgements, further reading, illustrations credits, index, and about the authors.)

Like Tyson’s one-year later book, TO INFINITY AND BEYOND (reviewed here), this is a heavily illustrated book published by National Geographic and associated with his podcast StarTalk (https://startalkmedia.com/) which I only see snippets of on Facebook. The coauthors of the two books are different; the later one was Lindsey Nyx Walker, this one is the rather more prominent James Trefil, an author of books and photography books himself.

This one is more fundamental that the 2023 book, focusing on the basic big questions about humanity, our place in the universe, the size and age of the universe, and its past and future. Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, Book Notes, Cosmology, Science | Leave a comment

The Battle

Posted on Wednesday 9 September 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • How the erosion of the 20th century’s “liberal consensus” began to crumble under Ronald Reagan;
  • Conservatives lying with fake photos, photoshops, bogus census reports, and more.
– – –

Heather Cox Richardson has told this story. (See my review.)

NY Times, Jonathan Kaufman, today: Blame Ronald Reagan

Richardson told of a so-called “liberal consensus” arising out of the post-World War II era that was steadily attacked by conservatives, especially racists and religious right, in the 1960s. This writer finds another key moment.
Continue reading →

Posted in Human Nature, Politics | Comments Off on The Battle

Adam Kirsch: THE REVOLT AGAINST HUMANITY

Posted on Wednesday 9 September 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: Imagining a Future Without Us
(Columbia Global Reports, 2023, 100pp, including 2pp of further reading.)

Here’s a small book with some provocative ideas I didn’t anticipate from the title. It’s from a publishing imprint of Columbia University called Columbia Global Reports, and indeed it reads like a survey of ideas, citing many particular writers and books, more than it reads like a thesis by the writer. And he’s read a lot more books than I have, and he’s summarizing them. The author is described as a poet and literary critic.

The gist is the conflict between two visions of humanity that both entail the coming nonexistence of the race as we know it: Anthropocene antihumanism, that says our climate is doomed and humanity should welcome its own extinction, and Transhumanism, that looks forward to how genetic engineering and AI will lead to new forms of life superior to humans. Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Human Nature, Human Progress, Meaning | Comments Off on Adam Kirsch: THE REVOLT AGAINST HUMANITY

Star Trek at 60

Posted on Tuesday 8 September 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • The 60th anniversary of Star Trek, and some personal recollections;
  • Items about AI solving a math problem; how Trump doesn’t understand what trade means; how Trump claims more and more countries, and also the moon; Trump objecting to Canadian Bombardier planes, which support thousands of US jobs; how Hegseth encourages “Have a blessed day” and the like on US bases.
– – –

NPR, today: 60 years later, ‘Star Trek’ continues to ‘live long and prosper’

and

LA Times, today: ‘Star Trek’ is celebrating its 60th anniversary. Why its optimistic vision of the future endures

  • As “Star Trek” marks 60 years, the creatives, stars and fans of the franchise reflect on its lasting influence and enduring legacy.
  • The original series used diverse crews and allegorical storytelling to champion inclusion, collaboration and optimism — tenents that continue today.

I see today is the 60th anniversary of the premiere of the original Star Trek show, back in 1966. Continue reading →

Posted in Personal history, Star Trek | Comments Off on Star Trek at 60

Is the World Becoming Too Complex for Ordinary Human Cognition?

Posted on Monday 7 September 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • The “time tax” and the unavoidable complexity of society;
  • The value of liberal education;
– – –

Here’s more about the new book about the so-called “time tax.”

The Atlantic, Adam Harris, today: How the Government Wastes Our Time, subtitled “What do we lose in the hours spent filling out paperwork?”
Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Human Nature | Comments Off on Is the World Becoming Too Complex for Ordinary Human Cognition?

Alain de Botton: RELIGION FOR ATHEISTS

Posted on Monday 7 September 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: A Non-believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion
(Pantheon, March 2012, 320pp, including 8pp acknowledgements, picture credits, and index.)

This is a book by the pop-philosopher (I don’t think that’s an unfair term) and writer best know for HOW PROUST CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE in 1997 and THE CONSOLATIONS OF PHILOSOPHY in 2000. This book has its own Wikipedia entry, which summarizes its mixed reviews. I’m not so much concerned as whether reviewers found it incomplete or facile, as whether there are any good ideas. And more broadly, to suggest how religion is just a variation on theme of human nature sometimes put toward other ends.

Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Culture, Religion | Comments Off on Alain de Botton: RELIGION FOR ATHEISTS

A Defense of Evangelicalism?

Posted on Sunday 6 September 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Two items about an evangelist defending her faith;
  • Mahler’s 3rd.
– – –

Two pieces about an evangelist who is defending her ‘culture.’ Reading them now. What is she defending exactly? Anything about her actual religion?

First, from the evangelist herself.

Washington Post, Bonnie Kristian, 4 Sept 2026: I’m an evangelical. My faith isn’t ‘a cancer.’, subtitled “The stereotypes don’t line up with reality.”
Continue reading →

Posted in Lunacy, Music, Religion | Comments Off on A Defense of Evangelicalism?

Peter Singer: THE EXPANDING CIRCLE

Posted on Sunday 6 September 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress.
(First published 1981. This edition, with a new preface and afterword: Princeton University Press, 2011, xviii + 208pp, including 35pp of notes on sources, afterword, and index.)


I had thought this book was about a particular famous idea attributed to Singer: that the ‘expanding circle’ of moral concern or empathy might extend even beyond fellow human beings to animals, at least to some degree. And maybe someday to AI. But the book is much more: in its extension of E.O. Wilson’s ideas in his 1975 book SOCIOBIOLOGY, and it’s a good sketch of how we understand human nature in light of evolution and the heredity environment.

And coincidentally, it’s a corrective to the simplistic theological thinking of C.S. Lewis. It’s a good primer into some of what we understand about the origins of human nature. And also coincidentally, it dovetails with some of the ideas in the Todd May book I read just before this.
Continue reading →

Posted in Human Nature, Philosophy, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Peter Singer: THE EXPANDING CIRCLE

Wendell Berry and Conservative Thinking

Posted on Saturday 5 September 2026 by Mark R. Kelly
  • Two essays about Wendell Berry and his kind of short-term-thinking conservatism;
  • How Sam Alito makes millions from encouraging climate disaster;
  • Quick links.
– – –

I don’t have a lot to say about Wendell Berry, the poet and essayist who died this past week. I was aware of him, and I even have one of his books: LIFE IS A MIRACLE, subtitled “An Essay Against Modern Superstition,” published in 2000, a screed against E.O. Wilson’s 1998 CONSILIENCE (reviewed here), which, I gather from the dust jacket, casts science as a bully and industry shill. (There’s no index, and I haven’t sat down to read the whole thing.) As far as I can tell, this book made no impression on Wilson and his later thinking, nor on anyone else. There is no Wikipedia entry for it.

We can get some idea of Berry’s other thinking from the various tributes this week.

LA Times, 3 Sept 2026: Wendell Berry, celebrated author and fierce defender of agrarian life, dies at 92
Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives | Comments Off on Wendell Berry and Conservative Thinking

C.S. Lewis: MERE CHRISTIANITY

Posted on Friday 4 September 2026 by Mark R. Kelly

(First published 1952. This edition: HarperOne, trade paperback, 2001, xx + 227pp)

This is famous as one of the most popular ‘apologetics’ for Christianity. (Coincidentally, I did recently see a poll of the most popular books about Christianity of the 20th century, and this was #1.) I’ve heard about it for years, mainly for its claim that Jesus was either really God, or a liar, or he was crazy. Therefore, obviously!

Unlike most books I read, I didn’t come to this one expecting to ‘agree’ with it, or even to learn anything factual from it, but rather to learn what kind of arguments Christians find persuasive. In this book these arguments boil down to two types: Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Religion | Comments Off on C.S. Lewis: MERE CHRISTIANITY