* The 48th Philosophers' Carnival is up at "common sense philosophy".
* Michael Tkacz lists some reasons why people of Thomistic inclinations tend not to be enthusiastic about 'intelligent design theory'. (ht: DarwinCatholic) It reminds me in some ways of Kenneth Miller's essay on Catholicism and evolution from two years ago.
* Chu-Carroll had a review of Behe's new book recently.
* If We Taught English the Way We Teach Math (ht)
* A post on the Prisoners' Dilemma at "Grey Matters" (ibid)
* Steve Vogel relates why the Pentagon is pentagonal. (ht)
* I'm currently re-reading Wayne John Hankey's review of Menn vs. the postmodernists on Descartes and Augustine. While he scores some genuine points in favor of Menn against the postmodern interpreters of the Augustine-Descartes relation, I'm inclined to think that Marion in particular is not so easily answered. That Descartes is in some sense Augustinian is very true; this was always known, and has been re-stated in greater detail than ever before by Menn and Janowski. But it is one thing to say that the roots of Descartes are in Augustine and another to say that there is a real continuity between the two, because the Cartesian Augustine is undeniably fragmentary and decontextualized. When you start putting the fragments into their places, Augustine and Descartes, despite occasionally saying similar things, start looking very different, despite occasional resemblances. In any case, see also Hankey's discussion of the postmodern Augustine.
* The recent SCOBA pastoral letter on suicide is reasonably good.
* It is a sad thing when patriarchs make fools of themselves. (ht) God have mercy on us all.
UPDATE:
* The Golden Compass trailer is out, and has been for a while, although I just saw it today; it looks good. Anactoria points out that Angelina Jolie would probably have been a better casting decision than Nicole Kidman for the role of Mrs. Coulter; we'll have to see.
* It's an interesting day in the Anglican calendar: it's the memorial for Pope John XXIII; he gets into the Protestant calendar by being understood as a reformer of the Church.
