Alex Michael

She notes that rejection of religion has not reigned in the utopia of reason as the New Atheists hoped. All that happened was that the religious instinct was unconsciously transferred to the political realms. Having zealot-level convictions for your political aims without the accompanying humility (believing in a higher power), things tend to get n... See more

“I have a view that is uncommon among social scientists, which is that moral revolutions are real and they change our culture,” Robert Putnam told me. In the early 20th century, a group of liberal Christians, including the pastor Walter Rauschenbusch, urged other Christians to expand their faith from a narrow concern for personal salvation to a pub... See more

Our agency is getting big. That’s something to be happy about. But it’s something to worry about, too, and I don’t mind telling you I’m damned worried. I’m worried that we’re going to fall into the trap of bigness, that we’re going to worship techniques instead of substance, that we’re going to follow history instead of making it, that we’re going ... See more