Sunspots 78

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Politics:
Ken Schenck, a professor of New Testament, on why he doesn't think present-day Israel should get any special privileges from Christians. Among other reasons, he says there are more Palestinian Christians than Israeli ones. He says that 85% of Israelis aren't even practicing Jews.

Review of Andrew Sullivan's The Conservative Soul in the New York Times Book Review (free log-in may be required) by David Brooks, who has some important things to say about what conservatism should be. (So does Sullivan, a Reagan/Thatcher conservative, who is more concerned with where the Republican Party has gone wrong.)

Computing:
OpenOffice, a free alternative to Microsoft Office, has a new release.

Science:
(I'm not sure this belongs in the Science category. Maybe philosophy. Anyway. . .) Review of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, probably the most widely-read critic of religion in English, in the New York Times Book Review (free log-in may be required). Jim Holt has some serious criticisms of Dawkins.

Literature:
Deborah Cullins Smith has written a splendid piece on writing fantastic (and other) literature that really appeals to non-Christians. She mentions Madeleine L'Engle as an example. Sample:
But if you choose to write fiction, particularly spec-fic, remember that the reader is buying your book to escape into another world. Create characters that will take the readers by the hand and coax them down Alice's rabbit hole. Build worlds that capture them so completely, they're ready to pack up the family space ship and fly away.

Christianity:
Bonnie, at Intellectuelle, on the role of church buildings in worship and congregational stewardship.

Some thoughts on praying in the Spirit .

This week's Christian Carnival is here . (For information on locating these Carnivals, see here.)

When I don't tell where I found an item above, I either found it directly, or was probably pointed to it by the Librarian's Internet Index, SciTech Daily, or Arts and Letters Daily. All of these sources are great.

Thanks for reading! Keep clicking away.

Image source (public domain)