Libsyn Directory

Meta-Competition and the Downfall of Civilization [Essay]

Release Date: 03/05/2026

Everyone is Counting on a Civilization-Level Deus ex Machina

We Are Not Saved

I. I attended the a few weekends ago. For those unfamiliar with the organization (most of you, I suspect) Faith Matters is an independent, privately run LDS nonprofit that defines itself as a ““ I attended a handful of sessions, and in several of them this “radiance” was on full display. But for the purposes of this post I’d like to focus on one in particular. This presentation started in an unradiant manner. The speaker opened by listing all of the problems faced by the modern world. I don’t recall everything he listed, but I know that climate change and political unrest were in...

After the Fall - What We Should Have Done in the ’90s?

We Are Not Saved

I. When I I stopped posting book reviews to this space, and started posting them to Notes. My idea was that I would then do one long book review every month and also link to all the reviews I had done through , so that anyone who was really interested in my take on the great historical novel, , or alternatively the queer, postmodern New Testament essay collection, could see that I had in fact opined on both and click through on whichever one actually interested them. That is still the plan, but on top of that I have the urge to use this space to ruminate. Whenever I ask someone to critique...

Does Not the Line Always Go Up?

We Are Not Saved

While everyone else is talking about AI, I’m going to engage in an exegesis of a single verse in the Old Testament, and yet somehow AI will still sneak in!

Whither Writing (A Ten-Year Retrospective)

We Are Not Saved

Is there some deeper meaning to the traffic cone on Sherlock’s head? Or is it just silly vandalism? Most people seemed to think it was the latter, but I think it was a hidden symbol of some mystery. How could it not be? I. June 25 was the tenth anniversary of my blog. I understand that, traditionally, an anniversary post would come out on the actual day, or at least the same week, but I blew past the occasion without even realizing it. And then, even when I did realize it, I was too busy with other stuff to jump on it. In fact I haven’t posted anything since July 3. I must have been...

The Knowledge Machine How Irrationality Created Modern Science

We Are Not Saved

This was my entry to the 2026 ACX Book Review Contest. Given that it was, sadly, judged inadequate to the high standards of the ACX readership, I must now inflict it on you. Hopefully, with your obviously lower standards, you’ll enjoy it. It is ridiculously long. These warnings aside, I would urge you to at least read parts one and two. The Knowledge Machine: How Irrationality Created Modern Science By: Michael Strevens 0. Why This Book? Out of the tens of millions of books ever written over the centuries, why review this one? Because science is the secret to the creation of the modern world...

Let Him Have Thy Legos Also - [Essay]

We Are Not Saved

I. If you don’t live in Utah, you may not have heard that the Great Salt Lake is in trouble. It’s been rapidly dwindling in size and depth, and while it’s never going to disappear entirely (though look at the ), there are always issues when an environment goes through a rapid transformation. The big worry is that the lake will become so salty that even brine shrimp and brine flies can no longer survive. This would eliminate a major source of food for migrating birds, while at the same time a shrinking lake also removes the wetlands they use for mid-migration habitat. There are other...

The Desecration of Man - Say No to Nietzsche

We Are Not Saved

The Desecration of Man: How the Rejection of God Degrades Our Humanity By: Carl R. Trueman Published: 2026 256 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? In the standard story of the transition from the premodern to the modern, the world has gradually been disenchanted. Depending on who you are, this is either a good thing, a sad thing, or a mixed thing. Trueman’s contention is that disenchantment has, over the last few decades, transitioned to desecration. In his telling, the modern world hasn’t just outgrown the sacred, it’s rebelled against it. Much like a headstrong teenager might...

Four Books on the End (Or at Least the Plateauing) of Civilization

We Are Not Saved

Do Not Go Gentle - State Provided Death is Incoherent

We Are Not Saved

Do Not Go Gentle: The Case Against Assisted Death By: Kathleen Stock Published: 2026 304 pages Briefly, what is this book about? The general topic is right there in the subtitle, but Stock separates out two distinct ideological foundations. There are those who consider assisted death (a term she prefers over “assisted dying”) to be a way of eliminating suffering. And then there are those who view it as a principle of liberty: If we allow people absolute bodily autonomy, why should someone be prevented from choosing to end their life? One problem with having two ideologies is that they...

Annihilation – A (Very French) Biography of the "Last Man"

We Are Not Saved

Annihilation: A Novel By: Michel Houellebecq Translated by: Shaun Whiteside Published: 2022 (English translation 2024) 544 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? Houellebecq is a well-known French author, and this book felt very French to me. What does that mean? Good question… Certainly there is a lot of wine drinking, a fair number of R-rated sex scenes, and French politics plays a major part as well. Mostly I think there’s a lushness, and a lack of action or even conclusion, which reads more as European decadence than the typical American delusion I’m used to. I opened with a...

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Or how America went from the platonic ideal of goal-scoring to the messy theatricality of flopping. And whether we can stop it before someone get's stoned in the forum.

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