Rückkehr nach der bayrischen Heimat

In commentary accompanying The Hebrew paradox, a part of the series Genesis for the Rest of Us, the ubiquitous blog reader A. Nonny Mouse posed "the Kierkegaardian question: what do you believe in?" I've left plenty of hints, but the time has come to be explicit. I am a Catholic. That gives me plenty of room to justify a quick note on Pope Benedict XVI's return to Bavaria.

As the New York Times' coverage of the pope's homecoming suggests, Benedict faces a European church that is shrinking even as interest in religion among Europeans is experiencing an uptick. No surprise there. As Daniel Dennett observes in Breaking the Spell, religion is scarcely immune from the evolutionary pressures that simultaneously propel and discipline all memes.

Jurisdynamics readers intrepid enough to visit over the weekend will now get a hint at where I ultimately intend to take Genesis for the rest of us. In many and various ways Truth spoke of old to our forebears by revelation; but in these last days she has spoken to us by science. Yet Beauty retains her own allure, and neither science nor modern living can satiate our yearning for Truth's elusive sister. Never, never can we kiss, though winning near the goal.