Net worth

In Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being, he laments the ephemeral quality of all our actions. Now that our time is increasingly ramped up and shot through cyberspace, here’s an ongoing compilation of websites, both Christian and non-Christian, that carry some weight in our globalized community.

aldaily.com

Veritas Odit Moras – “Truth hates delay.” It’s the motto of influential website Arts and Letters Daily, a compilation of book reviews and essays for hungry minded intellectuals who yearn for the latest in culture, politics, and debate.

Imagine the most important articles in the world of ideas posted free of charge – everything from biographies of great literary figures, the first skewering of Richard Dawkin’s famously bad arguments in The God Delusion, a critique of faddish eco-spirituality, or an in-depth analysis of Al Qaeda’s propaganda. The site acts almost as a corollary to a liberal arts education.

Edited by New Zealand professor of aesthetics Denis Dutton, it has been lauded for open intellectual debate, serving up opinions that matter – always balanced between historical analysis and contemporary savvy. The site is full of links to top English language journals, magazines, and newspapers, and the stunning array of articles posted are kept in searchable archives. If you don’t have the cash (or time) to sift through the New Yorker, Economist, New Republic, etc., you can still link to articles by the best writers, barbed in summarized form:

Catherine the Great was a curiosity in her day, now bewitching, now confusing her critics and supporters. Oddly, just like Vladimir Putin.

“Truth,” Richard Rorty remarked, “is what your contemporaries let you get away with saying.” No wonder he was hated . . .

Be prepared to wade through unfriendly attacks on religion and petty academic gossip, but rest assured that you’re coming to terms with the inner-workings of contemporary society.

Readers are encouraged to send their favourite website descriptions to Andrew Siebert.