How does religion affect peoples lives, even if they aren religious personally?
Why would a fascist country like Italy have the highest Jewish survivorship in Nazi-occupied Europe? What did Osama bin Laden mean when he said that 9/11 was revenge for “the catastrophe?” How come nobody in the West remembers the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference, if it was so important? I’m used to having big chewy ideas to structure my reading, and I enjoy the research my books have required. But the whole time I’m reading, I’m also thinking about the best way to convey what I’m learning. That’s the craft, the artistry — balancing content with conveyance. Neurobiologists have found that learning is easier when the emotions are in play. If information comes through the limbic system, the connections are much faster. That’s why you can remember things about movies so much easier than you can remember geometry formulae. With a movie, ideally, you’ve not only got a ton of sensory data, you’ve also character, plot, drama, surprise, humor — all limbic system stuff. So as I read, I pay close a
