Inequality can have a bad downside, but equality, for its part, sure does get in the way of coordination.

Some scholars have been arguing that a civilizational clash between organized religions is the next step in human history.

I have increasingly, over the years, felt that religion today does our civilization more harm than good.

The natural response of the old-timers is to build a strong moral wall against the outside. This is where the world starts to be painted in black and white, saints inside, and sinners outside the wall.

It is very reasonable to worry about the harm done by organized religion, and to prefer looser and more private arrangements.

The history of the Church of Rome is a constant leakage of members into such breakaway cults, which go on splitting.

Where there is dirt there is system. Dirt is the byproduct of a systematic ordering and classification of matter.