Man Overboard, a New York Times Magazine cover story by Paul Tough, about John Aldridge, A Montauk, NY based commercial fisherman who fell overboard forty miles offshore in the Atlantic Ocean at 3:30 am on July 24th last year, is an extraordinary story of perseverance and survival. The water temperature was 72 degrees with five foot swells. His chances of being rescued were minimal due to the fact that his two crew members didn’t realize that he fell overboard until nearly three hours afterwards when they awoke. Through a combination of courage, ingenuity, and sheer willpower, Mr. Aldridge managed to stay afloat for nearly twelve hours before a coastguard helicopter spotted him. The rescue operation involved volunteer fisherman as well as professionals with a rare happy ending given the circumstances! read more

Samuel Scheffler, professor of philosophy and law at NYU, makes an argument in a New York Times Sunday Review article that we need to believe in an afterlife not necessarily because the Soul lives on but because without a belief in the survival of humanity our sense of purpose here would be thrown into disarray. Think what would happen if we knew an asteroid would end humanity just after we died? Would we care about cancer research or better engineering or many other professions that deal with an extended future for mankind? And what about having children? It’s both interesting and thought provoking to consider the necessity of an afterlife from this perspective! read more