Often we humans hold on to systems that are no longer as vital or as meaningful as they once were because we cannot envisage a way forward without them.

Spencer Burke. A HERETICS GUIDE TO ETERNITY.

Pop music often tells you everything is OK, while rock music tells you that it's not OK, but you can change it. There's a defiance in rock music that gives you a reason to get out of bed in the morning. Most pop music doesn't make you want to get out of bed, I'm sorry to say. It puts you to sleep.

Bono

The scientific view is the skeletal form of modernity, and it has influenced and shaped very aspect of our lives. Science and scientific rationalism offered us two things that were meant to replace our hunger for the divine -- secularism and technology....
Secularism is a way of looking at the world apart from the language and rules of the gods....Science took the place of God, offering answers and giving meaning to life....
Secularism's partner, technology, pitched the aSsurance of a better future and the guarantee of unending progress.

Spencer Burke. A HERETIC'S GUIDE TO ETERNITY.

The language of the modern world was the printed and spoken word....Postmoderns have fallen in love with the screen the way moderns fell in love with the book. They are post-Gutenberg. It's the screen that has authority, magic and soulfulness. But media is not a zero sum game -- look at the text messages on our phones.

Leonard Sweet. SUMMONED TO LEAD.

When we experience pain, our deepest passion is to escape the bludgeons of assault, betrayal, and loss....each of us in our own way tries to dull the intensity of our groaning....

Ignoring our emotions is turning our back on reality; listening to our emotions ushers us into reality. And reality is where we meet God.

Dan Allender. CRY OF THE SOUL: HOW OUR EMOTIONS REVEAL OUR DEEPEST QUESTIONS ABOUT GOD.

Harvard economist Ed Glaeser, an expert on city economies, argues that communications technology and face-to-face interactions are complements like salt and pepper, rather than substitutes like butter and margarine. Paradoxically, your cell phone, email, and Facebook networks are making it more attractive to meet people in the flesh....

One day, perhaps, virtual communication will become so good we'll no longer feel the need to shake hands with a new collaborator or brainstorm in the same room. But for now, the world seems to be changing in a way that actually demands more meetings. Business is more innovative, and its processes more complex. That demands tacit knowledge, collaboration, and trust — all things that seem to follow best from person-to-person meetings. "Ideas are more important than ever," Glaeser says, "and the most important ideas are communicated face-to-face."

Tim Harford. How Email Brings You Closer to the Guy in the Next Cubicle.