News From NPR

Pages

Shootings In Newtown, Conn.
6:03 pm
Wed December 19, 2012

In Faith, Finding Answers To 'The Mystery Of Evil'

Credit Emmanuel Dunand / Getty Images
People gather for a prayer vigil at St. Rose Church in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14. In the aftermath of such tragedies, many people ask how a benevolent God and suffering can coexist.

Originally published on Wed December 19, 2012 6:47 pm

When a human tragedy occurs on the scale of the Newtown shootings, clergy are invariably asked an ancient question: If God is all-knowing, all-powerful and benevolent, why does he allow such misfortunes?

There's even a word for reconciling this paradox: theodicy, or attempting to justify God's goodness despite the existence of evil and suffering.

A World Both Beautiful And Shattered

Read more
The Salt
5:41 pm
Wed December 19, 2012

Mealworms Beat Meat For A Place On The Menu In Environmental Study

Credit Ed Oudenaarden / AFP/Getty Images
A woman takes a bite of a mealworm pie in the Hague, Netherlands.

Originally published on Thu December 20, 2012 9:04 am

Want to eat sustainably? Then eat bugs.

That's the word from the Dutch, who are doing their best to make a scientific case for the environmental benefits of insect proteins. Reduce greenhouse gases? Check. Produce more edible protein while using less land than more traditional livestock? Check.

Read more
The Two-Way
5:36 pm
Wed December 19, 2012

Newtown Teacher And Students Remembered For The Light They Brought

Mourners attended funerals for three children and a first-grade teacher in Newtown, Conn., Wednesday, the third day of services for the victims of a mass shooting that has reignited debate over gun control in the U.S.

Victoria Leigh Soto, 27, is the first Sandy Hook Elementary School teacher to be laid to rest.

Read more
Around the Nation
5:00 pm
Wed December 19, 2012

What Are The Odds Of Gun Control Changes?

Credit Elaine Thompson / AP
A clerk peers out from a gun shop in Seattle on Wednesday.

Originally published on Wed December 19, 2012 7:35 pm

Advocates of stricter gun control legislation are hoping that history will not repeat itself.

Last Friday's shootings at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., have shaken the country, but it's unclear whether the intense feelings of the moment will translate into legislative action. Many times in the past, outrage over gun violence has dissipated before Congress has chosen to act.

Read more
It's All Politics
4:42 pm
Wed December 19, 2012

Robert Bork's Supreme Court Nomination 'Changed Everything, Maybe Forever'

Originally published on Wed December 19, 2012 8:31 pm

Robert Bork, whose failed Supreme Court nomination provoked a lasting partisan divide over judicial nominations, died Wednesday at age 85.

A former federal judge and conservative legal theorist, he subsequently became a hero to modern-day conservatives. And as solicitor general in the Nixon administration, he played a small but crucial role in the Watergate crisis. In what came to be known as the Saturday Night Massacre, he fired Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox after the attorney general and deputy attorney general refused President Nixon's firing order and quit.

Read more

Pages