religiosity

... one of your child's high school teachers told his class that "evolution and the Big Bang were not scientific, that dinosaurs were aboard Noah's ark, and that only Christians had a place in heaven." Even worse, what if that teacher went on to say: "If you reject his gift of salvation, then you know where you belong.... He did everything in his power to make sure that you could go to heaven, so much so that he took your sins on his own body, suffered your pains for you, and he's saying, 'Please, accept me, believe.' If you reject that, you belong in hell." Well, it's all on tape, thanks to…
Sunday night's 60 Minutes wrapped up, as usual, with Andy Rooney's rambling commentary. He recently asked "what are we doing in Iraq" in a kind of Cronkite-esque moment, so I have made a point of watching him when I can, in hopes he might say something else with gravitas. Last night was almost such a moment: he dissed atheists. Apparently, among the many pieces of crap that viewers send him -- always unsolicited -- is a T-shirt warning that reading the Holy Bible can impair one's judgment. "Sent by an atheist I suppose. I don't know how many atheists there are in this country" was his…
Mr. Hayden, my high school librarian, used to toss me out of his bailiwick every few days for "pontificating," and I'm still trying to make up for lost time. So when a local congregation of the Unitarian Universalists asked me to deliver the equivalent of a sermon the other day, I didn't hesitate to accept the invitation. Though I never thought anyone associated with an organized religion, even one as non-orthodox as the UUs, would ever ask me to take part in their service, I am not one to turn down a platform from which I can ... well, pontificate. "What would you like me to talk about?" I…
Wired magazine's Gary Wolf tries to come to terms with what he calls the "New Atheists" by reviewing the latest Dawkins, Dennett and Harris books. (The God Delusion, Breaking the Spell and The End of Faith. and then interviewing the authors. There's some good stuff in his lengthy take on the subject, including ths scenario: IâRETURNâFROMâOXFORD enthusiastic for argument. I immediately begin trying out Dawkins' appeal in polite company. At dinner parties or over drinks, I ask people to declare themselves. "Who here is an atheist?" I ask. Usually, the first response is silence, accompanied by…
Razib's post about The Economist's review of Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion and the resulting comments got me thinking heavily on Dawkin's description of the religious indocrination of children as form of child abuse. In response to Razib's observations that "only in cases of clear and present abuse am I willing to allow the state to intervene. I don't consider religion abuse" I implied that almost all of us are willing to intervene, if the case is extreme enough. Cults, for example, often get even normally laissez faire types riled up and willing to separate child from parent. What it all…
Nature offers a publicly accessible summary of a new study that suggests a physiological explanation for, among other things, out-of-body experiences, ghosts, alien surveillance and "the creepy feeling that somebody is close by." This is yet another example of how we're learning that the human brain is capable of manufacturing a paranormal virtual reality. The scientific article (Arzy S., Seeck M., Ortigue S., Spinelli L.& Blanke O. Nature, 443. 287), refers to "a disturbance in the multisensory processing of body and self at the temporoparietal junction." In other words, errant…
I suppose it wouldn't be polite to celebrate the pending extinction of an entire culture, but what the heck? According to the New York Times, Zoroastrianism is about to go the way of Baal-worshipping. With "perhaps as few as 124,000" adherents left on the planet, and a death rate that exceeds the replacement rate, the future's not looking so bright the for musical inspiration for 2001: A Space Odyssey. From one perspective, this is a sad thing. Followers of Zoroaster are among the more reasonable monotheists. Zoroastrians believe in free will, so in matters of religion they do not believe in…
The first reports of the changing of the guard at the Vatican Observatory suggested evil-doing were afoot. The outgoing George Coyne is known as a stalwart defender of science and evolution in particular. But the Vatican later insisted Coyne was just tired of the job, which he had held for 30 years, Plus, it appears the poor guy had just had an operation to remove a tumor in his colon. His replacement, Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, has yet to make any objectionable remarks on that score and the celebratory remarks of some intelligent designer proponents would seem premature. And yet... And yet,…
Can someone please carry out a fact check on Katherine Harris' resume? Because I have to wonder about any institution that would bestow a degree on someone so ignorant of just about everything. Joan took a whack at her in the Refugee, but I want to grab the torch and run with it. What prompted this outburst was an interview the Republican candidate for one of Florida's Senate seats gave to the Florida Baptist Witness. Just about every word she uttered was an offence to reason and sanity. But to remain calm, I'll just settle on just one part: Question: What role do you think people of faith…
A paper due to be published next month by Adrian White, a psychologist at the University of Leicester, makes a sincere effort to compare global happiness rates. This sort of thing has been done before, and surprises are few. As you might expect, happiness is correlated with health, wealth and education. But what happens if you compare the happiness rankings with religiosity? Well, I'll show you. Back in the early days of the Island of Doubt, I wrote about an attempt to find any correlation between social well being and religious commitment. Self-taught sociologist Gregory Paul's study found…
You've heard of Jefferson's wall of separation between church and state? How about a wall of separation between church and store? According to the Globe and Mail, there is one now, between a new Wal-Mart outlet and a next-door religious retreat: After a 10-year battle with its Jesuit neighbours in Guelph, Ont., the giant U.S. retailer has agreed to hide its store so that it won't be seen or heard by people communing with the divine next door. In an agreement announced yesterday, Wal-Mart will install high berms designed by acoustical engineers and a "living wall" of willows and six-metre-high…
No sign yet that the science-and-religion debate is heating (or, as the Brits say, hotting) up in the public sphere, but a continuing and expanding dialog on the subject in EOS has been brought to my attention. What started as an appeal to include some philosophy in NASA's mission planning has morphed into an exploration of just how cozy scientists should be with those more concerned with matters more spiritual. It all began back in early 2005, when Robert Frodeman, a professor of philosophy and religion at the University of North Texas, wrote an essay (PDF) on "Space Policy and Humanities…
Former science columnist turned blogger and all-round wise old guy Chet Raymo writes on his blog today that his Irish neighbors don't understand what's going on in America when it comes to the ascendancy of religiosity. I don't have an answer, but his question suggests a possible answer to a problem identified, co-incidentally, in today's Science magazine. First, Chet's Irish friend's poser: What puzzles the Irish is how a nation unequaled in its scientific and technical prowess can at the same time be so in thrall to what they see as rank superstition. To their mind, there is little…
Barack Obama is right. Barack Obama is also wrong. Not only should this not be surprising, it should be welcome. Because no other position is tenable when it comes to the subject of the role of faith in politics. Obama, widely considered one of the brightest hopes for the Democrats come 2012 (if not 2008, as a candidate for Veep perhap?), gave a speech on appealing to secular voters at gathering of progressive Christians called the Call to Renewal Conference a couple of days ago. The reaction from the blogosphere includes some bewilderingly negative comments from those who want no truck nor…
So this guy sneaks into the lion's den at the Kiev Zoo. Shouts, "God will save me, if he exists," lowers himself by rope into the pen, takes off his shoes, and... According to Reuters:: ...one of the lions seized him by the throat. The man died at the scene. Surely a candidate for the Darwin Awards, no?