The unseen influence of the Religious Right. The Curse of Religion. Mitt Romney's Mormonism: a truly American faith. Romney Is Mormons’ Path to the Christian Mainstream. During the 2008 presidential primary race, evangelical stalwart Mike Huckabee darkly hinted that Mitt Romney might believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers.
This time around, Romney is the featured graduation speaker at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University. What changed? In the short-term world of party politics, the answer is that everybody loves a winner -- even the people who tried to beat him in the first place. Evangelicals will have to vote for the presumptive Republican nominee unless they want to stay home and effectively cast their votes for President Barack Obama. Romney may be a Mormon, but Obama is worse, even for those who acknowledge that he is not (gasp) a Muslim. What is more, evangelicals had a disastrously bad primary season. No doubt there are Tea Party evangelicals, too. Architectures of violence: Famine and profits.
When considering starvation, context is everything.
This fact is easily illustrated. Consider, for a moment, the actions of David Blaine, the US magician, who in 2003 spent 44 days in a six-foot-by-three-foot plexiglas chamber suspended in the air near Tower Bridge, London, without any food. Horror Stories From Tough-Love Teen Homes. Photos: New Bethany Alumni; Barbed Wire: Brian Hagiwara/Getty Images. Physics and the Immortality of the Soul. [Cross-posted at Scientific American Blogs.
Thanks to Bora Z. for the invitation.] Article. Are human beings naturally religious? Göbekli Tepe. By Charles C.
Mann Photograph by Vincent J. Musi. American Humanist Association. New Humanist (Rationalist Association) - discussing humanism, rationalism, atheism and free thought. The Flaws in Defending Morality With Religion. When we think of those opposed to homosexuality – which still sounds weird to me, like opposing left-handed people* – or stem-cell research or euthanasia, we tend conclude they’re justifying themselves because of religion.
But, as with almost anything underpinned by religion, the pendulum swings both ways: religious people also support these. Secularism and Its Discontents. I have a friend, an analytic philosopher and convinced atheist, who told me that she sometimes wakes in the middle of the night, anxiously turning over a series of ultimate questions: “How can it be that this world is the result of an accidental big bang?
How could there be no design, no metaphysical purpose? Can it be that every life—beginning with my own, my husband’s, my child’s, and spreading outward—is cosmically irrelevant?” In the current intellectual climate, atheists are not supposed to have such thoughts. Are Believers Really Happier Than Atheists? Alain de Botton, a prominent writer and outspoken atheist, has a grand vision to nurture a truly secular society.
He foresees awe-inspiring monuments dedicated to nature. Museum and hotel designs would encourage contemplative thought and self-improvement. Psychotherapists would occupy offices in accessible yet glamorous boutiques, providing easy opportunities for supportive interactions with others. The Limits of Secularism. Isaiah Berlin: A secular Jew but a loyal Jew In 1830 a young French aristocrat visited the United States to see the new phenomenon of American democracy built on the principled separation of Church and state.
He naturally expected to find a secular society, a place where religion, having been deprived of power, had no influence either. What he found was exactly the opposite: a society that was very religious indeed, a society in which religion was, in his words, "the first of its political institutions" — or, as we would say today, the first of its civil institutions. Is Atheism Increasing at the Expense of Theism? - Science and Religion Today. From Gregory Paul, an independent paleontologist and researcher who examines the relationship between religion and society: In recent years, there has been lots of discussion and debate about whether atheism or theism is on the rise around the world.
A good deal of the answer can be found in results from the International Social Survey Program. In its Religion II survey conducted in 1998 and Religion III survey sampled in 2008 and just released (why the ISSP is so tardy in releasing its results is obscure), the ISSP asked the same set of questions in 28 countries, allowing assessment of gross longitudinal trends over a decade (because their Religion 1 poll in 1991 asked different questions in far fewer countries, it is not very longitudinally useful).
Christianity and the rise of western science – ABC Religion & Ethics. It is often assumed that the relationship between Christianity and science has been a long and troubled one.
Such assumptions draw support from a variety of sources. There are contemporary controversies about evolution and creation, for example, which are thought to typify past relations between science and religion. This view is reinforced by popular accounts of such historical episodes as the Condemnation of Galileo, which saw the Catholic Church censure Galileo for teaching that the earth revolved around the sun. Adding further credence to this view of history are a few recent outspoken critics of religion who vociferously contend that religious faith is incompatible with a scientific outlook, and that this has always been the case. Atheism in America. Godlessness is the last big taboo in the US, where non-believers face discrimination and isolation Point, Texas (pop. 792) is not the easiest place for a single lesbian to raise her child. But neither her sexuality nor her unwed parenthood are enough to make Renee Johnson an American conservative’s worst nightmare. As she explained to me when I met her at Rains County Library, “I’d rather have a big ‘L’ or ‘lesbian’ written across my shirt than a big ‘A’ or ‘atheist’, because people are going to handle it better.”
We had met in a private room because Johnson worried that anywhere else in the town, people might overhear us and be offended by her godlessness. No wonder she often feels alone in her non-belief. The Passion of the New Atheists? The Future Will Be More Religious and Conservative Than You Think. Bideford council’s convoluted court case. What is the proper place for religion in Britain's public life? God as cosmic CCTV. Quack Prophet. Biography. Islam. Nazi racial ideology was religious, creationist and opposed to Darwinism. Hitler's faith: The debate over Nazism and religion – Opinion – ABC Religion & Ethics. Breakthroughs in Faith. Are East Germans the world's most godless people. It was Leipzig-born Friedrich Nietzche who wrote that "God is dead" in the 1880s. As far as his fellow East Germans are concerned, he may have been on to something. A recent study by University of Chicago sociologist Tom Smith looks at survey data on belief in God in 30 countries between 1991 and 2008.
The citizens of the former German Democratic Republic have by far the highest rate of atheism at 52.1 percent. The Czech Republic is the most atheist currently existing country at 39.9 percent. They're followed by the French (23.3 percent), the Dutch (19.7 percent), and the Swedes (19.3 percent). A fine-tuned universe argues for atheism. New Humanist (Rationalist Association) - discussing humanism, rationalism, atheism and free thought.
A new Gallup poll has found that almost half of Americans hold creationist view. Asked to choose between three statements, 46 per cent of those polled said that answer "God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so" best describes their view on human origins. 32 per cent of respondents opted for the middle ground, saying "Human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided this process", while just 15 per cent chose "Human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God had no part in this process". The China Rule & Cult of Confucius. The Politics of Religious Freedom: Religious Freedom, Minority Rights, and Geopolitics.
One rule for Jesus, another for Muhammad? Leave room for the unbelievers. Paradoxes of "Religious Freedom" in Egypt. "The Use and Abuse of Religious Freedom" by Peter Singer. "Christianity’s Via Dolorosa" by Fiorello Provera. Of Popes and Potatoes - By Yoani Sanchez. Bullying the Nuns by Garry Wills. Druckversion - Exhausted in the Vatican: The Final Battles of Pope Benedict XVI - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International. Peter E. Gordon: The Border Crossers. How Silence Works: Emailed Conversations With Four Trappist Monks. Where failure is rewarded. A Growing Vatican Bank Scandal Threatens Catholic Church Image. T. M. Luhrmann’s Experience with Evangelical Christians. I’m a Mormon, Not a Christian. Where are the normal Christians?