ReligionDispatches.org

Henry Jenkins and Salman Hameed.

This week’s episode asks big questions about psychology and religion, and reminds us that a dog is a robot’s best friend.

Diane Winston, Henry Jenkins, and Anthea Butler.

In the ever more dystopian world of Syfy Channel’s Caprica, teenage girls inhabit robot bodies, or live eternally without bodies at all, human bodies are marked by memories, and all the while there is blood flowing in the virtual streets. 

Diane Winston, Salman Hameed, Anthea Butler, and Henry Jenkins.

Tamara, the girl who is dead but doesn’t know it, who exists only within the “magic circle” of a virtual game, takes center stage in this week’s episode, and in our commentary. 

Henry Jenkins, Diane Winston, and Anthea Butler.

Among other clues to this sci-fi opera, our Caprica watchers took particular note of a bobbleheaded bull on the dashboard of a Tauron killer. What can we learn from the possibility that Capricans can be as kitsch-obsessed, cigarette-addicted, and as reckless with civil liberties as earthlings can be? 

Diane Winston, Anthea Butler, Henry Jenkins, and Salman Hameed.

More on the sci-fi TV show that imagines monotheists rebelling against a polytheist society, speculates about the nature of the human soul, and asks, “Can you be free if you’re not real?”

Anthea Butler, Salman Hameed, Henry Jenkins, and Diane Winston.

Welcome to the first installment of our ongoing coverage of television’s latest contribution to the cultural intersection of science and religion, with bonus themes to include: the body, artificial intelligence, paganism, original sin, immigration, and race. Join Diane Winston, Anthea Butler, Salman Hameed, and Henry Jenkins every week as they delve into deep exegesis of Caprica.

Arri Eisen.

Does a belief that science and religion can co-exist in harmony disqualify Francis Collins from leading the NIH? Decisively not.

Eric Reitan.

Sam Harris, a leading voice in the so-called New Atheism, believes that religious faith disqualifies a leading scientist from heading the National Institutes of Health. What does this reveal about the ideological prejudices of this brand of secularism?

Arri Eisen.

A scientist/professor in an experimental program teaching science to the Dalai Lama’s monks explains why this project is so much bigger than this one program, bigger even than working to reconcile religion and science. Think: globalization.

Edward J. Larson.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning author tangles with one of the most fraught questions of the day: “The danger for science is that, if forced to choose between God or evolution, most Americans will choose God.”

Arri Eisen.

Biochemist and Geneticist Arri Eisen introduces a new column on the intersection of science and belief.