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Do Atheists Borrow Religion’s Morality?

By Frank Schaeffer

…ecular biologist Lee M. Silver writes (in Challenging Nature: The Clash of Science and Spirituality at the New Frontier of Life) about the question of life having meaning and therefore a point: “I have yet to hear a good answer, other than there is no point.” Now that will really fire people up to make sacrifices! It seems to me the New Atheists have it wrong. If you deprive people of the solace of faith in a moral system of meaningful connection…

What a Spooky Summer Trend Says About Enchantment in the Late Modern U.S.

By Daniel Wise

…nchanted and isn’t headed toward disenchantment. This does not mean debate about enchantment and disenchantment has ended. Scholars are still thinking and writing about how disenchantment, enchantment, and re-enchantment work in human societies. Weberian sociologist Richard Jenkins, writing right after the turn of the millennium, argued that disenchantment does and has still occurred, it just happens in a cycle with re-enchantment. Disenchantment…

The Anti-Trans Hate Machine’s Conspiracies Don’t Stop at the US Border

By Annika Brockschmidt

…r the Freedom of Science). This Network peddles reactionary talking points about allegedly “left-wing” universities and “cancel culture” while its website treats “race science” as legitimate scholarly discourse. The anti-trans movement, not just in the US, but in Europe as well, unites right-wing extremists, conservatives, and like-minded people from the political left and center behind their hatred of trans people. It’s merely the latest “wedge i…

Set to Privilege Christianity in Public Schools, Texas Sends a Message About Who is Welcome — And Who is Not

By Steven K. Green

…r religiosity during the school day, whether it’s being able to pray over lunch (permissible) or to participate in religious clubs during club periods (also permissible). These bills aren’t about enhancing religious freedom or opportunity, they’re about advancing a conservative religious agenda that perpetuates a false narrative of grievance….

The Spirit of January 6th: The Theology of This Seldom Discussed Movement Animates the Growing Threat to U.S. Democracy

By Frederick Clarkson and André Gagné

…function, and where are you going to serve in the army? That’s all I care about.” Joseph Mattera of Brooklyn, New York, the Convening Apostle of the U.S. Coalition of Apostolic Leaders, agrees with at least one part of Sheets’ teaching about the sons of God. He wrote a blog post in 2018 which, he said, “is based on notes I took from a teaching conducted by Dutch Sheets, who did a superb job of simplifying this message about the Kingdom of God.” L…

Undercover at Falwell’s Liberty University, Finding Common Ground

By Nathan Schneider

…wrong in politics, from the invasion of Iraq, to the sidelining of climate science, to the obsession with Terri Schiavo, seemed to come down to theological delusion. Much of the best religion writing I could find was out to expose the troubling truths about the religious right. Jeff Sharlet was infiltrating “America’s secret theocrats” in my hometown of Arlington, Virginia and Ted Haggard’s New Life Church in Colorado Springs. Laurie Goodstein and…

Gordon Gekko Gets God: The Heritage Foundation of Theology

By Peter Laarman

…ally-accepted science with Christian beliefs: No serious Christian writing about natural science would ignore the facts of chemistry or astronomy. But too many Christian leaders feel free to ignore the basic facts of economics. Indeed. Or the Bible. Richards uses the old false dichotomy technique to make his case that free-market capitalism is fully consistent with Jesus’ teachings and Christian tradition. He wants to save us from believing either…

January 6 protester holds giant image of White Jesus in a Make America Great Again cap.

America Appears to be Heading for a Religious Civil War

By Nilay Saiya

…kly pushing the country to the brink. The first is “anocracy,” a political science term for countries that mix democratic and autocratic features. These countries are neither democracies nor autocracies, but instead lie somewhere in the middle. Anocracies are prone to conflict because they lack the strong institutions and political channels of robust democracies for citizens to work through; at the same time, they either don’t possess or choose no…

‘Enchanted New York’ Offers a Journey Through the City’s Magical History — With Some Mystifying Oversights

By Gordon Haber

…do business at its 240 East 53rd Street location). I also enjoyed learning about the preponderance of texts that were birthed in New York City—books like Art Magic, published in 1876 by Emma Britten, a medium of English origin who lived at 206 West 38th Street; and the famous Theosophist magazine The Path: A Magazine Devoted to the Brotherhood of Humanity, Theosophy in America, and the Study of Occult Science, Philosophy, and Aryan Literature, whi…

Pope’s Comments on “Ideological Colonization” of Gender Signal Rupture With Scientific Community

By Michael Schulson

…cal sex is abnormal or against the created order. Certainly, conversations about personal autonomy, choice, and rights have a place at the table here. And reflecting medical orthodoxy isn’t exactly the Vatican’s primary concern. But the opinions of religious authorities do change to reflect the evolution of social norms and political realities. For now, though, it’s an open question whether the Pope will continue to publicly dismiss this so-called…