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Fact-Checking Ben Carson’s Pyramid-ism Misses the Point

By Michael Schulson

…rding of CBS’s question to United States presidential candidate Ben Carson about the ostensible grain-related functions or non-functions of the pyramids). Carson is a politician, not an archaeologist or Egyptologist. His base appears to consist largely of people who (a) are impressed by his biography, which emphasizes his odds-beating, institutional-inertia-defying rise to professional success, and (b) feel alienated from what they perceive as a d…

The Only Surprising Thing About the ‘Demon Sperm’ Doctor’s Views Is That They’re Shared By Many Evangelicals

By Lenny J. Lowe

…e a kind of international Christian dialect. Still, whether one knows much about the movement or not, no one should be surprised to find its views trumpeted from the highest office in the land. In 2011, the New Apostolic Reformation hosted a prayer conference featuring former Secretary of Energy, Rick Perry. Perhaps an even nearer comparison can be found in former Alaska Governor and 2008 Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, whose videotaped “…

As Psychedelics Experience a Renaissance, Emory’s New Center for Psychedelics and Spirituality Seeks a Novel Approach

By Hollis Phelps

…r Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, and UC Berkeley’s Center for the Science of Psychedelics. In addition, and anticipating the legal and sociocultural acceptance of the therapeutic value of psychedelics, a number of institutions have started to offer certificate programs for clinicians and chaplains in psychedelic-assisted therapies, including the California Institute of Integral Studies and Naropa University. Now, Emory University has ente…

A Moral Galaxy: War and Suffering in “Star Wars: The Old Republic”

By Robert M. Geraci and Nat Recine

…ain bonuses in that area, even though many times I feel very uncomfortable about it.” Other players find it almost impossible to choose evil. One respondent said, “I play lightside on all my characters. Going darkside just makes me feel bad.” Another played a Sith Inquisitor and attempted to follow the Dark Side, yet “for some reason, I found myself consistently choosing Light Side choices instead. I just genuinely didn’t like being evil all that…

How Herbalife’s Gospel of Health and Wealth Fuels a Billion-Dollar Deception

By Michael Schulson

…r, for that matter, the world of prosperity gospel preachers, whose claims about the relationship between faith, donations to the church, and personal well-being strike many outsiders as a straightforward, money-motivated swindle. In the business of hope, there’s already very little overlap between the legal and the ethical—and, it seems, little clarity on where the legal marketing ends and the illegal stuff begins. What’s clear is that dreams are…

Don’t Be Tooken In by Kimmy Schmidt‘s Cult

By Megan Goodwin

…reak us!’” Our unabashed love for Tina Fey might tempt us to give her a pass here—surely one more depiction of new religions as crazy and abusive can’t be that bad. But we cannot underestimate how little Americans actually know about new religions, or how much damage misconceptions about minority religions can do. Kimmy Schmidt reinforces Americans’ convictions that new religions are dangerous and that their women members need saving. Don’t be too…

When Communicating Evolution, Which Works Better: Confrontation or Accommodation?

By Lauri Lebo

…un. The Council for Secular Humanism is hosting a discussion on the debate about how best to deal with religious belief and its relationship to scientific reality. What makes this so interesting is that National Center for Science Education’s Eugenie Scott and biologist and atheist blogger PZ Myers, as well as writer Chris Mooney, three names at the center of this often-heated debate, are participating. For those who want to watch it live on line…

Jesus Wasn’t a “GodKlingon”; The Problem with Biblical Literalists

By Hollis Phelps

…m so damaging for religion. Many of my students are curious about why I study religion and what I get from it. I always tell them that for me, religion isn’t finally about providing answers but spurring questions; it isn’t about telling us what to think and do but about providing resources and spaces for our thinking and doing. That’s, unfortunately, something for which Ham’s approach, and biblical literalism more generally, doesn’t allow….

RD10Q: Believing in the Bible, Not God

By Bruce Ledewitz

…I hope for? Actually, statements about belief in God tell one very little about reality, or even one’s belief about reality. Just as one example, belief in God does not necessarily tell you anything about an afterlife or a Messiah or a plan for history. Abraham in the Book of Genesis, for example, believed in God and yet knew nothing of those things. It may even be that the word “God” itself is a symbol for things secularists also believe, such a…

Killing One Primate to Save Another: The Ethics of Animal Rights

By Arri Eisen

…graduate students and post-doctoral fellows—we spend a lot of time talking about this. Not just the important party line of the special offices at research facilities devoted to animal care: “refine, reduce, and reuse.” But also about deeper questions: should we do research with animals at all? With certain animals and not others (much of basic research is done on yeast, worms, fruit flies, and mice)? And what kinds of research (research that migh…