Religion Dispatches
…ed of nothing) would create something else, something in addition to and separate from God. In particular, why create human beings? The traditional answer is that God created human beings in order to create the possibility of being in relation. One needs another person if one wishes to be in relation. And such relations involve being seen: the altogether singular experience of looking at another being who is looking at you simultaneously. Seeing…
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…is exploiting parts of the brain that evolved to process religion? In a separate study, they argue, a similar pattern was found in “very religious” persons shown religious and nonreligious images. The simplest explanation for this similarity is that humans spend more visual attention on images which they find interesting or which they see quite often, whether they are Apple products or religious images. Instead, Calvert and Riley posit a “stack t…
Read More…tter than denying bigotry exists at all). I also received an e-mail from a participant in the event who came by because of RD: Dear Haroon, Thanks for your talk at WSU tonight and [for] your perspective on things. In many ways I feel that the American attachment to sensationalism, half truths and fear makes your perspective all the more important. I work with internationals at WSU and lately have made some friends among the Islamic community. I ha…
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…As such, the beneficiaries of the racial contract do not understand their participation in supporting a racist society. And there’s another aspect to this racial contract that I want to add. The social unrest that put the nation on edge represents the rider to the racial contract. Historically, American cities do not burn as the direct result of profound disparities in education, housing, health, unemployment, incarceration, or a myriad of other…
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…global phenomenon, the editors conclude, and the troubling features of any particular part of the movement should not distract us from the integrity of the whole. Noll even ends the collection with yet another metaphorical flourish, suggesting that scholars no longer think of evangelicalism as a religious “World Series,” where events in the United States determine a victor, but as a “World Cup,” where an international diversity of teams are on dis…
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…lleged) divine justification for genocide and/or assimilation isn’t merely part of America’s distant past but is baked into the contemporary understanding of Christian nationalism. A 2021 PRRI survey found that 30% of all Americans and more than 50% of White evangelicals agreed with the statement: “God intended America to be a new promised land where European Christians could create a society that could be an example to the rest of the world.” The…
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…antorum seem to speak with one voice. At CPAC in February, Michelle Duggar participated in a panel satirizing The View, and was feted by fellow panelist Star Parker for having 19 children because, as Parker proclaimed, “We win if we just keep having children, ’cause we’re going to outnumber them!”—a staple argument of the Quiverfull movement. Weeks earlier, Santorum had transformed this rhetoric into policy proposal at a South Carolina Fuddruckers…
Read More…have rituals, sacred texts, and physical spaces that all serve to bind the participants together. Atheism has none of these things—most of the time it’s an individual choice, made and kept alone. In my piece, I point out how even Democrats still resort to appeals to faith, but: The religious right has given the secular-humanist-atheist community a huge opening: by placing conservative religious doctrine front and center in the healthcare debate, t…
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…ome out and the Boy Scouts of America voting to allow openly gay scouts to participate. (LGBTQ adults and atheists still cannot do so openly.) As I read about Utah Pride in preparation for my remarks this upcoming weekend as the 2013 Boston Pride interfaith speaker, I couldn’t help but reflect on what I learned during a recent visit to Utah. It was late in the evening when I arrived, and I knew I would be there for only 24 hours. I was met by Alas…
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…he one thing that they got right in this case. The U.S. has on the books a number of valuable laws against discrimination in the workplace, and all organizations (businesses, nonprofits, schools, governments) are expected to abide by these laws. Except religions, or so it now seems. According to the Tabor ruling, religious groups get a pass on the law when it comes to employees who are considered “ministerial.” The right to the free exercise of re…
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