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“I Had No Intention to Write Atheistically”: Darwin, God, and the 2500-Year History of the Debate

By Edward J. Larson

…ne. Humans should be mature enough to develop and maintain our own ethical code informed by scientific knowledge of its consequences, he argues, rather than rely on an ancient moral code inscribed in scriptural texts of human origin composed in a different era for reasons that no longer apply. Dawkins finally brings the story to where Rev. Adam Sedgwick feared that it would end 150 years ago when he read this pre-publication copy of Origin of Spec…

Republican Scandals Drag Secretive ‘Family’ Into the Big Time

By Randall Balmer, Anthea Butler, Evan Derkacz, Jeff Sharlet, and Diane Winston

…ly a pulpit-pounder—not a man interested in pompous authority. Imagine how today’s media might cover him. Stephanie Simon at the LA Times might declare him a “New Monastic,” at odds with the social authority of the old Christian bigs; Frances FitzGerald would surely be impressed by the breadth of Edwards’ intellectual interests and announce him to New Yorker readers as a “new evangelical.” Lesser journalists would take note of Edwards’ emphasis on…

Global LGBT Recap: World Vision Caves, World Congress of Families Vamps, God Weeps

By Peter Montgomery

…must have gotten the message because the event finally took place earlier today with the attendance of Mr. Satawake while still being officiated by Bishop Okolo. Meanwhile, Duque reports, Dominican Vice President Margarita Cedeño was forced to withdraw proposed changes to the country’s “Family Code” which would have “championed ‘traditional Catholic family models’” in legislation. “The bill drew withering criticism from left and right with newsp…

Why America’s Whitewashed Thanksgiving Needs to Go: A Short Study in the Power of White Christian Mythmaking

By Peter Laarman

…am harping on it because I was seduced by the legend, and I repent myself today for letting myself get sucked in. Two decades ago I was knocked out by Kevin Phillips’ The Cousins’ War, in which Phillips draws out common themes and common threads among the English Civil War, the American Revolution, and our own Civil War. The “good guys” throughout are all Pilgrims, so to speak: doughty English revolutionaries—religious Dissenters, close spiritual…

Pope Francis Walks With LGBTQ People, One Step Forward, Big Steps Back

By Kaya Oakes

…the pope referred to the “theory of gender” as a “great enemy to marriage today.” He added that “there is a global war to destroy marriage,” and that the weapons being used are a form of “idealogical colonization.” In the past, Francis has used that phrase to describe Western ideas being forced onto developing nations. While this has typically been a reference to capitalism, he’s also gotten into the habit of using it as a description of same-sex…

The Brutality of Life for Syrian LGBTs; Saving the Anglican Church by Dissolving It; Backlash to Hindu Gay Wedding Ceremony in Indonesia; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…democracy in a given country can be assessed in part by how the government promotes or hinders the rights of its sexual and gender minorities. This is evident from both the advances and setbacks in LGBT human rights around the world in recent years. It is no accident that the prominence of openly lesbian and gay people in the anti-apartheid struggle led South Africa to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation when drafting its constitut…

An Untold Tale: American Fiction vs. The Religious Right

By Christopher Douglas

…rl Sagan, and Dan Brown’s popular religious mystery thriller, The Da Vinci Code. Sagan has a reputation as a proto-New Atheist, but his novel suggests he was intensely sympathetic to religious experience and authority. By the end of his novel he has his scientist protagonist embark on a career of “experimental theology” after she has discovers the “signature” of God in the very structure of the universe. At the same time, Sagan was not impressed b…

Among the Problems with Trump’s Proposed Ban: Who is a Muslim?

By Michael Schulson

…denying that Judaism is a religion (instead, it’s an ideology, or a legal code, or an international cabal), and emphasizing definitions of Judaism rooted in physical heritage. This nudge toward biology makes sense. For one thing, it’s easier to judge somebody’s identity based on ancestry than on beliefs and cultural traditions. The latter is pretty nebulous. The former is quantifiable. Also, bigots haven’t historically cared much about the person…

Burma’s Spirit Festival, and More in This Week’s Global LGBT Roundup

By Peter Montgomery

…nning a hospital,’ she says. She believes fundamentalist groups in Ecuador today, who work closely with Roman Catholic group Opus Dei, shelter their real agendas with a religious veil. Faced with these obstacles, Troya however still feels all is not lost. ‘We don’t care if a politician is religious or not, what matters here is that this politician can differentiate his particular beliefs from his obligations, to govern for all people,’ says Troya….

Sacred Texting: When Religious Writ Gets Wired

By Rachel Wagner

…des, but exploded in 2003 with the publication of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code which, more than anything, showcases Brown’s muddled if provocative incorporation of the Gnostic worldview into the novel. Fans of The Da Vinci Code don’t need to go out and purchase Robinson’s translation, they can simply read the Gnostic texts online at the Gnosis Archive. Or, if they’re interested in other early contenders for New Testament inclusion—the Gospel of P…