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Telling the World a ‘Big Story’: RD in Conversation with Karen Armstrong

By Laurie Patton

…, they are calling us to lay aside the egotism that holds us back from our best selves and from the divine. This is certainly true of the doctrines of Trinity and Incarnation, for example. They also insist that the best way of achieving this is by compassion, in which, “all day and every day” we have to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there. The doctrines and mythos of religion only make sense if we put them into pr…

Abstinence-Centered Sex Education Works Best Without God

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…hoose, they respond by delaying sexual activity. If this research immediately proves anything, however, it’s that children don’t need a religious guilt trip to keep them in line. Instead, they respond best when they are treated with respect, given a chance to think through problems on their own, and given the education they need to make informed decisions about their lives….

Perry Gives Huntsman Best Week of His Campaign

By Joanna Brooks

…right, everyone: Rick Perry’s anti-science ramblings gave Jon Huntsman the best week of his campaign. But perhaps an even bigger accomplishment by Perry was reorganizing reality in such a way as to make Mormons—reputed to be the most politically conservative religious groups in the U.S.—appear moderate. In fact, Perry has the two climate-changing-believing Mormons in the GOP presidential hopeful pool looking like downright liberals. And Perry hims…

The Best the Largest Progressive Jewish Org Could Come Up With?

By Jay Michaelson

…ork, and they have the potential to do even more. I have no doubt that many consultants and stakeholders wrestled with all the issues I’ve spotted here, and many more, and that this reflects their sincere best efforts to balance multiple constituencies and interests, many of which are at odds with one another. It’s just too bad that, to me at least, what they came up with reflects that….

The 11 Best #RealClergyBios Tweets

By Anita Little

Over the weekend, the #realclergybios hashtag spread like Gospel on Twitter, with countless pastors and seminarians shelling out hard truths about everything from doubting one’s vocation to fighting for the church’s solvency to—if you’re a woman or non-white pastor—dealing with daily microaggressions. RD spoke to Indiana-based Presbyterian minister Mihee Kim-Kort, who launched #realclergybios as an offshoot of #realacademicbios, to get the story…

Does Evolution Favor Religion?

By Mark Vernon

…human groups into an “organism-equivalent.” In fact, those religions that best encourage people to feel they belong to one another, tend to be the ones that last and grow. Far from being a mistake, religion may provide the best evolutionary explanation for humankind’s success. Of course, accounting for the origins of something proves nothing about its worth—philosophers call that the genetic fallacy. There are also reasons to question Wilson’s ev…

Gluten-Phobia, Sacred Volcanoes, Undercover Atheists: The Best Religion and Science Writing of 2015

By Andrew Aghapour

This year saw the launch of the Cubit: RD’s answer to the mainstream media’s coverage of the intersection of religion and science—those too-familiar stories in which religion and science are represented as either fundamentally at odds, or oddly conjoined. Over the past nine months we have debated, among other things, multiverse theory with Rob Bell, investigated the cultural roots of the anti-vaccine movement, critiqued Silicon Valley asceticism,…

Forgiveness

By Amina Wadud

…mediator between a sin or a wrong doing and Allah. He then elaborated the best way to make this dhikr: one hundred repetitions; and the best times to make it: after fajr prayer before sunrise, and after ‘asr or the afternoon prayer. I’m not a diehard about all these details, except to say that the 100 repetitions are pretty standard. The specific times are a plus, I guess. I am just not capable of being that literal. But then again I guess that’s…

Pew: Atheists and Agnostics Best Informed on Religion

By Lauri Lebo

A study from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that Americans who don’t believe in God scored better on a religious study quiz than those who identify with a specific religion. The U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey, a nationwide poll of 3,412 Americans age 18 and older, found that out of 32 questions related to various religions, atheists and agnostics typically got the most correct responses. Jews and Mormons also scored higher than…

Getting Wright Wrong: Preaching is Not Policy

By Anthony B. Pinn

…triotism, in that it arises from a deep need to push the country to be the best it can be, to embrace its full potential and live out its principles. In this public conversation we must be open to hearing diverse perspectives and opinions. These differences must be respected and allowed to shape healthy and rich exchange through which we learn a great deal about the texture of our nation and appreciate the diversity of thought and practice, religi…