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Louisiana Panel Votes in Favor of Science Textbooks

By Lauri Lebo

…endation. The Louisiana Family Forum, which calls itself a champion of “traditional values” and is affiliated with Focus on the Family, is behind the attack on the textbooks. Most of the complaints seem to have come from its membership. Louisiana Coalition for Science and philosophy professor Barbara Forrest wrote a post about it titled Hell Just Froze Over in Louisiana. But the fight isn’t over. Creationists could still win the day. The life scie…

Raising Children the Right Way

By Jeffrey Feldman

…managing pollution. Ultimately, environmentalism is as much a moral debate about American citizenship as it is a debate about throwing away trash. Through the conversation about the environment, we teach our children a basic Jeffersonian lesson about the privilege and responsibility of adulthood in American democracy. In Thomas Jefferson’s view, this balance was the essence of a new political system whereby each person would play a role not just a…

No Buddhists in Washington?

By Danny Fisher

…es from seeking pleasure for others.” In addition to discovering something about the nature of happiness from them, scientists are learning more about neuroplasticity, or ongoing brain development, by studying Buddhist contemplatives as well. All of these findings have been striking enough, in fact, to inspire various high-profile conferences and meetings between scientists and Buddhists. In 2005, for example, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of T…

Burma Bans Time Magazine’s “Buddhist Terror” Issue

By Alan Senauke

…als who are acting contrary to most of Myanmar, is creating misconceptions about Buddhism, a religion practiced by the majority of Myanmar’s population.” The president added, regarding Wirathu and his fundamentalist 969 movement, that 969 “is just a symbol of peace” and Wirathu is “a son of Lord Buddha.” Some observers have worried, as the Wall Street Journal reports this week, that this media messaging skirmish, with the government’s tacit suppo…

News Flash: Buddhist-Majority Countries Just as Complicated as Muslim-Majority

By Haroon Moghul

…a’s Muslims have been suffering from long before. We reflexively associate Buddhism with pacifism and Islam with violence; the regional situation, namely across ASEAN and in neighboring countries, shows that Buddhist-majority countries are as complicated as Muslim-majority countries (both after all being populated by humans). While Thailand fights a Muslim—but not “islamist”—insurgency in its south, it is also a top non-OIC destination for Muslim…

Competitive Religious Philanthropy in the Wake of the Nepali Earthquake

By Nalika Gajaweera

…cultural exchange between Sri Lanka and Nepal as major historical sites of Buddhism. “It is indeed our duty to help Nepal in this crisis,” a prominent Buddhist clergyman said. “It is a Hindu state with a considerable number of Buddhists living there. It is the place where the Bodhisattva Siddhartha was born.” The Sri Lankan prime minster reiterated those sentiments when he spoke to his parliament after the disaster. Because Sri Lanka is the center…

Tokyo Governor Says Tsunami is Divine Punishment—Religious Groups Ignore Him

By Levi McLaughlin

…rts. Staff at the head temple of Nichirenshu, the largest sect of Nichiren Buddhism, is still contacting its temples in northeastern Japan, and it has cancelled all other activities in favor of fundraising. It’s likely that the leaders of every other traditional Buddhist denomination have dedicated their staff to raising money and gathering materials for earthquake relief. Shinto organizations have also pitched in. Shinseikyo, or the National Asso…

Bad Karma: Life Lessons From Earl

By Anthony B. Pinn

…erwhelming nature of life. Religion writers have always found a lot to say about film, whether it’s about the obvious films, such as The Passion of the Christ, Jesus of Montreal, or The Ten Commandments, or about others that use the grammar and imagery of religious traditions in a more subtle framing of “ordinary” life. (Think, for instance, of a film like Cool Hand Luke which offers a full deck of religious themes, all played out behind prison wa…

One Hundred Years of Anti-Evolution Legislation Are More Than Enough

By Glenn Branch

…tney Institute for Democracy, as opposed to 36 percent who would do so for science teachers. Yet owing to a persistent though dwindling minority of the American public that rejects evolution, science teachers are often subjected to explicit or implicit demands to downplay evolution in their classrooms: in a nationally representative survey of public high school biology teachers conducted in 2019, more than one in six reported experiencing such pre…

Atheist Scientists in Church

By Paul Wallace

…wledge, Hutchinson engages scientism, which he defines as “the belief that science, modeled on the natural sciences, is the only source of real knowledge.” This erroneous view, held by many inside and outside the sciences, “is at least indirectly responsible for the apparent friction between science and religion that many see today.” Or to put it another way, the problem is not science versus religion, but scientism versus religion. Hutchinson is…