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What Did the Puritans Have Against Christmas?

By Bruce David Forbes

…ed: Germans, Scandinavians, and the Dutch who founded New Amsterdam (later New York). So Lutherans, Catholics, and the Dutch Reformed celebrated Christmas, along with the Church of England that continued restrained Christmas observances. As a result of this mixture, in the American colonies and then in the new nation, there was no national consensus supporting Christmas, and the disagreement was between Christians. American Christmas wouldn’t come…

Creationists Portray New Science Standards As “Big Government”

By Michael Schulson

…aching critical thinking to young people? Not everyone is pleased. Over at WORLD magazine this past week, Casey Luskin’s argument for why conservative evangelicals should be distressed about the new standards offers a useful portrait of how anti-evolution writers stoke fear—and a helpful demonstration of why the NGSS is so badly needed. Luskin is an attorney, a writer, and a staff member at the Discovery Institute, an intelligent design think-tank…

New Study: Motivation Doesn’t Improve Group Success

By Arri Eisen

…is kind of individual intelligence factor testing has been replicated many times over the last decades. The intelligence factor is a predictor of ‘important life outcomes’, career success, and ‘even life expectancy’. Now, even more surprising is a new study in the journal Science demonstrating that just such a factor exists for collective intelligence in the performance of human groups. Woolley et al. show the same intriguing correlation between a…

From “Jane Roe” to “Roe No More”: Norma McCorvey’s Long Strange Trip Through the Politics of Abortion

By Patricia Miller

…as 22 and pregnant and didn’t want to be, the product of an upbringing the New York Times rightly labeled Dickensian: …the unwanted child of a broken home, a ninth-grade dropout who was raped repeatedly by a relative, and a homeless runaway and thief consigned to reform school. She was married at 16, divorced and left pregnant three times by different men. After more than a decade of obscurity in which the alias used in a challenge to the Texas la…

Capricology: Week 2: The Soul of a Robot

By Salman Hameed

…a’s final, desperate outburst. Even as the Zoe/Avatar/Cylon (ZAC) itself struggled with a new identity (“Do I look male?”) and old/new ways of being in the world (bite enemies, hug friends), she was seen for herself by one whose sight could be trusted. Did you catch the family dog snuggling contentedly at ZAC’s feet? Animals don’t lie; at least not on television. This was a come-to-Lassie moment. What makes us human? And why do we assume that bein…

A Queer New Year

By Peter Montgomery

…paigns. Equality Overseas Another story we’ll be covering in 2013 is the struggle for and against LGBT equality around the world. LGBT equality, including marriage equality, continued to make some advances internationally in 2012, and we’ll likely be seeing more progress this year in places like England, France, Uruguay, and Mexico, in spite of institutional religious opposition. In other places, like Russia, the church and state joined forces to…

Bristol Palin’s New Book Reveals Heterosexual Agenda

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…), the younger Palin, like her mother, has been lionized and has become a crusader for teen abstinence. Bristol’s indiscretion, and her proud, lascivious, tell-all book reminds me of Jim Burroway’s brilliant parody “The Heterosexual Agenda: Exposing the Myths.” Sure, heterosexuals say they’re for family values. They say marriage is most important. They crow about one man and one woman, creating forever homes in which they raise their morally incor…

“I Would Have Rolled My Eyes at That”: Rev. M Barclay, First Non-Binary Trans Deacon in the UMC, On This New Era

By The Editors

…be featuring special remarks from the show’s guests that reveal how their worldview has changed in this new era. Rev. M Barclay is the first non-binary trans person commissioned as deacon in the United Methodist Church. In episode 1, Kaleidoscope follows M over their 12-year path to ordination. Along the way M opens up about coming out (twice), dealing with public rejection, and the turmoils of love. (Subscribe and listen to the entire interview…

New Poll: Millennials Suspicious of Mormonism

By Joanna Brooks

…d only 40% know Mitt Romney is Mormon. For now. And here is some startling new data: younger voters—the so-called “millenials” aged 18-29—view Mormonism far less favorably than their elders. Fifty-six percent of voters aged 18-29 said they were at least somewhat uncomfortable with the idea of a Mormon president, while only 39% of older voters reported discomfort. This figure is especially striking given that when asked about the prospect of a Musl…

Sikh Prof Attacked on Heels of New Study

By Rob Shryock

…Laden, a fact that makes it more believable that in 2008 alone fully 9% of New York City Sikhs said they had been assaulted because of their religion. But it’s not just association with radical Islam and the resulting attention from Islamophobes that haunts Sikh-Americans. After all, it’s hard to argue that Wade Michael Page, the white supremacist who shot and killed five Sikhs last year at a gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, didn’t know who he wa…