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A Philosopher of Religion Calls it Quits

By Julia Galef

…s, which is less a matter of finding the right path than mapping out which paths exist. Even in Paleontology, the Bones are There Take, for example, the evolution of the “argument from evil,” which holds that the existence of evil in the world is incompatible with a deity that is simultaneously all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good. In the 1970s, several leading philosophers of religion broke the argument down into a “logical” version (that any…

Is Religious Freedom a Casualty at Ground Zero?

By Kambiz GhaneaBassiri

…se of the establishment of religious institutions through which they could participate in and adapt to their local American communities. A major impetus for the rise of Catholic schools in this country was anti-Catholicism. Catholic schools and organizations such as the Knights of Columbus, like Jewish organizations and Community Centers, became safe havens through which distinctly American Catholic and American Jewish communities and identities w…

Should We Expect to See a Rise in Christian Nationalist Violence in the US?

By Nilay Saiya

…ngs at an African American church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015, a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, at three different spas in the Atlanta-area in 2021, and at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York in 2022; as well as dozens of other instances of vigilante violence against religious minorities. And, of course, it was on full display during the 2021 Capitol insurrection two years ago. Given the dynamics present in the United States today (just…

Medieval Multitasking: Did We Ever Focus?

By Elizabeth Drescher

…rgical calendar without otherwise having anything to do with the scripture passage. Of particular delight to us today, much of the marginalia in illuminated books expressed the opinions and feelings of the illuminator about all manner of things—his demanding wife, the debauched monks in his neighborhood, or his own bacchanalian exploits. Books of commentary, known as “glosses,” included conversations among different commentators across time that s…

High Jewish Voter Turnout—and They Don’t Like Trump

By Gordon Haber

…hat Trump’s rhetoric is “very or somewhat responsible” for the massacre at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue. Even among Republican Jews, 31% believe Trump is “very or somewhat responsible. For American Jews, Israel is a still a big—if complicated—deal. While they remain emotionally attached to Israel, their dislike of Israeli policy is growing. The survey reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s favorability “has dropped to a nine-year…

Rebuilding the Wall of Separation: A Progressive Discussion on Church & State

By Bruce Ledewitz

…pective on the proper relationship between church and state. (You can find participants’ full biographies in upper right corner). ___________________________________ The Netroots Nation panel description: The old liberal vision of a total separation of religion from politics has been discredited. Despite growing secularization, a secular progressive majority is still impossible, and a new two-part approach is needed—one that first admits that ther…

The EPA and Evangelical (Anti)Environmentalism

By Aaron Weaver

…iners gathered outside the hearing to join Watts in preaching against the EPA’s proposal to reduce carbon pollution from power plants. The EPA’s Clean Power Plan, a key component of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, aims to reduce pollution at power plants, the nation’s largest source of carbon-dioxide emissions, 30 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. It is believed that this 30-percent reduction will provide $55 billion to $93 billion per year…

RD10Q: Believing in the Bible, Not God

By Bruce Ledewitz

…I like the cover a lot, but it was expensive and authors sometimes have to pay that cost. Anita Dufalla, who works here in Pittsburgh, did a wonderful job conveying the sense of different realms even in a purely natural universe. Is there a book out there you wish you had written? Which one? Why? No, there is no other book that says what I am trying to say. But I wish I had the scientific training of Simon Conway Morris in Life’s Solution. He is a…

Meet the ‘Bronze Age Zionists’ — Far-Right Jews Embracing Fascism in the Wake of October 7

By Ben Lorber

…ve no need for a niche internet subculture, because they possess a state apparatus, and aligned institutions to propagate their ideology. Far from a lily-White Christian monolith, today’s global Right is multiracial and multifaith, with plenty of room in its strategically broad coalition for unlikely bedfellows. Across the MAGA orbit, many Jews are leaders and members of movements like National Conservatism, and they often secure acceptance by dis…

Science, Syphilis, and the Evolution of Ethics

By Arri Eisen

…just what happened this month to Wellesley historian Susan Reverby and her paper on syphilis experiments in Guatemala carried out by the US in 1946. The paper was published online on the Wellesley website at 9 a.m. EST, October 2, 2010, while President Obama called Guatemalan President Àlvaro Colom Caballeros to apologize. Sixty-four years ago, as the Nuremburg trials investigating Nazi abuse of people in the name of science were going on in post-…