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How Not to Oppose the National Day of Prayer

By Andrew Aghapour

…son and I argued in The Cubit’s manifesto, much of today’s religion-versus-science debate is hopelessly myopic. Religion and science are diverse, messy, and ever-evolving concepts. Sometimes they oppose one another and sometimes they cooperate, and yet they are most often typecast as epistemological sumo wrestlers. The stereotype that religion and science are fundamentally at odds, sometimes known as the Conflict Thesis, informs a lot of spurious…

Do Dogs Have a Soul?: Taking “Creaturely” Life Seriously

By Beatrice Marovich

…s and religion. With Dogs at the Edge of Life is not—on the surface—a book about religion. It is a book about dogs. But what Dayan highlights in these pages is how living with, and thinking about, dogs draws us into “creaturely experience”—the experience of being a flesh and blood mortal that is strangely shot through with something we often call mind, or spirit. This is also not a scientific (or quasi-scientific) treatise on animals and religious…

Taqwacore Roundtable: On Punks, the Media, and the Meaning of “Muslim”

By Shahjehan Khan

…ay be influenced by Islam, but are not necessarily religious. I am curious about KF’s point about identity crisis. I never heard your music in that way. To me, it is a declaration of the multiple identifications that make your identity. It is the opposite of a crisis; a resolution perhaps. SK you talk about being ten years older, but it is fast approaching that time since the music started. Do you think that time has made a difference? BU: I think…

Why the World Needs Religious Studies

By Nathan Schneider

…r what you “do with it,” really, the study of religion forces you to learn about geopolitics, languages, literatures, sciences, and histories. It’s no shoddy path to cultural literacy. In my own work, actually, religion has often been a gateway more than a destination; it has been an entry point for learning about, and working on, all kinds of other things. An added bonus, especially given the present business climate, is that religious studies ra…

As Cambodia Erupts in Protest, a Stolen Buddhist Relic Ignites Anger

By Joe Freeman

…have other items stolen.” Sitting next to him, 51-year-old Khut In talked about the aftermath of the crime. He was one of the original security guards. After being interrogated, he was released. “I was questioned by police, but I felt normal because we did nothing wrong. We do not know who stole it,” In said, declining to comment about his jailed colleagues. On the wall right above his head was a UNESCO poster depicting a map of Cambodia and a ca…

Mormon Leaders Slam ‘Counterfeit’ Gay Families; Vatican Resists Gay Ambassador; ISIS Executes Man for Homosexuality; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…lked with the Spanish woman, said he accepted her request because Mahayana Buddhism, the prevailing form in Japan, has nothing against homosexuality. A David McNeill story in the Irish Times about the increasing acceptance of gay relationships in Tokyo, examines the differing role religion has played in the treatment of homosexuality in Japan: Although blighted by the usual agonies of personal identity and need for secrecy, life for gays and lesbi…

Aung San Suu Kyi: The Verdict is Unfair

By Juliane Schober

…s national hero lives the life of a world-renouncer. She speaks eloquently about things she has learned from the examples of civil rights leaders of the 20th century, and seeks to emulate in her own life Mahatma Gandhi’s ideals of nonviolence, civil resistance against oppression, and temporary ascetic withdrawal from political engagement. In adopting Gandhi’s strategies, Suu Kyi looks for ways to translate his model of satyagraha into a Buddhist c…

Yearning For A God We Can Live With

By Benjamin Weiner

…the tzimtzum, might therefore be greeted with trepidation: It’s Really All About God by Samir Selmanovic, and Everything is God by Jay Michaelson. Beneath the covers of these books, which are also remarkably similar in design (the word “God” swelling up against a solid white background to dwarf all of the other characters) lie two overlapping but distinct arguments. The first is a passionate apologetics for a platform of interfaith unity and the s…

Free Yiddish Lessons, Vacation Liberty School, and Brangelina’s Universalism: The Week in Religion, Poetically

By Michael J. Altman

…e theirs,” Jolie said. Elsewhere in Hollywood, Lindsey Lohan is turning to Buddhism to help her through her 90-day jail sentence. And is Will Smith considering Scientology? Anderson Cooper’s weeklong investigative report on Scientology in March has earned him an entire issue of the Church of Scientology’s Freedom magazine. The issue is dedicated to attacking him and his claims about the church. A Moscow court convicted two art curators of “incitin…

Does American Zen Need Reform?

By Lisa Webster

…forced retirement is rippling throughout the larger community of American Buddhism. At issue, as in any case of clergy abuse, is the question of authority. In the case of the Catholic Church, it is easy to see how power plays out, whether it is temporal or spiritual. But many Americans looking for eastern enlightenment have hit up against a cultural confusion that makes discernment almost impossible. Over at Sweeping Zen, Erik Storlie has written…