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Could a Real Life Jurassic Park Help with Climate Change?

By Michael Schulson

…de to future fauna, or as a roadmap to the next generation of conservation science. But reading about these mammoths and Tasmanian tigers, you start to feel that Shapiro is getting at bigger questions. After all, while the science of de-extinction is hard, the ethical dilemmas are just as thorny. They force us to confront the peculiar challenges of restorationism—whether it’s theological, cultural, political, or ecological—all of which revolves ar…

No God but Country: The Religion of John McCain Has Something Important to Tell Us

By Kathryn Lofton

…gious devotion. For some observers, the fact that McCain doesn’t talk much about his faith, about his Christianity, is a denominational inevitability. “McCain, actually, is being very authentic by keeping it inside,” writes voter Eric Gorski in a letter to the New York Times, “He doesn’t wear religion on his sleeve because he comes from a generation and upbringing—Episcopalian—that tends not to.” Such a socially determinist explanation might apply…

Christian Nationalists Didn’t Seek to Desecrate the Capitol But to Purify It

By Adam Willems

…that Ashli Babbitt hasn’t been more prominent. That sort of faded out in part because Parler and other platforms were shut down. There were images going around of posters for a “Million Martyrs’ March,” which is absolutely terrifying if you think about it. I’m thinking about that connection between the congressman telling eighth graders that they should be willing to die for Christ and the idea of a million people descending on D.C. ready to die…

“Paleo” is More Than a Fad Diet: Boyd Eaton’s Plan to Return to Eden

By Michael Schulson

…behind? What do we lose when things change suddenly? Hm. What do you think about that? Think about what? Are we better off psychologically, or worse? When things change really quickly? I think it’s very easy to glorify the past. No question about that. There are critics who look at Paleo trends and say they’re glorifying the past. I think that’s justified, in some cases. That goes all the way back to Rousseau, long before there was any Paleo movem…

Gandhi, his Grandson, Israel, and the Jews

By Shalom Goldman

…thoughtless manner of addressing the controversy made real dialogue impossible. And the responses to his article have been no better. In the current polarized American political atmosphere one wonders if there is any way—polite or impolite—to conduct a serious public conversation about the Middle East in general, and about Israel in particular The clash between Arun Gandhi and the American Jewish leadership, Israeli intellectuals, and American Chr…

Meeting on the Bridge: Fr. James Martin’s Ministry to LGBT Catholics Becomes a Book

By Kaya Oakes

…the great shocks in the last few months is that this ministry is not just about the LGBT person, but about a much greater population. It’s about their grandparents and parents and aunts and uncles and brothers and sisters and friends. I was giving a talk at the Catholic center at Yale on Jesus, and afterwards this woman came up to me who looked like she was out of central casting for grandmother roles. She leaned over, and I thought she was going…

Where Polls and Surveys Fall Short: A Conversation with Robert Wuthnow on “Inventing American Religion”

By Andrew Aghapour

…s may be characteristic of the times in which we live—people are uncertain about who they are, about what they think religiously—but it also challenges how we think about polls. Polls have always assumed that whatever a person says is reliable, and that they really mean it and stick with it. So if you find any changes over time, that’s significant because polls are measuring stable opinions—if those change, that’s important. But the fact of the ma…

HitchBot Meets His Maker: What a Robot’s Murder Tells Us About Ourselves

By Michael Schulson

…a computer than to another human.” My inclination is to agree with Turkle about Xiaoice—and to feel totally gooey and glum about adorable little hitchBOT. In this inconsistent blend of emotions, I doubt I’m alone. Both are robots, designed to elicit emotions from people. Both have demonstrated how easy it is to do so, even for inanimate objects. So why do I feel creeped out by Xiaoice, but sad about hitchBOT? Is it just a cultural thing—a xenopho…

The Meaning of Make Believe (Why Religion Doesn’t Have to Be “Real”)

By Neil Ellingson

…aste, but technically illegal—one of the innumerable bits of trivia I knew about the world because of my father, who seemed to know something about everything. My love for relics and talismans coexisted with a love for chemistry sets and circuit boards. I would ride my bike through our suburb’s streets hunting for garage sale stereos, which I would haul like a little Viking raider back to my room to pillage for parts. What the resistors, transisto…

His Holiness, Inc.: The Dalai Lama as a Spiritual Mega-Brand

By Elizabeth Drescher

…“If scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in Buddhism to be false, then we must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims.” But he hardly sets aside the particular authority of religion itself as it motivates his teachings on compassion in a secular world. Indeed, as he noted during his brief talk, his understanding of “the secular world” is as “including all religions.” Of course, it would be hard to kn…