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Sex Miseducation: Prof Fired for Pushing Catholic ‘Natural Law’

By Janine Giordano Drake

…newal at the discretion of the Department Chair provokes important debates about whether adjunct professors ever receive the protections of academic freedom. To Teach Religion or Teach About Religion? The tension between Howell the Catholic theologian and McKim the Philosopher of Religion evokes stirring questions about the place of religious instruction on secular state-funded college campuses. What ought to be taught in college level courses on…

Green Candidate Jill Stein Maintains Anti-Vaxxer Cred

By Michael Schulson

…w she’s just aware of it. There are plenty of good reasons to be concerned about corporate influence on science and government. But it’s disingenuous to conflate “all of science” with “the FDA and the CDC,” or to imply that the entire scientific establishment has been corrupted by a handful of companies. Since Hillary Clinton won the Democratic nomination, Stein has worked hard to win over Bernie Sanders supporters and other progressives who are m…

Noah, Cosmos Controversies Not About Biblical Literalism

By Dan Mathewson

…of God’s Word,” which, in his mind, describes a literal seven-day creation about 6000 years ago. It’s evolution that must be discarded. Of course, Ken Ham represents the far extreme wing of religious conservative views on evolution today; many other conservative Christians find ways of reconciling the findings of evolutionary science with traditional biblical truth, distressing to Ham as this may be. What unites Ham with the other religious conser…

Introducing ‘It’s Your Fault,’ a Series on Blame

By Andrew Aghapour and Michael Schulson

…orporate elite) or from unconscious forces like bad luck or random chance? Science and technology have proliferated new routes for both explaining and enacting blame. Nutrition science diagnoses all sorts of modern ills; sociological and economic analysis can map those deep forces of which riots are merely a symptom; alongside its famed “genius” grants, the MacArthur Foundation backs efforts to reform criminal justice using neuroscience; and digit…

Falling in Love With the Earth: Francis’ Faithful Ecology

By Jacob J. Erickson

…ing debates on climate change denial and politically-motivated refusals of science, we tend to talk about ecological crisis in terms that are hard to assimilate. We talk about the vast structural powers of atmosphere and anthropogenic change. We talk about the complicated ocean acidification that dissolves away at livable ecologies. We talk about the swirls of energy from fossil fuels and various structural oppressions that energize climatological…

Can Religion Professors Save the Planet?

By Ivan Strenski

…Aside from volunteering religious studies students for enrollment in basic science courses, or organizing campus progressive political clubs to work harder to elect “green” candidates to public office, perhaps asking a religious studies professor to do something about climate change is absurd, or at the very least, peripheral. Does such a challenge pass a preliminary test of likely utility? Must every discipline have some significant contribution…

Does Analytic Thinking Erode Religious Belief?

By Andrew Aghapour

…hat all humans have in common. Perhaps because of the high demand for news about the brain, media coverage of neuroscience is notoriously sketchy. In a recent article in the journal Neuron, the authors lament the ways that popular neuroscience is used to artificially “underline differences between categories of people in ways that [are] symbolically layered and socially loaded.” In other words, research about the brain is often stretched and exten…

Stop Debunking Climate Change Deniers

By Michael Schulson

…aniel Kahneman) comes in. Kahan, Shulevitz writes, studies “how to present science so that it won’t be entangled with issues of ‘membership and loyalty to a group.’” Speaking to Shulevitz, Kahan argues that it’s essential for science communicators “not to use language or modes of communication that convey animosity, contempt, and hostility.” A strident article, then, that debunks a piece of climate change denial is not only unlikely to change anyo…

Is the Metaverse the Hero We Need to Rescue Us From Suffering and Enchant the World?

By Robert M. Geraci

…uals into mindless drones. Alas, that so many of those influenced to bring about the metaverse have forsaken this science-fiction optimism. They prefer to take the role of villains: drawing on the latest in big data analysis and social media influence, they look less like the “good religion” that Philip Rosedale wanted for Second Life and more like a brave new world (Absolutely shameless, but again, see my book for more! You could also look to Wag…

ID, Please Come Out

By Paul Wallace

…’s amazing is the absolute transparency of Brattin’s doublespeak: It’s not about religion, you see; it’s about religion. The obviousness of this reminds me of my three-year-old, holding half a cookie in her hand and speaking out of a chocolate-smeared mouth, No, I didn’t take the cookie. Yet Brattin, as confused as he seems, is only parroting the ID party line. His legislation is not about religion in the same way ID is not about God. Which is to…