Religion Dispatches
…mediator between a sin or a wrong doing and Allah. He then elaborated the best way to make this dhikr: one hundred repetitions; and the best times to make it: after fajr prayer before sunrise, and after ‘asr or the afternoon prayer. I’m not a diehard about all these details, except to say that the 100 repetitions are pretty standard. The specific times are a plus, I guess. I am just not capable of being that literal. But then again I guess that’s…
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…human groups into an “organism-equivalent.” In fact, those religions that best encourage people to feel they belong to one another, tend to be the ones that last and grow. Far from being a mistake, religion may provide the best evolutionary explanation for humankind’s success. Of course, accounting for the origins of something proves nothing about its worth—philosophers call that the genetic fallacy. There are also reasons to question Wilson’s ev…
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…ally, Marable himself passed away only days before the publication of this bestselling work, but the impact it made—settling on the bestseller lists, for example—only underscores the scale of his scholarship, and the relevance it has to our world. Growing up, Haley’s Autobiography was profoundly influential in the formation of my own identity—along with Muhammad Iqbal’s own works, both sustained me when Maryam Jameelah and the Islam of ideology wa…
Read MoreOver the weekend, the #realclergybios hashtag spread like Gospel on Twitter, with countless pastors and seminarians shelling out hard truths about everything from doubting one’s vocation to fighting for the church’s solvency to—if you’re a woman or non-white pastor—dealing with daily microaggressions. RD spoke to Indiana-based Presbyterian minister Mihee Kim-Kort, who launched #realclergybios as an offshoot of #realacademicbios, to get the story…
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…g imperative as those older ones. I don’t think it’s coincidental that the best voices in pop criticism are more diverse than the best voices in the American academy. The materials of mass culture are simply more accessible to a wider population, and when you create a fairer space for competitive possibility, you’ll find a more diverse set of people at the top. That said, I am a big fan of academic nerds, and I openly borrow from the creativity an…
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…brokers therein, pay for the ‘best’ eggs and sperm you can afford from the best sources (‘best’ as determined by things like the jobs and grades of those whose sperm and eggs you are ‘using’), find a fertility clinic, pay the clinic to mix the eggs and sperm and put the resulting fertilized eggs into a surrogate mom (found, for example, at the Center for Surrogate Parenting) whom you are also (usually, but not always) paying. Then wait. More and m…
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…that it is a plea by a lover to his beloved, insisting that he will be the best lover for the boy to take for one simple reason: he does not love him. The best lover as one who is not in love? How can such a thing be? Simple: there will be no jealousy, no craziness, no emotional trauma or turmoil in this love. Socrates sort of goes ho-hum, suggests that he’s heard better love-speeches, and then proceeds to offer up a rival speech that makes the sa…
Read MoreIf you thought the Academy Award winners were surprising, you won’t believe who won the 2009 Culture of Life Movie Awards. These awards are given by Madrid’s archdiocesan weekly magazine, Alpha and Omega, to movies that uphold the culture of “life.” Miguel Angel Velasco, director of the magazine stated, “Given the tendency to reward movies that represent the ‘culture of death’, [we] wanted to reward others that, in one way or another, defend the…
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…tant regional manager of an insurance company—he actually says this—be the best assistant regional manager of an insurance company you can be. Work on something called your “craft.” (Even the insurance agent has a craft.) Also, pay attention to the details of life. Use the fine china. Unplug and play with your kids. Take a “Sabbath” from email. And you, too, will learn how to be here. Rob Bell, for most of us, will be best known as the guy who dec…
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…of times because we still live in the greatest nation on earth. It is the best of years because we have the freedom to speak our minds. It is the best of years because we can organize as we see fit to support the political candidates of our choice.” Frederick Clarkson, a longtime observer of and writer about right-wing movements, pointed out that Weyrich “was a catalyst for pulling together the disparate parts of the conservative movement into a…
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