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Why Scientists Should Be Agnostic: Or, Why Lawrence Krauss Is Still a Windbag

By Andrew Aghapour and Michael Schulson

…s safe, no theory transcendent. But Krauss breaks this very rule by making Science itself sacred. “Science,” with a capital S, is a monolithic, positivist conception of science commonly peddled by New Atheists. Where science is ultimately value neutral, “Science” is normative—hailed as liberatory, progressive, and inherently godless. For Krauss, we ought to evangelize on behalf of Science because it can liberate humanity if it wins out in its cosm…

Creationism and Evolution are Competing ‘Myths’

By Kelly E. Hayes

…creationism, “belief in every word of the Bible can be defended by modern science.” The concerted efforts of national science organizations to refute such claims seem to have had little effect on many middle Americans—not surprisingly the exact demographic targeted by AiG. The Ark Encounter’s planned home in northern Kentucky will situate it, like the Creation Museum, within a day’s drive of two-thirds of all Americans, some 40% of whom, accordin…

Leper Messiah: A Jesus Freak’s Search for the Meaning of Bowie—A Critical Novella

By Mark Dery

…aphysical questions that nag him. Bowie’s pilgrimage has taken him through Buddhism to the alien saviors of science fiction and flying-saucer theology and mystical traditions ranging from kabbalism to English magician-scholars such as Aleister Crowley and A.E. Waite to the dimestore occultism of Dion Fortune’s Psychic Self-Defense to the Maronite Christian mysticism of Kahlil Gibran, whose The Prophet, like Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, was a pick-u…

Magic v. Science: Doctor Who Part III

By Gabriel Mckee

…episode. James F. McGrath_______________ Vampires vs. Aliens, Magic vs. Science One of the topics that I discussed in my religion and science fiction class last semester was the relationship between sci-fi and fantasy. Some are fans of both, and some prefer one or the other. But how clear is the distinction? The Doctor Who episode “Vampires of Venice” provides a good illustration of what distinguishes them—and of what makes the distinction bl…

Does War Make Sense? Science and Religion on the Battlefield

By Nathan Schneider

…quet for neglecting a 1,000-page addendum on religion in his 250-page book about scientific warfare. But science was not the beginning of the quest for order on chaotic battlefields, nor is it the end. Take one startling passage, which he cites as a signal of thermodynamic thinking: Witnessing Napoleon riding past after his victory at Jena in 1806, Hegel saw in the Emperor the “world-spirit,” the embodied march of History. No longer merely serving…

For Black Buddhists Struggling with Intergenerational Trauma of Slavery, Segregation, and Incarceration, Thich Nhat Hanh’s Teachings are Vital

By Rima Vesely-Flad

…his from Thay’s teachings.” Berry uplifts these ancestral practices within Buddhism as foundational for healing intergenerational trauma in the African diaspora, in lineages of families torn apart by the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the auction block, and the Great Migration. Indeed, Buddhism provides teachings and practices that facilitate turning towards suffering and learning how to stay present with the trauma that has arisen from fractured fami…

Does the Science Show that Spirituality Will Benefit Your Child?

By Michael Schulson

…ience”—specifically, “established scientific fact” that’s “grounded in the science” and “the picture created by science,” now made available so that parents can make decisions “grounded in science and in our natural love.” In the book’s 20-page introduction (from which all five of those quotes are pulled), Miller uses variations of the word “science” sixty-eight times. Unfortunately, the book’s sourcing doesn’t entirely bear out its own claims to…

A New Book Explains How the Christian Right Has Gotten Selective Denial Down to a Science

By Antony Alumkal

…most important take-home message for readers? I coined the term “paranoid science” to refer to pseudoscience movements driven by paranoia. I built on historian Richard Hofstadter’s classic essay “The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” which describes the recurrence of grand conspiracy theories (our whole way of life is under threat). When Christian Right leaders object to some sector of science, they respond by creating a grand conspiracy theo…

Still Trying to Get Creationism into Science Classes

By Lauri Lebo

…al. They can hide it in the passive voice all they want, but when you talk about an “intelligent cause” you are talking about a creator. And that makes it (wait for it) creationism. But don’t take my word for it. Especially when Discovery Institute and its fellows have so many words of their own that reveal their intention. The “Wedge Strategy” Let’s start with the so-called Wedge Document. In 1998, DI put out a fundraising document that plainly s…

Science of Little Help with Personhood Issues

By Paul Wallace

…imed that science was on their side, when there is really very little that science can offer about the question that voters were asked to decide. Personhood, for better or worse, is not an attribute that can be identified in a blood test. It is a quality that is utterly a matter of moral and, in many cases, religious definition.” It is easy to see why science has become our public lingua franca. Science does, in fact, transcend local cultural vaga…