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RDBook: Apocalypse Without God

By Nathan Schneider

…knew Maybe you should. And that raises the question—Clinton isn’t talking about religion in any way. He didn’t think of his schema as religious, nor did he talk about the history of philosophy. Is he missing something? Heidegger says somewhere that there is a difference between scholarship and thinking. Academics are trained to be scholars and not to be thinkers. It’s similar to the difference between the history of philosophy and philosophy, or…

The Subway Sandwich Artist Argument; When “Religious Freedom” Isn’t About Religious Freedom

By Patrick Hornbeck

…ntial opportunity to engage Douthat’s question. However, because arguments about same-sex marriage are so often grounded in heartfelt disagreements about religion (both among religious people and between the religious and the non-religious, a subject I will be exploring in my next column), one has to wonder whether Phillips’s reliance on his freedom of creative expression will help or hinder the Court as it seeks to offer legal clarity on one of o…

La Carmina, Author of ‘The Little Book of Satanism,’ Talks ‘Satanic Panic,’ QAnon, Japanese Satanism, and More

By Joseph Laycock

…I’m relieved that the country is open to unrestricted tourism again. Next, I’m heading to Medellin, Colombia on a food and travel journalism project. For the time being, I’m focusing on the release of The Little Book of Satanism: A Guide to Satanic History, Culture & Wisdom. I hope my short guidebook can help people understand the roots of religious Satanism, and put to rest the many misguided ideas about Satanists and their practices. As always,…

Naked Mormon Women Go Viral, Talk Back

By Holly Welker

…ically targeting LDS ‘modesty culture.’” (As if to illustrate Karl’s point about Utah’s collective squeamishness about nudity, the Tribune did not provide a link to Anderson’s site.) Many articles have praised the project’s intentions of helping women reclaim and love their bodies as beautiful even when flawed, and Anderson has created an “Appreciation” page on the website featuring some of the supportive emails she has received. But wade into the…

The Case for Treating Near-Death Experiences Like Acid Trips

By Andrew Aghapour

…n psychedelics and the way they can transform our brains. In terms of hard science, we could probably learn quite a bit about our brains by looking at these special types of experiences. Second, we can learn how to respond to this one reaction that John Martin Fischer and I have gotten to some of our work: “you’re being downers, guys!” Looking at the LSD trip that we talk about in the book, it’s not clear that you need to appeal to the supernatura…

Christian Pol, Attacked for Opposing ‘In God We Trust’ in School, Talks Church and State

By Frederick Clarkson

…ce reform, and universal health care. Senator Marty agreed to talk with RD about what this episode tells us about religion and public life in the age of Trump. RD: During the floor debate, and in your appearance on Fox, you argued that the posting of In God We Trust in the public schools is “offensive” to both religious believers and non-religious, and that a “government sanctioned motto” is essentially an affront to religion itself. Please say mo…

Can Johnny and Sally Handle the Truth About Thanksgiving?

By Jonathan L. Walton

…and happy-go-lucky Indians every year at this time to teach moral lessons about sharing, hospitality and generosity. Yet are such revisionist narratives about protecting the young minds of children or extending the myths of a noble national identity? Its not like this nation is particularly concerned about sheltering school-age children from images and narratives of violence any other time. Think about it: tragically, most American children g…

‘People You May Know’ Reveals a War on Democracy Being Waged With Big Data [Part II]

By Chrissy Stroop

…t I think there’s a nervousness on the part of broadcasters in America—not about taking on politics or Donald Trump, but about taking on the CNP. The fear of taking on the CNP is that you have these national religious broadcast networks, and if I were a big broadcast network in the United States, yeah, I’d be a little afraid of Donald Trump, but I’d be more afraid of a Christian boycott of my platform. CS: This is something I’m constantly up again…

All the Lonely People: Holiday Blues and the Epidemic of Isolation

By Peter Laarman

…riends who have other ideas. They need to be able to generate some passion about what they believe should be done about social challenges, and that passion often comes from a sense of shared mission. Isolated people can and do take part in limited forms of social networking, of course. Text messaging reached an unbelievably high level this past year, with something like 740 billion text messages sent in the first half of 2009 in the United States…

Overnight Sensation ‘The Rich Men North of Richmond’ isn’t Just a Window into a Forgotten America — It’s an Invitation into a Worldview

By Bradley Onishi

…but that misses the point. He’s a poet, not a politician, and he’s singing about the world he knows. . . . Anthony’s song is about life: his own life and the life lived by a lot of people today. What’s difficult to ignore in the midst of analyses like this is just how little of Anthony’s life or world there is in the song. No descriptions of his home or land or community; no celebration of a way of life that’s been taken away; no encouragement to…