Religion Dispatches
…ecision. Since the bearer of the letter sincerely, religiously believes in science, they must be allowed to follow their conscience. It’s twisted, but it’s brilliant. Yes, this is the same group best known for its efforts to erect a statue of Satan in front of the Oklahoma State Capitol, just like the 10 Commandments, and for their attempted Black Mass at Harvard. Pre-Hobby Lobby, both stunts had struck me as mildly amusing but not very effective….
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…if I’ve ever seen one. Defenders: By your reckoning, we should just blame “Science” for everything, rather than carefully consider the contradictory human impulses that go into the creation of “religion,” “science,” “government,” and other human institutions. More importantly, one of the most important responses of “religion” to human violence, historically, has been to hold human societies to higher standards, to protest injustice and bloodshed,…
Read More…ier this week, speakers for the groups condemned the Pope for bungling the science, overstepping his role as a spiritual leader, and hurting the world’s poor. “Humans are not causing a climate crisis on God’s Green Earth,” said Heartland Institute President Joseph Bast in a recent press release, “in fact, they are fulfilling their Biblical duty to protect and use it for the benefit of humanity. Their concern about the Vatican is understandable. Fr…
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…hed or blamed or condemned or praised. And I think we make those judgments about people far more often than we make judgments about whether cheating is wrong or not. How do those kinds of judgments about people help explain our psychology better than a less character-centered view might? One of my favorite sets of studies comes from a psychologist, Mark Alicke. So there’s a man driving home in the rain, and he’s speeding. He gets in an accident an…
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…elieving the suffering of his flock. And in America, if you believe in the science of climate change, truly care about poverty, and want amnesty for undocumented immigrants, you’re a liberal. In fact, liberals have adopted this Pope as their mascot so ardently that last week my social media feeds were filled with people reposting the fake quote in the picture below. It appeals to social-justice oriented American liberals because it echoes their be…
Read More…t to Kenya, though New Ways Ministry notes that Francis did talk generally about individual freedom and “working to shape a society which is ever more just, inclusive and respectful of human dignity.” Uganda’s ethics minister had told the Associated Press, “I am praying that he doesn’t talk about this. Because it will open a Pandora’s box.” While some activists had hoped Francis would “tell fellow believers that we are human beings like them,” chu…
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…oppling, and that constituency is not prepared to share leadership.” Asked about the Hawkins case in a recent email, Giberson called it “another indication of a theological paranoia that seems to be sweeping across the American evangelical landscape.” He then added that “evangelicals have all but lost the ability to engage with the great questions of our time.” Giberson—now an Episcopalian and scholar-in-residence in science and religion at Stoneh…
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…uestions Do Cubit articles have to make explicit reference to religion and science? Not exactly. Again, it really helps to scan through the collected works. So what are you about? Cubit pieces hit at least one area in column A, and at least one area in column B. Are you an academic journal or a magazine? We straddle that line. Many of our contributors are academics, and we engage with theory and the scholarly literature more seriously than most jo…
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…que position to transform our by-now predictable yet intractable conflicts about religion and secular life. So why don’t we teach theology alongside history, political science, or math? First, theology is an historically Christian concept and discipline, and most arguments for the inclusion of theology in public education, or public affairs more generally, have tended toward Christian apologia. When we read one recent brief for “taking theology se…
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…th a paper a few years ago that underscored the compatibility of faith and science; and the National Center for Science Education has staff theologian to help religious and secular groups figure out how that can be so. These are all part of the ongoing project of figuring out how to get along in a religiously plural society. So I say, by all means, let’s find even more cultural space for such endeavors. Finally, regarding Bruce’s proposal as resta…
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