Search for "More About Buddhism & Science"

“Project Blitz” Seeks to Do for Christian Nationalism What ALEC Does for Big Business

By Frederick Clarkson

…e their underlying bigotry.” Indeed, in at least one instance, the alleged science being used to make a case against adoption by same sex parents, a study by sociologist Mark Regnerus of the University of Texas, has long been discredited, exposed as biased, and was funded primarily by the Christian Right. Versions of the controversial First Amendment Defense Act (FADA), have been introduced in several states. One variant, the “Oklahoma Right of Co…

“Project Blitz” Seeks to Do for Christian Nationalism What ALEC Does for Big Business

By Frederick Clarkson

…e their underlying bigotry.” Indeed, in at least one instance, the alleged science being used to make a case against adoption by same sex parents, a study by sociologist Mark Regnerus of the University of Texas, has long been discredited, exposed as biased, and was funded primarily by the Christian Right. Versions of the controversial First Amendment Defense Act (FADA), have been introduced in several states. One variant, the “Oklahoma Right of Co…

There’s Just One Problem With Upcoming Evangelical Summit on Sexual Violence

By Dianna Anderson

…. Evangelicals largely exist in a purity culture that often fails to teach about consent since sexual activity of any kind is verboten. This creates an atmosphere that naturally lends itself to questions about a person’s sexual proclivities and activities when an assault happens, especially if that assault was preceded by activity that might be considered sinful (e.g., making out on a first date that turns into assault). These evangelical pastors,…

Christian Nationalists Aim to Dismantle this Core Freedom

By Andrew L. Seidel

…t rally, less than two weeks before Religious Freedom Day, Trump was clear about his desire to unite state and church. He declared, “We will restore the role of faith and true foundation of American life and we will ensure that our country forever and always remains one people, one family, and one glorious nation under God.” In the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, Jefferson skewered: “the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil…

DeSantis’ Religious Exemption Will Kill—And it Violates the 1st Amendment

By Andrew L. Seidel

…unsafe activity, regardless of purpose. These policies are guided by clear science: The more people that gather, the more viruses spread. Viruses do not respect boundaries or holy ground, they simply travel from person to person. Second, these exemptions unconstitutionally favor churches. The Supreme Court has also held that the First Amendment “requires the state to be neutral in its relations with groups of religious believers and non-believers”…

Atheist Holiday Display: “A” Does Not Stand for “Art”

By Peter Manseau

…lter ego was a physicist: a representative of all that humanity could know about the universe and its godless laws. If this fixation on the typography and symbolism of fifty-year-old comic books smacks of arrested development, well, it is tempting to say, “if the Scarlet Letter fits…” But, of course, that’s painting with too broad a brush. It’s worth noting that many of those who don’t believe in God make peace with the fact that most people d…

Sam Harris and the New Islamophobes, Deconstructed

By Hamdan Azhar

…or his flowery Islamophobic rhetoric (“the people who speak most sensibly about the threat that Islam poses to Europe are actually fascists”) has never denied that religious intolerance lies at the heart of his worldview: “science must destroy religion.” Now, he is doubling down on his anti-Muslim animus: “The bad acts of the worst individuals—the jihadists, the murderers of apostates, and the men who treat their wives and daughters like chattel—…

The ‘Spiritual Warfare’ Worldview of Trump’s Conspiracy Doctor is Part of a Transnational Movement

By André Gagné

…h, miracles, other-worldly problems, the ‘sacred’) and the bottom-tier of “science” (sight and experience, natural order, worldly problems, the ‘secular’). Hiebert believes that people in the West have a blind-spot: the “excluded middle,” this third-tier “spirit world” of most individuals in the Majority World. This third-tier would be the world of spirits, ancestors, witches, curses, ghosts, etc., and would profoundly affect the daily lives of pe…

How We Got to Super: Grant Morrison’s Visionary Gnosticism

By Jeffrey J. Kripal

…cience as the best source for metaphors to articulate what he knew. Modern science is what gives shape to his modern mysticism. And so he writes about hyperdimensions, the brane and bulk of contemporary cosmology, and, of course, evolution. These scientific models are never sufficient, however. And so the creators turn to mystical literature as well. Indeed, over and over, they actually call themselves Gnostics, by which they mean to invoke both t…

Evolution ‘Doesn’t Make Any Sense’: A Scene From a Classroom

By Lauri Lebo

…s been making the round of science blogs the past couple days. It’s from a science classroom in Dayton, TN. (Home to the famous Scopes Monkey Trial.) These kids are now grownups of about 30. Many no doubt have children of their own, who likely continue to mindlessly parrot the same creationist talking points of their parents. And so, the circle of life continues. The most frustrating part is that the students appear to have genuine confusion over…