To Rule Out God, First Get to Know Him
The new science of religion tells us where secularists are going wrong.
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Awakening, Counter-Awakening, and the End of Church
The United States is currently in the throes of a spiritual awakening, says Diana Butler Bass. In her new book, Christianity After Religion, Bass argues that we are at a crossroads in history—we can choose to move forward into new emerging spiritualities, or we can heed the siren sound of the traditionalists calling us back…
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Countdown to the Man-Made Apocalypse
Created in 1947, the doomsday clock graphically reflects how close humanity might be to human-induced apocalypse, in terms of the “number of minutes to midnight”—at which time, presumably, time itself will no longer matter. Currently, the clock is set at five minutes to midnight. Nuclear weapons continue to be the most urgent global threat to…
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World’s Oldest Temple May Have Been Cosmopolitan Center
Ancient blades made of volcanic rock that were discovered at what may be the world’s oldest temple suggest that the site in Turkey was the hub of a pilgrimage that attracted a cosmopolitan group of people some 11,000 years ago. Researchers matched up about 130 of the blades, which would have been used as tools,…
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Cumulative Cultural Development May Be Exclusively Human
Studies suggest that cumulative culture is unique to people, and that collaborative learning may be the key to human advancement. But precisely where to draw the lines for culture remains unclear
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Science, Faith, Politics … and Wolves
Once again, science, religion and politics have become entwined in a thorny public policy debate. This time, however, the discussion is not about abortion, birth control or health insurance mandates. It’s about wolves. Specifically, a bill in the Wisconsin Legislature to authorize a hunting season on wolves. Hunters approve of the season, and Republicans are…
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The ‘Most Important Questions’ in Science Policy
A series of bitter disagreements between scientists and policy-makers has prompted a group of researchers to create a list of 40 “key unanswered questions” in an attempt to ease tensions by setting an agenda for future work. Led by scientists at the University of Cambridge, U.K., the group — comprising more than 50 scientists, policy…
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Are Women Leaving Religion?
Both religion and conservative politicians are on the verge of losing the support of many of their constituents: women. That’s the conclusion Washington Post religion columnist Lisa Miller comes to after reading The Resignation of Eve by Jim Henderson and comparing it to the current election season. “Unless the strident, authoritarian social conservatives loosen their…
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Transforming the Way We Die
Our cultural tendency is to avoid serious conversations about end of life, and mortality has become politically polarized, but the longer we wait, the harder it will be to avoid disaster.
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Why Our Culture Is in Our Genes
Scientists have long gotten used to the idea that bodies are just genes’ ways of making more genes, survival machines that carry genes to the next generation. Think of a salmon struggling upstream just to expend its body (now expendable) in spawning. Evolutionary biologist Mark Pagel’s idea is that cultures are an extension of this:…