When I teach my anthropology of religion course the first order of business is to define and disrupt “religion” as a category. I begin by having students identify everything they consider to be “religion.” Our list grows and all the usual suspects make their appearance. After the list has been compiled, we then ask what [...]
Tags:Ake Hultkrantz·Andrew McKinnon·Buddhism·category of religion·concept of religion·definition of religion·Japan·Jason Josephson·Shinto·Wittgenstein
For historians and theorists of religion, one of the more useful exercises is to compare and contrast the religions of indigenous peoples whose economies or “bases” were different. We are fortunate to have fairly comprehensive records of two such peoples in America: the Iroquois tribes and the Plains Indians. The Iroquois were sedentary horticulturalists whereas [...]
Tags:Ake Hultkrantz·alcohol·anthropophagy·blood of Christ·body of Christ·cannibalism·drinking·Iroquois·Jesuits·Maia Conrad·Mohawk·Seneca·social construction·Thomas Abler·visions·William Arens
What is the meaning of this dubious concatenation? I’m not sure but am sure that it should be bracketed with scare quotes at all times.
I first became aware of “theological anthropology” while browsing the Evolution of Religion website, which is a Templeton funded project devoted to finding God’s plan in evolution. Here is the announcement [...]
Tags:creationism·Dominic Johnson·intelligent design·Templeton Foundation·theistic evolution·theological anthropology
A place for everything and everything in its place. This is not just a mantra for those with obsessive tendencies. It also describes the drive that some have toward a system: a unified theory of everything.
Before the Enlightenment, there was no need for such a theory. God served this purpose and everything was explained by [...]
Tags:Darwinian monism·David Sloan Wilson·dualism·EO Wilson·Ernst Haeckel·Hegel·Kant·metaphysics·metatheory·monism·Neil deGrasse Tyson·Nietzsche·Niles Holt·science as religion·systematization·theory of everything·unified theory
Over at The Chronicle, Seth Perry reviews two recent books on Scientology, Janet Reitman’s Inside Scientology: The Story of America’s Most Secretive Religion (2011) and Hugh Urban’s The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion (2011). This assertion grabbed my attention: “Hubbard’s teachings contain fascinating religious content that demands serious study—by [...]
Tags:Clear·cult·Hugh Urban·Inside Scientology·Janet Reitman·L. Ron Hubbard·pseudo-religion·Scientology·Sea Org·Seth Perry·thetans·Xenu
In The Devil’s Dictionary (online), great American cynic and writer Ambrose Bierce offers definitions that disrupts common understandings and received wisdoms. Every few years or so, I find it salutary to do a letter a month.
In “R” we find: “RELIGION, n. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the [...]
Tags:Ambrose Bierce·Benjamin Schwarz·fear·hope·ignorance·Library of America·The Devil's Dictionary·unknowable
The holy grail of archaeology is to discover the earliest evidence of symbolic thought in humans. Generally speaking, symbolism means that one thing represents or stands for another. In its most basic form, symbolic thought is iconic: an object in the world (e.g., rock) is related to an idea in the mind (e.g., person).
Because this [...]
Tags:Acheulian·April Nowell·arbitrary·art·Berekhat Ram·Fancesco d'Errico·figurines·geofact·icon·iconicity·incisions·Israel·language·linguistics·Morocco·ocher·pigment·ritual·Robert Bednarik·rock art·Saussure·semiotics·symbolic behavior·symbolic thought·symbols·Tan-Tan·Venus·words
The BBC’s Jason Palmer breathlessly reports on a new study which suggests that “religion may go extinct” in nine nations (Australia, Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland). This is a classic case of what is known in accounting of “garbage in, garbage out” or GIGO.
The study authors relied on census [...]
Tags:atheism·Daniel Abrams·formal religion·informal religion·Jason Palmer·religiosity·religious affiliation·Rodney Stark·secularization thesis
Before the 2001 census was taken in Great Britain and several Commonwealth countries, someone suggested that the “Religious Affiliation” question be answered by professing belief in The Force and claiming to be a Jedi Knight. In Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, significant numbers of people did just this.
If you have ever attended a Star [...]
Tags:Buddhism·census·ecumenical·George Lucas·Jedi·Jedi Knights·Jedi religion·John Perlock·Obi Wan Kenobi·science fiction·Scientology·Star Wars·The Church of Jediism·The Force·theoretical physics·Yoda
A high school physics and chemistry teacher in Pennsylvania has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that evolution is atheism and because atheism is a religion, it cannot be taught in public schools. Here is the complaint:
1. The Plaintiff is Thomas J. Ritter, Jr., an adult individual residing at 320 MacArthur Drive, Orwigsburg, PA 17961.
2. [...]
Tags:Anne Creyer·atheism·binary·evolution·federal lawsuit·ID·intelligent design·Kitzmiller·logic·religion·The Blue Mountain School District·Thomas Ritter
