Before there were materialist explanations of nature’s unpredictable fury, there were stories. These stories were not mere entertainment, but were attempts to make sense of that which was inexplicable. The world is of course an unpredictable place. We were powerfully reminded of this but one month ago, as an earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan.
Modern Japanese [...]
Tags:Alan McMillan·Cascadia·causation·dwarfs·earthquake·Ian Hutchinson·Japan·Julie Cruikshank·Kwakiutl·materialist explanations·mountain dwarfs·Northwest Coast·Nuu-chah-nulth·Nuxalk·oral traditions·Salish·sea spirits·seismic events·stories·storytelling·subduction·supernatural explanations·tsunami
This statement from an Inuit elder reveals the logic of hunting magic:
Now that we have firearms it is almost as if we no longer need shamans, or taboo, for now it is not so difficult to procure food as in the old days. Then we had to laboriously hunt the caribou at the sacred crossing [...]
Tags:amulets·game spirits·hunting·hunting magic·Inuit·magic·ritual·shamans·taboo
I am not sure that anyone has all the answers or has exhausted the range of possibilities, but after reading this article about “content farms” in Slate, I thought I would give it a whirl. Of course content farms never give a decent answer, but causal explanations in the back forty have tremendous appeal and [...]
Tags:Angela Tchou·Annie Lowrey·causation·content farms·conversion·Ellen Langer·explanations·Malcolm Gladwell·narrative·Photocopier Effect·Pima Paradox·reasons·suspension of disbelief·theology
Let’s start with the lengthy story of Oscar winning Apostate, Paul Haggis and his life in Scientology. It appears in The New Yorker and is yet another expose of Scientology that will leave you baffled. When science fiction becomes science religion would be a good title for it.
Next we have Neil Strauss’ humorous piece, God [...]
Tags:apostate·Billy Ray Cyrus·Buddhist Ecclesiastical Law·Christopher Beam·David Miscaviage·God at the Grammys·Miley Cyrus·Mormons·Neil Strauss·Paul Haggis·Rupert Murdoch·Satan·Scientology·South Park·Sri Lanka·Super Best Friends·Theravada·Tom Cruise·Wickrema Weerasooria
As I noted in Supernaturalism and the Paranormal, it is possible that experiences typically categorized as “paranormal,” if they can be measured and verified, have some relationship to religion. People who have such experiences might be inclined to attribute them to the realm of the supernatural. How a person categorizes supernatural experience — as either [...]
Tags:Bach·Benedict Carey·Charles Judd·Cornell University·Daryl Bem·dogma·Douglas Hofstadter·Escher·ESP·extrasensory perception·Godel·paradigm shift·paranormal·peer review·precognition·Ray Hyman·replication·science·skepticism·statistics·Thomas Kuhn
As is the case with charismatic or evangelical forms of Christianity, some strands of Islam have a robust sense of supernatural agency that populates the world with all manner of malevolent spirits who are ostensibly responsible for real world afflictions. In a recent article, psychiatrist Amir Afkhami reports on an Islamic “faith healer” in Iraq [...]
Tags:Amir Afkhami·charismatic·Christianity·demons·evangelical·faith healing·folk beliefs·folk religion·Freud·hysteria·Iraq·Islam·jinns·Koran·Mullah Eskandar·Quran·shamanic healing·spirits
Anyone interested in the history of religions will inevitably become familiar with all manner of truly fantastic stories and beliefs. Whether we are talking about the soul flights and death duels of shamans, the avatars and exploits of Vishnu, or the appearance of Moroni and golden tablets of Joseph Smith, all religious traditions have their [...]
Tags:Adam·apple·avatars·bizarre theology·Christianity·Christians·Eve·golden tablets·Jesus·Jewish·Joseph Smith·Moroni·Satan·Scientology·shamans·sin·strange doctrine·thetans·Vishnu
In several posts, I have discussed the prevalence of witchcraft in Africa. Before anyone gets the idea that Africans are somehow unique or backwards when it comes to this issue, I would like to point out the resurgence of interest in exorcisms within the Catholic Church.
As Laurie Goodstein reports for the New York Times, Catholic [...]
Tags:angels·Bishop Paprocki·Catholic Church·demons·devil·exorcism·incantations·Linda Blair·magic·possession·prayer·rites of exorcism·sacraments·Satan·sorcery·spells·The Exorcist·witchcraft
As Charles Choi reports, archaeologist Brian Hayden suggests that the Neolithic domestication of cereals may have been driven by the ritual desire for proto-Budweiser:
[His] argument is that Stone Age farmers were domesticating cereals not so much to fill their stomachs but to lighten their heads, by turning the grains into beer. That has been their [...]
Tags:alcohol·altered states of consciousness·beer·Brian Hayden·cereal grains·Charles Choi·ecstasy·emotions·neolithic·ritual·saints·shamans·Sorcerers
Here is an explanation for ritual that makes considerable sense: if you are about to perform some task, and think that engaging in some — indeed any — form of ritual will enhance your performance, there is a good chance the mental prime improves subsequent performance. My guess is that there is fine line between [...]
Tags:causation·luck·magic·magical thinking·mental prime·performance·ritual·superstition
