Several months ago I became aware of the “Evolution of Religion” project, which maintains a website here. I did not find it particularly interesting because it was immediately apparent that the project was designed to prove a particular point. We need look no further than the project’s subtitle to ascertain the a priori commitment that [...]
Tags:a priori assumptions·agenda·atheism·benefits·bias·confirmation bias·conflict of interest·costs·evolution of religion·Evolution of Religion Project·John Templeton Foundation·maladaptive·metaphysics·methodology·The Adaptive Logic of Religious Beliefs and Behaviour
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
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
In my first post on Robert Rowthorn’s paper “Fertility, Religion and Genes,” I focused on its faulty premises and unrealistic assumptions; I also substituted the word “love” for “religion” in Rowthorn’s argument to show that nearly any beneficial and complex human behavioral trait could be explained using the same single gene model. In my second [...]
Tags:alleles·atheism·complex traits·confounding variable·culture·diabetes·fertility·genes·learning·religion·religion gene·religiosity·Richard Dawkins·Robert Rowthorn·Sam Harris·single-nucleotide polymorphisms·SNP·socialization
Our correspondent at The Economist reviews what looks to a provocative new book by Philipp Blom, A Wicked Company: The Forgotten Radicalism of the European Enlightenment.
Blom sets his book around the happenings of an exceptional Parisian salon — that of Baron Paul Thierry d’Holbach — who hosted the likes of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, David Hume, Denis [...]
Tags:A Wicked Company·atheism·Baron Paul Thierry d’Holbach·commonsense dualism·counter-Enlightenment·David Hume·Denis Diderot·enlightenment·godless·magical thinking·materialism·mechanistic·Parisian salon·Phillipp Blom·Rousseau·soul beliefs·Voltaire
Though I have yet to view a single episode of PBS’ five part series “God in America,” I have been catching comments here and there which suggest it is worth watching. My avoidance to date is born of studied tedium — how much Cotton Mather and Ken Burns can one take in a lifetime?
Our correspondent [...]
Tags:Al-Qaeda·American evangelism·apocalypse·apocalyptic·artificial threats·atheism·Billy Graham·Brumaire·Cold War·communism·Cotton Mather·Dwight Eisenhower·farce·fear based religion·Fox News·God in America·Hegel·Karl Marx·Ken Burns·military-industrial complex·Osama bin Laden·PBS·politics of fear·propaganda·Puff Graham·Rupert Murdoch·Soul of a Nation·tragedy·Wall Street Journal·William Randolph Hearst
Anyone studying religion will sooner or later read Sigmund Freud’s classic, The Future of an Illusion (1927). I was engaged in my fifth reading today and came across this passage:
Thus I must contradict you when you go on to argue that men are completely unable to do without the consolation of the religious illusion, that [...]
Tags:atheism·fear·helplessness·lack of telos·loss of parents·loss of protection·meaninglessness·neurosis·religious delusion·religious illusion·replacement with god·secular·secularization·separation anxiety·Sigmund Freud·The Future of an Illusion
Among the non-academic public, there is a general perception that university professors are irreligious. As someone who has long been in and around academics, I have shared this perception and commented on it just the other day. The actual numbers, it turns out, tell a different and surprising story.
In a recent article, Amarnath Amarasingam discusses [...]
Tags:academics·agnosticism·Amarnath Amarasingam·atheism·biologists·college professors·evolutionary atheism·evolutionary theism·intellectuals·intelligentsia·John Haught·Neil Gross·professoriate·pyschologists·religiosity·religious·skepticism·Solon Simmons·university professors
As I noted in A Tale of Two Religion Scholars, Dr. Michael Blume’s research (which you can find at Homo religious) shows that religious groups out-reproduce their secular counterparts. The data are solid and correspond to the commandments of most religions: “Be fruitful and multiply.”
Given that religious people make more babies than secular people, Blume [...]
Tags:agnosticism·atheism·carrying capacity·confirmation bias·Darwin·extended lactation·fertility·fitness benefits·Freud·group level selection·group size·ideological causation·infanticide·John Hawks·Marx·Michael Blume·Nietzsche·Paleolithic shamanism·religious·reproduction·Rodney Stark·secular·secularism
In a recent post, I commented on a recent Pew Forum survey finding that atheists-agnostics have greater knowledge of religions in general and Christianity in particular than do the believers in those faiths. This has ruffled more than a few feathers in the communities of the faithful, especially American Christians who have always displayed a [...]
Tags:Adam Hamilton·agnosticism·agnostics·Alan Cooperman·atheism·atheists·Epiphenom·explaining atheism·explaining unbelief·historical amnesia·intelligence tests·IQ scores·Mitchell Landsberg·Pew Forum·Pew Forum on Religion·religious ignorance·Satoshi Kanazawa·search for truth·survey of religious knowledge
