In his paper purporting to show that a beneficial, baby-making “religion gene” will sweep through a population and eventually make everyone religious, Robert Rowthorn ignores this inconvenient fact: nearly everyone in the world is already religious. Here is how it breaks down:
Because fifty percent of the “Non-Religious” group is theistic but not “religious,” we can [...]
Tags:alleles·atheists·belief gene·believers·brain·brain gene·demography·dual inheritance·faith gene·fertility·fixation·human universal·materialists·neurology·religion gene·Robert Rowthorn·selective sweep·supernaturalism·unbelievers·world religiosity
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
In a recent poll of over 3,400 Americans, the Pew Forum on Religion ironically found that atheists and agnostics know more about religions than do believers. Here is the abstract:
Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons are among the highest-scoring groups on a new survey of religious knowledge, outperforming evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants and Catholics on [...]
Tags:agnostics·atheists·blind faith·Catholics·comparative religion·ignorance·Jews·Maimonides·Pew Forum·Protestants·transubstantiation·U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey
In an odd article that attempts to situate Anne Rice’s very public proclamation that she is leaving the Catholic Church within the larger context of American Christianity, Los Angeles Times religion reporter William Lobdell makes two apparently contradictory claims:
American Christianity is not well, and there’s evidence to indicate that its condition is more critical [...]
Tags:American Christianity·Anne Rice·atheists·Catholic Church·Christian diversity·Christian God·Christian nation·Christianity in America·Christopher Hitchens·Civil Religion·Cordoba Center·evangelicals·exclusivism·Ground Zero·intolerance·Islam·Islamic center·Max Fisher·mosque·Muslim·nationalism·Pew Forum·religious diversity·religious freedom·sacred space·Stephen Merino·unaffiliated·United States·William Lobdell
In this classic video, Kirk Cameron explains — in all seriousness — how God perfectly and exquisitely designed the banana for human use and consumption:
Although the banana’s functional and optimal design features may not cause nightmares for those who understand that bananas evolved like all other plants and were domesticated (i.e., selected) by humans, they [...]
Tags:adaptationist programme·adaptationists·atheists·banana·bananas·creation·design·Dr. Pangloss·Eden·functionalism·group level selection·group level selectionists·Homo antecessor·Homo heidelbergensis·Kirk Cameron·morals·Paleolithic religion·Panglossian Paradigm·paradise·prosocial·rituals·spandrels
