The German Interior Minister was recently interviewed by Spiegel. It begins with a nice example of the “authenticity” error (i.e., my understanding of the tradition is correct and any other is false):
Interior Minister: But we also have to realize that the abuse of Islam by Islamist extremists has contributed to this.
Spiegel: Anders Breivik claims to [...]
Tags:Anders Breivek·authenticity error·Christianity·essentialism·German identity·Germany·Hans-Peter Friedrich·Islam·Islamists
In the inaugural issue of Religion, Brain & Behavior, Jeffrey Schloss and Michael Murray examine the idea that belief in supernatural agents is adaptive because these agents are punishers: supernatural policeman if you will. This policing can have two effects. First, belief in supernatural punishment can enhance within group cooperation. Second, it can reduce cheating [...]
Tags:ancestral environment·Azim Shariff·cheating·cooperation enhancement·essentialism·free riders·Friedrich Nietzsche·functionalism·game theory·Genealogy of Morals·Jeffrey Schloss·Jesse Bering·Lee Cronk·Mario Brandhorst·Michael Murray·morals·neolithic·Paleolithic·punishment avoidance·supernatural punishment·supernatural surveillance
Many of us have heard it in church and elsewhere: the ubiquitous “kumbaya” song. Samuel Freedman has written a remonstratively nostalgic article that bemoans current usage of the word, which today is often used as a mild epithet indicating there will be no compromise or consensus. This usage is not limited to politics, though it [...]
Tags:black folk·Come By Here·compromise·consensus·essentialism·etymology·folklore·Glenn Hinson·kumbaya·nostalgia·racist·Samuel Freedman·song·white hands·word evolution
Few things are more critical, or boring, than arriving at a satisfactory definition of “religion” before embarking upon a study of the subject. Despite this seemingly obvious fact, most studies of “religion” commence without any discussion of definitions, thus leaving us with the mistaken impression that the issue is somehow settled and obvious.
There are two [...]
Tags:essentialism·family resemblance·hard core pornography·I know it when I see it·Jacobellis v. Ohio·language games·Les Amants·Louis Malle·Ludwig Wittgenstein·Max Weber·obscenity·Potter Stewart·Reification·Resemblances Among Religions·The Lovers·The Sociology of Religion
One would be hard pressed to find a more pessimistic or straitjacketed view of life (and afterlife) than that espoused by John Calvin (1509-1564), the theologian-pastor of Geneva who played a leading role in the Protestant Reformation. His doctrine of predestination held that God elected to save certain people who would enjoy a heavenly afterlife, [...]
Tags:anti-essentialism·Calvinism·Calvinist·David Harvey·election·essentialism·eternal damnation·Geneva·heavenly afterlife·John Calvin·John Piper·Mark Driscoll·Max Weber·neo-Calvinism·post-modernism·post-modernity·predestination·Protestant Ethic·Protestant Reformation·Protestants·Southern Baptist·Southern Baptist Convention·spirit of capitalism·the elect
Nearly all the interesting discussions about Islam are coming from Europe rather than the United States. In Germany the debate was given a major jolt by Thilo Sarrazin, as I noted in German Angst and Islam. Unlike debates in the United States — which are usually reduced to simple dichotomies that can be quickly judged [...]
Tags:Bolshevism·essentialism·Europe·Germany·Hamed Abdel-Samad·Ho Chi Minh·Islam·Islam is like a drug·Lenin·Mao·Marxism·moderate Islam·Muslims·political action·radical Islam·The Downfall of the Islamic World·Thilo Sarrazin·vanguard
Over at Pharyngula, PZ Myers discusses the case of a professor — teaching at a public university — who presented his Catholic views, disguised as philosophy, on homosexuality to his students. One student complained to the administration, calling the professor’s position “hate speech.” PZ Myers disagrees and calls it “stupid speech.” Myers then proceeds to [...]
Tags:berdache·biology·bisexuality·Catholic·Catholic belief·Catholic Church·Catholic dogma·Catholic Moral Law·Catholic theology·essentialism·ethnographic record·evolutionary fitness·extended kinship·fictive kinship·genetics·hermaphrodites·history·homosexuality·Kenneth J. Howell·Missives from Marx·moral·morality·mystification·Native Americans·natural moral law·Naturalization·nature·nuclear family·Pharyngula·procreation·PZ Myers·reality·Reification·reproduction·sexual anatomy·sexual development·sexual ontogeny·sexual physiology·sexual preferences·sexual variation·sexuality·social construction·societies that accept homosexuality·Two Spirits·University of Illinois·utilitarianism
Although this blog is titled “Genealogy of Religion,” my choice of titles was driven more by expedience (and ease of reference) than by evolutionary and historical realities. These realities would have impelled me to title the blog: “The Evolutionary Origins of Supernatural Thinking and the History of Shamanisms and Religions.” This is a rather unwieldy [...]
Tags:Christianities·clash of civilizations·clash of theologies·essentialism·Hinduism·idealism·multiplicities
