A person of many astute observations, one of Robert Bellah’s most astute is his refrain (when talking about the history of religions) that “nothing is ever lost.” By this I take Bellah to mean that at any given point in time, an existing religion will contain elements from earlier religions. There is continuity in religious [...]
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Seed Magazine is running a strange article about the word “so.” Instead of having a “writer” or “reporter,” this story has an “analyst” whose name is Michael Erard. Here is what our analyst says about the word “so”:
The language of science, with its specialized vocabulary and clipped rhythm, has a distinctive architecture.
The functional elegance of [...]
Tags:"so"·basic literacy·causation·explanation·grammar·junk words·matters of style·Michael Erard·Seed Magazine·sentence structure·the word "so"·Valley girl talk
Over at HuffPo Religion, Wray Herbert asks whether religious belief soothes the worried mind and reports on some new research suggesting it does. Scholars have been asking this question for quite a long time, and many have simply assumed that religion does in fact sooth troubled minds. Freud reached this conclusion in Future of an [...]
Tags:Alexa Tullett·anxiety·burials·calming effects·deliberate burials·explanation·Freud·Future of An Illusion·hominids·Michael Inzlicht·Neanderthals·order·parsimony·Pascal Boyer·purpose·Reflecting on God·Scott Atran·souls·spirits·Wray Herbert
