Americans are notoriously religious, which means that most believe in supernatural agents and forces. While most of these supernaturals are of the Christian variety, there seems to be a spillover effect. Belief in Christian supernaturals apparently doesn’t preclude belief in less orthodox kinds of supernaturals:
Source:LiveScience
This isn’t surprising. Socially constructed and doctrinal lines separate “religion” [...]
Tags:deities·demons·ghosts·gods·magic·paranormal·spirits·supernatural
Ritual and religion are, as everyone knows, closely intertwined. So tightly linked are they that some scholars, such as Emile Durkheim, seem to have mistaken one for the other or at least conflated the two. For those who cannot accept Durkheim’s position, there are two competing explanations for the origin of ritual. The first is [...]
Tags:anxiety·augury·autoeroticism·Barbara Smuts·causal illusion·college football gods·college football religion·confession·corn husking·Cornhuskers·costly signaling·David Hume·Emile Durkheim·football·gods·guilt·Huskers·Immanuel Kant·John Watanabe·Jonathan Z. Smith·Joseph Bulbulia·male baboons·masturbation·mythology·narcissism·Nebraska·Nebraska Fan's Confession·omen·Onan·onanism·propitious coincidence·randomly connected events·Richard Sosis·ritual·ritualized greetings·rituals·Roman ritual·Roy Rappaport·serendipity·solipsism·Superstitition in the Pigeon·The Bare Facts of Ritual·thrill of coincidence
Over at ABC News, Ki Mae Heussner reports on a Diane Sawyer interview of the renowned physicist Stephen Hawking with this contentious headline: “Stephen Hawking on Religion: Science Will Win.” This is an unfortunate banner. During the interview, Sawyer asked if religion and science could be reconciled. Hawking’s response was profoundly unhelpful:
“There is a fundamental [...]
Tags:animism·anthropomorphic·anthropomorphism·Babylon·Babylonian high god·city-states·Diane Sawyer·earthly kings·gods·Hebrews·hunter-gatherers·Judaism·Ki Mae Heussner·Levant·Mesopotamia·Neolithic·Neolithic Revolution·religion·Roy Rosenberg·science·spirits·spiritual kings·Stephen Hawking·supernatural thinking·Yahweh·Yahweh Becomes King
In the beginning, I had some hope for the Huffington Post’s relatively new section devoted to religion. Here was a forum, I thought, where difficult questions could be asked and possible answers ventured. Not once, however, have I read a post which asks a tough question, which might include any of the following:
What is “religion”?
Why [...]
Tags:compassion·deities·demons·doctrines·ecumenical·educated·enlightened·ethics·exegesis·existential·Frank Schaeffer·fundamentalism·fuzzy·gods·hermeneutics·Huffington Post·HuffPo Religion·Jay Michaelson·liberal·literalism·love·meaning·morals·mystical·mysticism·myth·progressive·purpose·sophisticated·souls·spirits·syncretic·vague
