Over the past few weeks I’ve been thinking about creation myths. By calling them “myths” it allows us to overlook, dismiss, or ignore them. This is a mistake. We should think hard about what these myths do and how they work. They are not just quaint relics of a pre-scientific past. They are not just [...]
Tags:Adam and Eve·allegory·anchoring effect·creation myths·creationism·creationist·Garden of Eden·identity·orientation·origins stories·Roger Lewin·view from nowhere
Over at Religion Bulletin, the always informative Craig Martin alerts us to the work of Aaron W. Hughes and conducts a thought provoking interview with Hughes. Their topic is “Islam” and I encourage everyone to read it as a palliative to the kind of glib talk about essentialized “Islam” that dominates the news, blog posts [...]
Tags:Aaron Hughes·apologetics·authenticity·Craig Martin·discourse·ecumenical·essentializing·historical Muhammad·Huffington Post·identity·Islam·Islamic Studies·liberal·Muslims·redaction history of Koran·Situating Islam·social construction·tradition·William Chittick
Today, while examining the key word searches that have led people to this blog, I noticed this interesting query: “Are tea partiers psychotic?” This Google search must have pulled up my post “Tea Parties and Monkey Gods,” in which I observed that Tea Partiers seem to be animated by a toxic combination of anger and [...]
Tags:anger·angst·autonomy·dependence·faith·fantasy·fear·fiction·free markets·fundamentalists·Hegel·identity·imaginary·individualism·J.M. Bernstein·libertarians·metaphysical·metaphysics·paranoia·Pierre Bourdieu·psychotic·rage·religious right·structuralism·sturm und drang·Tea Party·The Stone
In the fourth installment in his series on memory and the work of Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, Slate’s William Saletan discusses “repressed memories” that have given rise to all sorts of injustice in courtrooms across America. The title of today’s article is “The Recipe: A Cookbook for Memories of Sexual Abuse,” and includes this revelatory excerpt:
Loftus [...]
Tags:confabulation·Elizabeth Loftus·filtered experience·identity·imagination·immersion·indoctrination·inference·memories·memory·recipe for religion·spiritual cookbook·spiritual experiences·suggestion·William Saletan
