Among the non-academic public, there is a general perception that university professors are irreligious. As someone who has long been in and around academics, I have shared this perception and commented on it just the other day. The actual numbers, it turns out, tell a different and surprising story.
In a recent article, Amarnath Amarasingam discusses [...]
Entries Tagged as 'intellectuals'
The Professoriate: Surprisingly Religious
October 8th, 2010 · No Comments · Atheism, Daily Devolutions, Philosophy
Tags:academics·agnosticism·Amarnath Amarasingam·atheism·biologists·college professors·evolutionary atheism·evolutionary theism·intellectuals·intelligentsia·John Haught·Neil Gross·professoriate·pyschologists·religiosity·religious·skepticism·Solon Simmons·university professors
Are Eastern Religions More Science-Friendly?
July 7th, 2010 · No Comments · Classifications, Definitions, Economy, History, New Religions
This is the question asked by Philip Goldberg in a recent article in which he boldly answers yes: “Religious faith in the case of the Hindus has never been allowed to run counter to scientific laws. The same can be said for Buddhism, which derives from the same Vedic roots.”
Setting aside for a [...]
Tags:ahistorical·Buddhism·C.W. Huntington·critique·eastern religions·elites·empiricism·enlightenment·essentializing·Gregory Schopen·Hinduism·intellectuals·Jonathan Z. Smith·Philip Goldberg·reconstructed Buddhism·Religion and Other Products of Empire·Richard Horsley·Robert Sharf·science·social construction·The Zen of Japanese Nationalism·Vedic·Western consumption·Zen Buddhism
Return of the Sacred — Ringing Daniel Bell
June 10th, 2010 · No Comments · Atheism, Axial Age, Cultural Evolution, Economy, Globalization, History, Morality, Philosophy, Power
On rare occasion, one encounters a thinker and writer of extraordinary talent; the author, intellectual, and sociologist Daniel Bell is one such person. Bell is perhaps most famous for his 1976 book, Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism. It was with great interest, therefore, that I read his 1977 Hobhouse Memorial Lecture, “The Return of the Sacred? [...]
Tags:Christianity·consumption·Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism·Daniel Bell·dualism·Emile Durkheim·fundamentalism·Harvard·high culture·human nature·human universals·Immanuel Wallerstein·intellectuals·intelligentsia·Janus·late capitalism·materialism·modernity·morality·mythical past·New York City elites·nostalgia·science·sociologist·sociology·The Return of the Sacred? The Argument on the Future of Religion·the sacred·Western culture·Whore of Babylon·world system
