Genealogy of Religion

Exploring the Origins, History and Future of Religion

Entries Tagged as 'materialism'

Tilting at Free-Will Mills

March 22nd, 2012 · 4 Comments · Atheism, Philosophy

I’ve never quite understood why some New Atheists think it so important to resolve the issue of free will, or why they think it so important to deny free will. It seems like they are tilting at metaphysical windmills, using physics and neuroscience as determinist jousts. Even if there is a definitional or material sense [...]

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Swerving with Lucretius

October 4th, 2011 · No Comments · Atheism, Philosophy

It is nice to see Lucretius finally getting his due. In The Swerve: How The World Became Modern, Stephen Greenblatt pays homage to the Roman poet (and his Greek predecessor Epicurus). A few years ago, I was thinking about the history of religious critiques and sketched these notes:
While it would be tempting to date the [...]

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Religious/Paranormal Correlations

November 18th, 2010 · No Comments · Cognition, Paranormal

In a recent post on Supernaturalism and the Paranormal, I hypothesized a connection between supernatural-religious beliefs on the one hand and paranormal beliefs on the other.  My thinking was that if someone is inclined to believe in anything that is non-measurable, non-empirical, and non-material (i.e., “supernatural”), then s/he may be more inclined to be religious [...]

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Critiquing the Not-Godless Enlightenment

October 31st, 2010 · No Comments · Atheism, History, Morality

Our correspondent at The Economist reviews what looks to a provocative new book by Philipp Blom, A Wicked Company: The Forgotten Radicalism of the European Enlightenment.
Blom sets his book around the happenings of an exceptional Parisian salon — that of Baron Paul Thierry d’Holbach — who hosted the likes of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, David Hume, Denis [...]

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The Supernatural and Stonehenge

July 25th, 2010 · No Comments · Archaeology, Cultural Evolution, History, Neolithic, Pagans, Power, Ritual

As you can see from Texas A&M’s anthropology aggregating site (which is one of my favorite places on the net), at least a dozen stories have appeared in the past week about new archaeological finds near Stonehenge.  Using ground penetrating radar and other non-invasive technology, archaeologists have discovered another henge — which was wooden, approximately [...]

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Ancestor Worship: The Epicurean Lucretius

July 10th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Atheism, Cognition, Cultural Evolution, Evolution, History, Philosophy

While doing some background research on the Scottish Enlightenment philosopher David Hume (1711-1776), I discovered that he had been much influenced by Lucretius, who lived in the first century BCE (around the time of Julius Caesar) and published a six-volume treatise titled On the Nature of Things. As if writing philosophy in narrative form were [...]

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Hitchens Soul-Hammers Prince Charles

June 17th, 2010 · No Comments · Atheism, Daily Devolutions, Emotions, Magic, Power, Ritual

Whether or not you like Christopher Hitchens, one thing is certain: he can turn an incisive phrase.  At his best, Hitchens writes with an acerbic aplomb that can be charming; at his worst, he is downright nasty.
With the latter Hitchens in mind, I have not yet been able to bring myself to read his jeremiad, [...]

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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? [...]

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The Religious Yearning for Material Affirmation

April 13th, 2010 · 3 Comments · Archaeology, Cultural Evolution, History

One of the great ironies — and paradoxes — of history is that religionists claim on the one hand that spiritual belief is ineffable, non-material, and not subject to empirical verification, yet on the other hand they are always seeking — sometimes desperately — for material confirmation of their beliefs.  This contradictory thinking supposes that [...]

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