Genealogy of Religion

Exploring the Origins, History and Future of Religion

Entries Tagged as 'Muslim'

Scientists Sell Souls to Saudis

December 12th, 2011 · 6 Comments · Magic, Power

In today’s news we learn that Saudi Arabia is on the one hand buying Western academic prestige and on the other beheading a woman accused of practicing “sorcery and witchcraft.”
The state-run Saudi news agency announced that a woman named Amina bint Abdulhalim Nassar was publicly beheaded because she claimed to be a healer who could [...]

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The Zoroastrian Ethic & Spirit of Modernity

August 27th, 2011 · 3 Comments · Axial Age, History, Philosophy

In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905), Max Weber sought to correct or temper Karl Marx’s view that religion was always a reflection or epiphenomenon of the economic base. Although Marx’s understanding of religion was considerably more complicated and drew heavily on Ludwig Feuerbach’s idealist critique in The Essence of Christianity (1841), [...]

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Cloned Neanderthal Religion

June 24th, 2011 · 4 Comments · Cognition, Hunter-Gatherers, Shamanism

Over at the Guardian, Andrew Brown asks if we should clone Neanderthals (assuming it could be done). For me, the easy answer is no.

Brown then asks a series of nonsensical questions which imply that because Neanderthal brains were different from human brains (Neanderthals in fact had bigger brains than humans; the difference is in shape), [...]

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Lost in (Western) Translation

June 2nd, 2011 · 2 Comments · Classifications, Cultural Evolution, History, Hunter-Gatherers

There is a sense in which we are all cultural narcissists. By this, I mean that because all of us are acculturated at a particular time and in a particular place, we have a strong tendency to view other times and places through our own cultural lens. These lenses are prismatic and what we see [...]

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He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands

March 26th, 2011 · 2 Comments · Axial Age, Economy

By now you surely have heard about Colton Burpo (he is a real kid from Nebraska, not a character from an Upton Sinclair novel). When Colton was 3 years old, he allegedly went to the Christian heaven during an appendectomy. Young Colton “miraculously” lived to tell about it, and now at age 11, he and [...]

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Gallo-Roman Temple Complex Discovered

August 19th, 2010 · No Comments · Archaeology, History, Pagans, Ritual

Over at The Guardian, Pierre Le Hir reports on the discovery of an “enormous religious site” or temple complex in the French countryside near Le Mans, which during the first through third centuries common era (C.E.) was known as Vindunum.  As viewers of HBO’s spectacular but short-lived series “Rome” and readers of Julius Caesar’s Commentarii [...]

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Christian America and Religious Intolerance

August 11th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Atheism, Axial Age, Civil Religion, Emotions

In an odd article that attempts to situate Anne Rice’s very public proclamation that she is leaving the Catholic Church within the larger context of American Christianity, Los Angeles Times religion reporter William Lobdell makes two apparently contradictory claims:

American Christianity is not well, and there’s evidence to indicate that its condition is more critical [...]

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A Certain Kind of Islam and the Heinous Oppression of Women

July 31st, 2010 · 2 Comments · Classifications, Methodology, Morality, Power

Not long ago, I discussed an article on Islam by Cynthia Boaz.  In her article, Boaz attempted to correct several misconceptions regarding Islam and presented us with a progressive, liberal, and tolerant interpretation of Islam.  While there are Muslims outside of the US who interpret Islam in the way Boaz does, there are also Muslims [...]

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Near Death Experiences: Portal to Another Realm?

July 16th, 2010 · 8 Comments · Cognition, Emotions, Evolutionary Byproduct

There are many who believe that near death experiences (“NDE”) provide evidence of the existence of a spirit-soul and that those who have these close encounters with death have glimpsed another realm.  Over at Brain Blogger, Jennifer Gibson discusses some recent studies of NDEs in a post titled “Light at the End of the Tunnel [...]

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The Prayer Trade in Iran

July 1st, 2010 · No Comments · Axial Age, Economy, Magic, Ritual

Reuters reports that “specialists” in prayer writing and ritual are doing a booming business in Iran.  The whole business — or commodification of prayer — reminds one of the prayer and dispensation trade that existed in the Catholic Church for hundreds of years, and which so incensed Martin Luther:
In Islamic Iran where clerics rule, [...]

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