In a previous post, Religious Wars and Nationalism, I discussed two factors that play a major role in group cohesion. The first factor, which played a dominant role for the majority of human evolution, was extended and fictive kinship. This is what primarily held groups together during the Paleolithic. After the Neolithic Revolution, another factor [...]
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Over at HuffPo Religion, Matt Rossano has written a thought provoking piece — which some may find surprising — on the relationship between war and religion. In Why Religion Does Not Equal War, Rossano begins with the common knowledge that religious differences often lead to war, or that religious differences are often used to justify [...]
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Over the past 500 years, the rise of the nation-state has resulted in one of the most potent cultural forces in history. This force, which has much in common with religion in terms of both structure and influence, is nationalism. The sociologist Robert Bellah coined the term “civil religion” and has written much on the [...]
