If I understand my Catholic friends and scholars correctly, God created the cosmos, earth, and life. This God sparked the original organism and designed an evolutionary process that has resulted in endless forms most beautiful and wonderful. But of all these forms, one stands out and one was the goal from the beginning: humans. When [...]
Tags:adaptation·Catholic·Christian·creationism·design·evolutionary theism·Gobekli Tepe·God·intelligent design·John Haught·Klaus Schmidt·Matt Rossano·Michael Blume·Panglossian Paradigm·Simon Conway Morris·teleology·theology
Yesterday on NPR, Talk of the Nation host Neal Conan conducted a fascinating interview (Christians Divided Over Science of Human Origins) with Daniel Harlow, religion professor at Calvin College, and Albert Mohler, head of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The topic: Whether Genesis should be interpreted literally or metaphorically. NPR religion correspondent Barbara Bradley Hagerty [...]
Tags:Adam·Albert Mohler·Barbara Bradley Hagerty·bible·Calvin College·Christian·creationism·Daniel Harlow·DNA·evangelicals·Eve·evolution·fundamentalist·Garden of Eden·Genesis·genetics·Homo·literalism·Neal Conan·origins·progressives·Southern Baptist·theology
I am not sure that anyone has all the answers or has exhausted the range of possibilities, but after reading this article about “content farms” in Slate, I thought I would give it a whirl. Of course content farms never give a decent answer, but causal explanations in the back forty have tremendous appeal and [...]
Tags:Angela Tchou·Annie Lowrey·causation·content farms·conversion·Ellen Langer·explanations·Malcolm Gladwell·narrative·Photocopier Effect·Pima Paradox·reasons·suspension of disbelief·theology
Over at LiveScience, Stephanie Pappas reports on a study which shows that while religious people generally are more satisfied with their lives, this satisfaction is linked to the social networking and circles of friends that many develop as a result of participating in religious activities. The satisfaction does not appear to be linked in any significant [...]
Tags:Chaeyoon Lim·Facebook·happiness·life satisfaction·primates·Robert Putnam·sociality·Stephanie Pappas·theology
Over at Newsweek, Lisa Miller has written an insightful piece on the “Religious Studies Revival.” For undergraduates thinking about a major (or graduate school), it is a must read. Miller begins with an imaginary scene that I suppose is quite real:
“You want to major in what?” Such is the anguished cry of parents, who, having [...]
Tags:academic study of religion·Anthropology of Religion·cognitive science of religion·curriculum·doctrine·evolution of religion·history of religion·interdisciplinary·Lisa Miller·psychology of religion·religious studies departments·religious studies major·Religious Studies Revival·sociology of religion·theology
At their best, moral philosophers force us to think long and hard about our actions and responsibilities; at their worst, moral philosophers are incomprehensible or outrageous. I am not quite sure how to judge The Meat Eaters, by Jeff McMahan from Rutgers, but he raises many provocative points, my favorite being this:
Wherever there is animal [...]
Tags:ethics·Hobbesian·Jeff McMahan·just God·moral philosophy·nature red in tooth and claw·predation·predators·problem of evil·Schopenhauer·suffering·The Meat Eaters·theodicy·theology
Over at HuffPo Religion, a well meaning Matthew Anderson suggests that all American junior-senior high school students should be required to take a minimum of two classes on world religions so as to be exposed to something other than their parents’ religion. He supposes that these courses would foster tolerance and lead to a more [...]
Tags:believing versus thinking·Buddhism·Christianity·ecumenical·essentialized categories·essentializing·genealogy of religions·high school curriculum·Hinduism·History·history of world religions·Islam·Judaism·junior high curriculum·Mathew Anderson·paleolithic supernaturalism·religious classes·religious teaching·rise of organized religions·The Case for Blending Church and State·theology·tolerance
In May of this year, John Avise — an evolutionary biologist at UC-Irvine — published an article (“Footprints of Nonsentient Design Inside the Human Genome“) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the world’s leading scientific journals. The article, which attacked Intelligent Design “theory” on the ground that an omnipotent and [...]
Tags:accomodationists·Adam and Eve·Augustine of Hippo·Catholic theologians·Diarmaid MacCulloch·fall from grace·Footprints of Nonsentient Design Inside the Human Genome·human genome·intelligent design·John Avise·justification for God·Leibniz·non-overlapping magisteria·non-sentient selection·problem of evil·problem of suffering·Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences·Protestants·rebellion·sin·Stephen Jay Gould·The Reformation·theodicy·theology·unintelligent design
Nearly 5,500 years ago or about 3,500 BCE, the Sumerians began writing about supernatural matters; in a sense, this marks the origin of what most people today understand as “religion.” This relatively modern and provincially Western understanding of religion is on full display in Paul Raushenbush’s article introducing HuffPo Religion’s new series on religious texts [...]
Tags:Bhagavad Gita·books·Buddhist·category of religion·Christian presuppositions·doctrinal·Edward Said·essentializing·Harvey Whitehouse·Hindu·imagistic·Jonathan Z. Smith·non-written traditions·orientalism·Paul Raushenbush·religion as academic creation·religion as text·religion as writing·religions of the book·religious writings·scriptures·shamanisms·shamanist·shamans·Sumeria·Sumerians·texts·The Word·theologians·theology·transcendence·transcendent·Vedic·word·writing
