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January 2015

January 24, 2015

Does Eben Alexander “prove heaven?” Sort of.

Instead of going back and forth between true believers in NDEs and skeptics, let’s take...

January 07, 2015

How separate are science and religion, anyway?

Eric Metaxas’s "scientific" argument for God makes religion too literal, placing it squarely in science’s...

December 2014

December 24, 2014

The age of extreme opinions

Agreeable, conscientious people are more likely to obey orders to harm other people. What does...

December 09, 2014

The great divide: Why activism needs tradition to work

Activism and tradition need each other. Lacking any prophets, the comfortable establishment just sinks deeper...

November 2014

November 14, 2014

Want to understand religion? You’ve gotta have a body.

Religious experience is something that comes from what bodies do. What goes on in our...

October 2014

October 29, 2014

Theology: It matters.

Theological conflict is already everywhere. We're just not calling it theology. And we don't have...

October 15, 2014

Religion surrounds us

There is real good and real bad to be found in religious culture. It crafts...

October 02, 2014

Sex, the cuddle chemical, and religion

Kate Stockly-Myerdirk Last week, Connor wrote about sex differences here. I happen to research one...

September 2014

September 23, 2014

The Sam Harris backlash: is sex real?

We should be suspicious of sweeping claims about sex differences. But for there to be...

August 2014

August 25, 2014

Do we have free will when it comes to mental illness?

Mental illness arises from complex interactions between the self, the social environment, and our own...

August 18, 2014

Mental illness: it’s not just in our brains.

Our idea that mental illness just "happens" is dangerous. It's not your fault if you're...

August 11, 2014

Yes, fundamentalism is religion. And it starts wars.

The “no true Scotsman” fallacy is often used to claim that no real, believing Muslim...

August 04, 2014

Believing Impossible Stuff Is Dangerous. Except When It’s Awesome.

What happens when all children know to only accept plain facts, and to cannily dismiss...

July 2014

July 28, 2014

Informal Study Finds Bloggers Can’t Tell Fact from Fiction

A study shared widely in the TwitFaceBlogosphere says that religious children can't tell fact from...

July 21, 2014

Nerd culture, the new aristocracy

Nerd culture is a form of aristocracy. Try mentioning that you study religion in a...

June 2014

June 28, 2014

How do we make meaning of evolution? By admitting its uncomfortable truths.

the most vital trait of evolution is also its most difficult: there’s no purpose in...

June 19, 2014

Theories of religion: The early years

This week we’re looking at three early anthropologists who believed that cultures evolve from “primitive”...

June 10, 2014

Why do religions tell impossible tales? A testable hypothesis

Impossible imagery in religious narratives and folktales might, in part, serve as a solution to...

June 03, 2014

Awesome theories of religion, Part 2

This week, I’m focusing on four thinkers who have advanced our understanding of how ritual...

May 2014

May 27, 2014

4 neat theories of religion

Here's Part 1 of a list of very smart and interesting people with profound theories...

May 07, 2014

What happens when inequality grows? Ecstatic religion flowers.

Ecstatic, music-driven religions and spirit possession movements are often found in rigidly hierarchical cultures, where...

May 05, 2014

Internet comments: the poisoned well

Highly negative comments inspire readers to react in polarized ways to news articles, forcing splits...

April 2014

April 28, 2014

Cosmic tribalism, Internet ego, and the future of humanity

Here’s one thing you can do to stop ecological catastrophe: stop turning your ideological opponents...

April 22, 2014

How religion will save the world

Cultures that hold nothing to be sacred, like our global marketplace, have little chance of...

March 2014

March 31, 2014

Don’t understand religion? Experiment with it.

As William James reminded his readers a century ago, our internal mental states and attitudes...

March 12, 2014

Big changes are coming to politics in America. Here’s why

Libertarians and social conservatives are headed for divorce. So are liberal Democrats and working-class minorities....

March 06, 2014

Being powerful makes you think analytically

There’s a causal relationship between social pecking order position and analytical cognition – so it’s...

February 2014

February 24, 2014

An historian’s call to understand and engage creationists

We can no longer pretend that the disagreement about the origin of species is only...

February 19, 2014

Sinai and Synapses: A video about studying religion

Together with my friend and colleague Tim Maness, I made a couple of videos last...

February 11, 2014

The Nye-Ham debates, or why fundamentalism exists

The people who think the world was created in six days six thousand years ago...