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April 2015

April 01, 2015

Is belief in heaven good for you? No. Yes. Maybe.

Belief in hell is good for society – it frightens people into shaping up, toeing...

March 2015

March 16, 2015

Why the religion-science dialogue needs secular religious studies

Secular religious studies could add vibrant insight to a dialogue whose main purpose is to...

March 05, 2015

Michael Shermer thinks he’s more moral than you

Skeptic thinker Michael Shermer believes that Western society is becoming more moral because we're very...

February 2015

February 02, 2015

America’s public ritual gone terribly wrong

Sports exemplify the central role of play in human culture, the crucial importance of arbitrary...

January 2015

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...

September 2014

September 15, 2014

Want a meaningful life? Stay away from rich countries

Countries with higher gross domestic products have higher suicide rates and less self-reported meaning in...

August 2014

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 21, 2014

Nerd culture, the new aristocracy

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

May 2014

May 19, 2014

Religion influences ethics more in low-religiosity countries

Two researchers argue that religious believers are more likely to internalize their faiths’ values in...

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 04, 2014

Holden Caulfield and the Super Bowl

Is the Super Bowl stupid? Sure. But let's stop the Holden Caulfield Syndrome of mocking...

December 2013

December 31, 2013

Farewell to Ian Barbour

Ian Barbour, the physicist and religious studies scholar who passed away at the end of...

November 2013

November 05, 2013

Russell Brand is wrong about Western religions

What Brand forgets – or, more likely, has never learned, because no one teaches this...

October 2013

October 11, 2013

Why Are There Atheists?

Certain aspects of personality orientation may naturally lead some people to religious belief and others...

October 07, 2013

Civil Religion: It’s What America Needs

As political battles reach new heights, and the fabric of the nation seems stretched to...

September 2013

September 26, 2013

Why conservatives hate Obamacare

Conservatives worry that offloading social responsibilities to an impersonal, systemic platform will corrode the collective...

August 2013

August 27, 2013

Calling an End to the Culture Wars

Connor Wood argues that conservative and liberal thought are both invaluable: conservatives are experts on...