This week’s NPR Religion Podcast featured a piece from “All Things Considered” looking into the debates in Denmark relating to Muslim immigration and religious tolerance. Especially interesting was the observation about changing attitudes to multiculturalism in Europe: The very concept of multiculturalism is now being called into question in much of Europe. Danish writer and [...] Read more »
CNN: Religion ‘will be driven toward extinction’ in 9 countries, experts predict
In yet another example of scientists from other disciplines assuming they can do social science by simply plugging some data into a statistical model, CNN is reporting that a team of mathematicians have—through statistical analysis of census data from the last century—predicted that religion will all but die out in several countries. It’s based on [...] Read more »
Political Values and Religion: American Jews and “Anti-Israel” Policies
A friend linked me to an article the other day that asked (and tried to answer, from a right-wing perspective) the question, “Where Do Jews and Christians on the Left Get Their Values?” In the article, Dennis Prager argues that “Leftism” (which he capitalizes) should be understood as a secular religion; in essence, he argues [...] Read more »
A Few Thoughts on “Avatar”
I finally got a chance to watch Avatar in 3D the other night—strictly business, of course, since I had assigned it to the Sociology of Religion class for which I am guest-lecturing this evening on the nature and definition of religion, using Avatar as a launching point. It was essentially what I had heard: a [...] Read more »
