I wrote before about how the conservative Christian-affiliated chicken chain Chik-Fil-A has received some very negative feedback about their contributions toward anti-gay political causes. Here’s the latest on that: Focus St. Louis and the Clayton Chamber of Commerce said today that they are canceling a planned presentation by Dan Cathy, […]
Read MoreReligion going extinct? I doubt it.
The BBC reports on a paper recently presented at the American Physical Society meeting here in Dallas which makes claims about a decreasing level of religiosity in some parts of the world. The paper, entitled “A mathematical model of social group competition with application to the growth of religious non-affiliation,” suggests […]
Read MoreMaking sense of tragedy: was the earthquake a “divine punishment”?
Cross-posted from State of Formation. Over at Religion Dispatches Levi McLaughlin, a professor of religion who specializes in East Asian traditions, writes about Tokyo’s governor Shintaro Ishihara describing the tsunami that struck Japan as “divine punishment”: Ishihara, a prize-winning novelist, stage and screen actor, and a populist hero of the Japanese right, […]
Read MoreAgain…tragedy + internet = outrage and nastiness.
A few days ago a UCLA student named Alexandra Wallace posted this charming racist rant about Asians in her university library: If you’re one of the few people in the country who hadn’t seen that video previously, I’m sure you’re edified to have had the privilege now. And can probably […]
Read MoreHelping vs. blaming in Japan
Over at Religion Dispatches Levi McLaughlin, a professor of religion who specializes in East Asian traditions, writes about Tokyo’s governor Shintaro Ishihara describing the tsunami that struck Japan as “divine punishment.” Ishihara, a prize-winning novelist, stage and screen actor, and a populist hero of the Japanese right, has gained notoriety […]
Read MoreAn observation
The video of TamTamPamela thanking God for the Japanese earthquake was all over the web yesterday. I’m kind of disappointed in how willing people were to buy it without question. Not because it’s a skepticism fail per se (I fall for Poes often– that’s the point of a Poe), but because they […]
Read MoreReal-life trolls, part 2
The girl who made a Youtube video glorying in Japan’s earthquake, saying that it was God giving the country a “little shake” to send a message regarding his existence to atheists and arousing a lot of outrage…is apparently a troll. To which I say, good. I’m glad that those (probably) […]
Read MoreTAM 9 speakers
The Amazing Meeting has announced its list of speakers for this year, its ninth meeting. There are a lot of them, and quite a few– at least ten, from what I can tell– are people who can speak to the topic of how and why people believe weird things. Or […]
Read MoreMore follow-up: the difference between neutrality and objectivity
Journalist Lauri Lebo wrote a book about Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, the 2005 creationism case which occurred in her home state of Pennsylvania. Prior to the actual court battle she had been covering the situation locally in newspapers, reporting on what transpired at school board meetings and such. […]
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