PZ Myers has a more visceral response to the rioting in Afghanistan, entitled “Shades of gray.” I won’t quote it, because it really should be read in full. What I appreciate most is that he identifies motivations such as honor and vengeance that obscure the fact that humans are murdering […]

The rioting continues in Afghanistan. The estimated toll is now 20 dead and more than 80 injured. Two suicide attackers disguised as women blew themselves up and a third was gunned down Saturday when they used force to try to enter a NATO base on the outskirts of Kabul, NATO […]

I submitted a version of my “Helping vs. blaming in Japan” post to State of Formation, modified to include more commentary on the psychology of seeing supernatural agency in disasters.

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, […]

Cross-posted from State of Formation. Sue Blackmore is one of the go-to voices in the UK on matters of religious thinking and consciousness. She is, believe it or not, an atheist with a PhD in parapsychology.  Originally a firm believer in the paranormal, she reached the conclusion in the course […]

Cross-posted from State of Formation. The Supreme Court ruling on Snyder v. Phelps was issued this morning– 8-1 in favor of Phelps, saying that the First Amendment protected the WBC’s right to protest the military funeral.  I couldn’t have imagined it going any other way, but there was still a niggling […]

Westboro Baptist’s reply to Anonymous is predictably childish.  (That link goes to the PDF, but you can see a jpeg version here.)  Short version: “Bring it!” Speaking of shutting down web sites, the Department of Homeland Security shuttered nearly 84,000 of them last weekend on suspicion of child porn.  People […]

Via Dr. X’s Free Associations: Research Shows Testosterone Reduces Mind Reading Abilities, Empathy Levels New research conducted by scientists from the Utrecht and Cambridge Universities has found that an administration of testosterone under the tongue in volunteers can negatively affect a person’s ability to “mind read”, an indication of empathy. Moreover, […]

Cross-posted from State of Formation. Those familiar with the Chik-Fil-A restaurant chain have known for quite a long time that the ownership is explicitly conservative Christian, which hasn’t meant much for people who like to eat there except that they must remember it’s closed on Sundays. But recently it has […]

I love Popehat.  They’re certainly a brash bunch, but when there’s a spade around that needs to be called a spade, they can be relied upon to do it:  Tragedy Generates Stupidity Tragedy makes people say, and do, stupid things.  Let’s note just a few of the stupid things said […]