Archive for the ‘secular’ Category


New studies on religious tattoos explore the relation between faith and a practice associated with sex, drugs and copious amounts of alcohol. The results are mixed.
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The debate about whether the world is entering a more secular age and whether the growth of religiously non-affiliated people is hastening such secularization in part revolves around questions of timing. In other words, when did these trends start and what led to them?
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Summertime, and the livin’ seems easy on the glut of network shows featuring young men and women with sculpted bodies celebrating the narcissistic quest to determine who is the most desirable of all. But as we look away from the magic mirror of fantasy answers to the Cinderella question, consider how harmful it can be to the mental health and self-worth of those trying to live up to near-impossible cultural ideals of beauty. New research suggests faith may provide an answer.
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There are few people better able to offer perspective on the polarized state of the nation today than Michael Emerson. In an interview, Emerson, one of the foremost sociologists on race, religion and civility in the United States, offers incisive observations on how we got to where we are today, and what we can do to promote a more intellectually humble, respectful national dialogue.
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In a new book, “Faithful Measures: New Methods in the Measurement of Religion,” leading religion researchers across academic disciplines explore an array of evolving new tools and measures that can help deepen understanding of the role of religion in public and private lives today. They include ways to compare polls on factors from survey methodology to question wording for a clearer understanding of their value and potential bias.
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Technology does not scare us. Nor especially does the fear of Hell or worries about getting into heaven. But the fears and suspect motives we place on belief systems different than our own very much concerns Americans, according to the latest wave of the Baylor Religion Survey. For centuries, Catholics and Jewish people bore the[ READ FULL COLUMN ]
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Jokes about religion should be left to the professionals, not the politicians, a comprehensive new survey of religion and humor finds. The research is part of a larger project involving several Scandinavian studies on religion and humor that indicate support for a less hostile, more nuanced approach to religious humor that has the potential to break through the polarization in the West over perceived threats from immigrants and religious minorities.
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Alvin Plantinga started out at a time when much of the academic community in philosophy was hostile to the idea of belief in God. Yet he became a leading figure in making belief in a divine reality an option to take seriously. More than a half-century later, his work in such areas as free will and evil, the role of God in the universe and the compatibility of science and religion continues to be a major influence in philosophy.
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