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LATEST ARTICLES ( 322 )

Summer Reads & Mini-Reviews

With the semester having come to an end, it was refreshing to take a few weeks off from normal reading and writing routines. I’m in the middle of a long... Read more
Posted on 22 May 2013 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY
Durkheim’s Social Mystification

In a recent post on Durkheim, I observed that he seems to have been mystified by the fact that humans are social and live in groups. Read more
Posted on 07 May 2013 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY
Rappin’ For Jesus

This is a real, as in serious, video that is sure to offend different people for different reasons. I’m not sure what to say about JC (“son of the original... Read more
Posted on 05 May 2013 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY
Yoga as Religion

Over at aeon, Erik Davis has posted a fantastic piece that attempts to answer the slippery question: Is yoga a religion? On its face, the question appears simpl... Read more
Posted on 04 May 2013 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY
Durkheim & De Waal on Human Sociality

I’ve just finished a close study of Emile Durkheim’s Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1912) and concluded that its entire premise is based on ignorance. Read more
Posted on 29 April 2013 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY
Marx’s Metaphysical Progressivism

Over at the NYRB, John Gray ably reviews Jonathan Sperber’s Karl Marx: A Nineteenth Century Life (2013). Gray lauds Sperber shedding light on the apparent... Read more
Posted on 27 April 2013 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY
Durkheim’s Social Antecedents

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Posted on 26 April 2013 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY
Dark Matters

In the humble spirit of this post on the state of the mind sciences and this one on science generally, I encourage everyone to read Alexander Fry’s brilliant... Read more
Posted on 24 April 2013 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY
Revisiting Göbekli Tepe

For reasons not entirely clear, The New Yorker has resurrected a 2011 story on Göbekli Tepe and showcased it on the front page. Read more
Posted on 22 April 2013 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY
Lucien Lévy-Bruhl: Animist “Primitives”

At the conclusion of my post on RR Marett, I noted that for all his keen insights into the expansively causal and perhaps even cosmological nature of animist... Read more
Posted on 21 April 2013 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY
Modern European “Primitives”

At the imaginary margins of “secular-rationalist” Europe there be monsters. In fact, there are so many folk-monsters roaming the countryside that French... Read more
Posted on 17 April 2013 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY
Animist v. Scientific Worldviews

While there is no such singular or essential thing as the “animist worldview,” this doesn’t prevent scholars and others from writing about it. Read more
Posted on 12 April 2013 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY
Ark Park & Missionary Lizards

Back in 2010 I posted on the Creation Museum in Kentucky and the grandiose plan to build a Noah’s Ark Amusement Park nearby. It was supposed to open in 2014... Read more
Posted on 09 April 2013 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY
Holy Grail of Neuroscience

This Salon interview with neurologist Robert Burton hits on all cylinders. Intellectual honesty and humility are beautiful things. Read more
Posted on 08 April 2013 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY
Scientologist Scum & More

I want to clear some links from my cue, so let’s begin with this superb review of Lawrence Wright’s Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of... Read more
Posted on 06 April 2013 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY
RR Marett’s “Pre-Animistic Religion”

Over Spring Break, I went diving in the Caribbean dove into the often neglected work of Robert Ranulph Marett (1866-1943), yet another classicist (like James... Read more
Posted on 03 April 2013 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY
Myth of Mythopoeic Eras

According to the Pew Research Center, there are 247,000,000 Christians in the United States. In other words, 80% of all Americans identify as Christian. Read more
Posted on 30 March 2013 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY
Ronald Dworkin & Juridical Religion

Before his recent passing, legal scholar Ronald Dworkin seems to have been contemplating this mortal coil and the prickliest of problems, namely religion. Read more
Posted on 26 March 2013 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY
Neo Cultural-Evolutionism

In evolutionary religious studies there are some scholars who claim that “religion” is an adaptation that is the product of natural selection. Read more
Posted on 24 March 2013 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY
Revisiting The Golden Bough

Over the past few weeks I’ve been reading James George Frazer’s The Golden Bough and extracting from it the materials that are relevant to modern... Read more
Posted on 20 March 2013 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY