Cris

LATEST ARTICLES ( 560 )

• He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands

  

  By now you surely have heard about Colton Burpo (he is a real kid from Nebraska, not a character from an Upton Sinclair novel). When Colton was 3 years old, he... Read more

  Posted on 26 March 2011 DEBATE, RELIGION

• Believing & Perceiving

  Every once in a while, I encounter studies that deserve a category of their own. If I were feeling churlish, I might place them in a “No Sh*t” file; if I were... Read more

  Posted on 25 March 2011 CULTURE, DEBATE, HISTORY, RELIGION

• Southern Death Cult: Data & Meaning

  John Jeremiah Sullivan’s piece on America’s ancient cave art has prompted some thinking — always the sign of good writing. If you haven’t read it yet, you... Read more

  Posted on 23 March 2011 CULTURE, DEBATE, HISTORY, RELIGION

• America’s Unknown & Ancient Cave Art

  

  In a collaborative (subscription seeking) arrangement with the Paris Review, Slate has just published a long piece on “America’s Ancient Cave Art” by John... Read more

  Posted on 21 March 2011 CULTURE, HISTORY, RELIGION

• Books: Roman Pagans & Islamic History

  Over at The New York Review of Books, Peter Brown covers Alan Cameron’s recently published tome The Last Pagans of Rome. For those of us who are not classicists... Read more

  Posted on 20 March 2011 CULTURE, HISTORY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY

• Pair Bonding & Ritual Marriage

  Over the past few years, something like a perfect storm has been brewing over human pair bonding and the profound impacts it has wrought on human social... Read more

  Posted on 18 March 2011 CULTURE, DEBATE, HISTORY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY

• Sizing Up Kinship: Larger Groups Win

  There are a number of scholars who claim that “religion” evolved as an adaptation. What kind of adaptation? A group level adaptation. Read more

  Posted on 16 March 2011 CULTURE, DEBATE, HISTORY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY

• Mural Magic of Mushrooms

  

  Cognitive archaeologist David Lewis-Williams has long argued that the spectacular Paleolithic paintings in European caves such Lascaux, Chauvet, and Altamira... Read more

  Posted on 14 March 2011 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• The Magic of Contagion

  What makes people pay large sums of money for apparently mundane objects such as JFK’s golf clubs ($772,500 at auction) and rocking chair ($453,500)? Read more

  Posted on 11 March 2011 DEBATE, RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Out of Body Experiences & Soul Beliefs

  Anyone who has watched an episode of “I Survived: Beyond and Back” on the Biography Channel knows that accounts of near death experiences mesmerize the public.... Read more

  Posted on 09 March 2011 DEBATE, RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• The Art of Geology

  

  At a fundamental level, evolutionary religious studies depend on geology. While this sounds a bit strange – What do rocks have to do with religion? Read more

  Posted on 08 March 2011 CULTURE, HISTORY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY

• Ritual Skull Caps

  

  A recent article by Bello and colleagues, published in PLoS One (open access), has generated much attention in the press and blogosphere. Read more

  Posted on 04 March 2011 CULTURE, HISTORY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY

• Interrogating Richard Dawkins

  Over at Spiegel, Markus Becker and Frank Patalong have posted an interview with Richard Dawkins, whose latest book — The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence fo... Read more

  Posted on 02 March 2011 SCIENCE

• The Jedi Religion

  

  Before the 2001 census was taken in Great Britain and several Commonwealth countries, someone suggested that the “Religious Affiliation” question be answered... Read more

  Posted on 28 February 2011 SOCIETY

• Dissociative Soul Flights

  Out of body experiences are a human universal. Why? Because human brains are constructed in a way that enables such perceptions. Dreaming, drug use, and near... Read more

  Posted on 25 February 2011 SCIENCE

• Lawsuit Challenges “Religion of Atheism”

  A high school physics and chemistry teacher in Pennsylvania has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that evolution is atheism and because atheism is a religion,... Read more

  Posted on 23 February 2011 SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Actual & Imagined Agency

  As serendipity would have it, during the past few weeks I have been immersed in arguments about the Upper Paleolithic transition some 45,000 years ago. Read more

  Posted on 21 February 2011 SPIRITUALITY

• Weekend Religion Roundup

  Let’s start with the lengthy story of Oscar winning Apostate, Paul Haggis and his life in Scientology. It appears in The New Yorker and is yet another expose... Read more

  Posted on 19 February 2011 SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Werner Herzog Films Chauvet Cave in 3-D

  Here is the fantastic news: one of the world’s greatest filmmakers, Werner Herzog, was granted rare access to Chauvet Cave and filmed the interior in 3-D. Read more

  Posted on 17 February 2011 SPIRITUALITY

• Whip Me: Controlling Guilt with Pain

  

  Over at The Economist, our correspondent reports that “religion got it right: pain seems to assuage guilt.” This conclusion is based on an Australian study... Read more

  Posted on 15 February 2011 CULTURE, DEBATE, RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY