Cris
MY BLOGS
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Genealogy of Religion
http://genealogyreligion.net/
Exploring the Origins, History, and Future of Religion
LATEST ARTICLES ( 560 )
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Corporate Nation Under God
In a recent poll, 57% of registered Republicans “support establishing Christianity as the national religion” and another 13% are not sure about it. Read more
Posted on 19 March 2015 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Science of Good & Evil
Are the New Atheists “scared” and panicking? Are they “fervently vocal” because they realize that religion is not in retreat and is instead flourishing? Read more
Posted on 12 March 2015 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Graeme Wood Responds
Following on from Cris’ recent posts about ISIS and its coverage in the media, a new interview of Graeme Wood addressing how his recent article at The Atlantic... Read more
Posted on 05 March 2015 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
All About Islamism
The web is currently on fire with some great writing, and serious thinking, about “Islam” and Islamism. In this post, I covered some notable aspects of Graeme... Read more
Posted on 03 March 2015 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Slavish Conscience
Over at the London Review of Books, Adam Phillips criticizes self-criticism in an essay that includes this brilliant bit:We are never as good as we should be;... Read more
Posted on 27 February 2015 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Misogi Water Rituals (Pt 2)
In the previous post in this series, I described my personal experience of an extreme misogi water purification ritual performed in Kikonai in Northern Japan. Read more
Posted on 24 February 2015 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Channeling National Religion
In a recent Foreign Affairs article the author analyzes a propaganda television channel in one country which reminds me of a propaganda channel in another... Read more
Posted on 22 February 2015 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
All About ISIS
Over at The Atlantic, Graeme Wood has posted an article on ISIS that is a tour de force of reportage, a near perfect melding of intellectual history and... Read more
Posted on 17 February 2015 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Sapir-Whorf & Sea Slugs
Interviewer: So that gets right into our first book in a way because Sapir was famous for the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis about the relationship between language... Read more
Posted on 15 February 2015 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Oral Tradition & Indigenous “Myth”
Over the past week I’ve been reading One Vast Winter Count: The Native American West before Lewis and Clark (History of the American West) (2003) by Dartmouth... Read more
Posted on 03 February 2015 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Super Ruminations
Later today over 100 million Americans will be mesmerized by that late-capitalist orgy of excess and jingoism known as the Super Bowl. It has to be the most... Read more
Posted on 01 February 2015 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Fractured Evolutionary Narratives
Yesterday Nature published a study of a ~55,000 year old cranium which shows that anatomically modern humans (“AMH”), presumably migrating out of Africa, were i... Read more
Posted on 29 January 2015 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Renaissance Magic & Science
Few things could seem as far apart as magic and science, though if we consider the history of science, we find that the two were intimately twined. Read more
Posted on 24 January 2015 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Reducing Laboratory Dissonance
As part of my research on extreme ritual practices I’ve been trying to reacquaint myself with the theories concerning ‘cognitive dissonance’ pioneered by Leon... Read more
Posted on 22 January 2015 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Synaesthetic Mysticism
Over at aeon, Shruti Ravindran discusses the fascinating possibility that we are born synaesthetes and never lose these abilities, though they are... Read more
Posted on 20 January 2015 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Misogi Water Rituals (Pt 1)
Genealogy of Religion is pleased to announce that Chris Kavanagh has joined the blog as a guest contributor and administrator. Read more
Posted on 19 January 2015 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Non-Agentive “Power”
Not long ago I was having an enriching dinner conversation with Stewart Guthrie, former Chair of the Fordham University Anthropology Department and author of... Read more
Posted on 15 January 2015 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Speaking of Spiders & Chickens
Back in October, Nature published a study showing some evidence of group level selection among social tangle-web spiders. If that is in fact what the study... Read more
Posted on 13 January 2015 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Taking Up Serpents
And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if... Read more
Posted on 04 January 2015 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Non-Instinctive Language
In terms of intellectual history, cognitive science is largely built on the Chomskyian idea that humans have an evolved language “instinct,” “organ,” or “module. Read more
Posted on 04 December 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY