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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Progressive Notes
Whilst this is not the next post in my series on “progress,” I want to share some notes I’ve taken while preparing for that post. Read more
Posted on 14 September 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Interrogating Progress (Part 1)
“Men and societies frequently treat the institutions and assumptions by which they live as absolute, self-evident, and given. They may treat them as such withou... Read more
Posted on 10 September 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Unnatural Histories
Were humans happier as Stone Age hunter-gatherers? This is the question asked, but not answered, by historian Yuval Noah Harari in this Guardian piece which... Read more
Posted on 08 September 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Jittery “Spirit” Fields
As he approaches the end of his remarkable life, physicist-novelist Alan Lightman is engaged in the time-honored tradition of making sense of it all. He attempt... Read more
Posted on 29 August 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Scientific Metaphysics & Uncertainty
There is, among a certain group of scientists, a shrill certitude about science which leads to overconfident proclamations on matters of philosophy (and by... Read more
Posted on 07 August 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Language, Lying & Ritual
While scanning the front page of the New York Times today, my attention was arrested by this startling sub-titular claim: “Hinduism’s profusion of gods and... Read more
Posted on 04 August 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Thick Books & Atheist TV
As I prepare for a long weekend excursion where I won’t physically go anywhere but will mentally go everywhere, this assessment of my travel companions strikes... Read more
Posted on 01 August 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Invisible Disenchantments
As an historical and methodological matter, science owes a great deal to supernaturalism. This indebtedness, or what we might call a close structural... Read more
Posted on 30 July 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
EP & Paternity Paranoia
Among the many problems that ail evolutionary psychology or EP, one of the most glaring is the field’s ignorance of hunter-gatherer ethnography. Read more
Posted on 26 July 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Happy Chemehuevi Trails
Some years ago I acquired a folio or large-sized Edward S. Curtis photogravure titled “A Home in the Mesquite — Chemehuevi” (1924). Read more
Posted on 20 July 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Random Superstitions
Sometimes, when making decisions, it’s better not to decide. Or, when faced with a choice, to choose on the basis of chance. When the set of possible outcomes... Read more
Posted on 18 July 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Abrahamic Interviews
Some of you may have been following the interview series on religion being conducted by Gary Gutting for the New York Times philosophy blog, “The Stone. Read more
Posted on 09 July 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Reading Aztec Ritual
As an antidote to the vacuous beach reading lists that are ubiquitous at this time of year, I always resolve to read intensively in one area to fill some... Read more
Posted on 27 June 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Unitary Animist Worldviews
It is sometimes said that animist worldviews are unitary, totalized, and seamless. What does this mean? At a first approximation, it means that such worldviews... Read more
Posted on 24 June 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Constructing the “Social”
What do we mean by “social”? I will confess to having never given this important issue much thought, which I now realize is a serious mistake. Read more
Posted on 22 June 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Animist-Religious Discourses
As hunter-gatherers in Alaska, the traditional Yupik (Eskimo) were and perhaps still are classic carriers of animist worldviews. Read more
Posted on 21 June 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Horton Hatches Spirit Eggs
In a 2012 Current Anthropology article with a daunting title (“A Hyperreal God and Modern Belief: Toward an Anthropological Theory of Mind”), Stanford... Read more
Posted on 18 June 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Wine as Ritual Blood
Since at least the 8th millennium BCE, wine has been considered a sacred elixir and has been bound up with all manner of religious rituals. Several weeks ago,... Read more
Posted on 16 June 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Slenderman & Christian Credulity
By now you have surely heard that two 12 year old girls in Wisconsin lured one of their friends into the woods where they stabbed the victim 19 times and left... Read more
Posted on 07 June 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Non-Progressive Religions
In this stimulating Paris Review interview with essayist-psychoanalyst Adam Phillips, Phillips touches on themes — progress and non-progress — near and dear to... Read more
Posted on 03 June 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY