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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Exorcism Rituals for Everyone
Exorcism rituals have gotten a really bad name, at least here in the United States where they are stereotypically associated with demons who are believed to be... Read more
Posted on 02 March 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Explanatory Theories of Religion
After spending several years doing research for a book tentatively titled Evolutionary Theories of Religion: A Guide for the Perplexed, I came to the... Read more
Posted on 26 February 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Evans-Pritchard’s “Theories of Primitive Religion”
With Paul Radin’s Primitive Religion: Its Nature and Origin (1937), nearly seventy years of intense evolutionary theorizing about religion came to an end. Read more
Posted on 24 February 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Serpents and Symbols
Sooner or later the serpent will bite. This probabilistic reality was running through my head when I read that a snake-handling Pentecostal pastor from... Read more
Posted on 18 February 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Tsunami Spirits
Japan has had more than its fair share of epic disasters, the most recent of which came on March 11, 2011, when the earth shifted and ocean waved. Within... Read more
Posted on 15 February 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Supernatural Play
If you have ever taken a course in life history theory or evolutionary ecology, you may have gotten the impression that all organisms are capitalist optimizers... Read more
Posted on 13 February 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Deep Time & Deep Place
In this Aeon piece by philosopher John Schellenberg, he contemplates the nature of deep time. He correctly observes that deep time is almost always backwards... Read more
Posted on 11 February 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Rational Human Sacrifice
Is there a “rational” explanation for human sacrifice? Of course there is; indeed, there are several, depending on which premises are used to construct the... Read more
Posted on 09 February 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Hubris and Humility
Anyone who spends time in the heavens that are used book stores will surely have seen Jacob Bronowski’s The Ascent of Man (1973). Most stores worth their salt... Read more
Posted on 08 February 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Places of Many Generations
Over at Nautilus, Jude Isabella talks to archaeologist extraordinaire Margaret Conkey about her efforts to dispel the idea that Paleolithic humans were cave... Read more
Posted on 05 February 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
“Primitive” Japanese Discourse
While not watching the Super Bowl last night, I watched White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is a powerful documentary that... Read more
Posted on 03 February 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Space-Time Constructions
When someone claims that “life is a braid in spacetime,” you can expect some crazy talk. In this wonderfully reductionist piece by MIT physicist Max Tegmark,... Read more
Posted on 02 February 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Quantum Surreality
Quantum physics is, for laypeople, mind bending stuff. The good news is that it also bends the minds of physicists, who continue to wrestle with the reality... Read more
Posted on 29 January 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Unearthing Mother
While reading Tony Swain’s superlative A Place for Strangers: Towards a History of Australian Aboriginal Being (1993), I came across this passage:In an... Read more
Posted on 26 January 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Quantum Consciousness Redux
Those interested in spinning their brain bosons and fermions should head over to Physics of Life Reviews, which has published a series of open access articles o... Read more
Posted on 24 January 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Directed Evolution
What would the world be like if Darwin had never existed? This is the question Peter Bowler asks in Darwin Deleted: Imagining a World Without Darwin (2013). Read more
Posted on 21 January 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Cognition, Metaphysics & Teleology
If you are a high-profile professor of computer science at Yale University, it’s quite probable that the view from your room is peculiar (if not positively... Read more
Posted on 19 January 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Shooting Theist Ducks
While I have sometimes been critical of Jerry Coyne and his fellow New Atheists, it’s not because I think they are generally wrong. Read more
Posted on 17 January 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Eggheads Afflict Mormons
On rare occasion, having the courage of one’s convictions can be admirable. While I much prefer having the courage to attack my convictions, the Mormon man who... Read more
Posted on 15 January 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY -
Judeo-Comanche Juxtaposition
Despite being worlds apart, I read something yesterday which suggests similarities between Judaic and Comanche rituals. In this piece, which is subtitled... Read more
Posted on 11 January 2014 DEBATE, HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY