Steveawiggins

LATEST ARTICLES ( 4120 )

• Reveries of the Fall

  

  Just a quarter of an hour, studies show, of time in the woods can reduce stress. I suspect that if those fifteen minutes are spent running from a bear the... Read more

  Posted on 30 October 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Paying off College

  

  “Want College to Pay off?” the headline asks. It depresses me. I’m an unapologetic idealist. Cost-benefit analysis has its place, but that’s not all there is... Read more

  Posted on 29 October 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• House of Unsure

  

  It’s that spooky time of year when nights have surpassed days and the chill in the air suggests an oncoming period of bleakness. Leaves are raining down off... Read more

  Posted on 28 October 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Frightening Faith

  

  Back when I first started this blog, I regretted that I had read Douglas E. Cowan’s Sacred Terror: Religion and Horror on the Silver Screen so long ago. Read more

  Posted on 27 October 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Ritual Rent

  

  Rituals frequently outlive their purposes. Some skeptics may claim that rituals—particularly of the religious sort—really don’t mean anything at all, but in fac... Read more

  Posted on 26 October 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Colorful Leaves

  

  Weekends, it seems, are incomplete without being among books. You might think that someone who works in publishing might want to get away from books in the off... Read more

  Posted on 25 October 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Sects These Days

  

  New Religious Movements (NRMs) have long fascinated me. As a natural historian, looking back over where we’ve been has been my usual source of orientation. Read more

  Posted on 24 October 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Signed, Sealed, Forgotten

  

  I’m a little ashamed to admit it. With such a long list of moody horror movies out there, I gave in to watching The Seventh Sign again. 1988 was a momentous... Read more

  Posted on 23 October 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Subterranean Homesick Blues

  

  When Bob Dylan was changing American music I wasn’t really in a place to notice. I was too young, living in a small town, and the member of a church suspicious... Read more

  Posted on 22 October 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Tell It Straight

  

  Apparently there is a burgeoning interest in swearing. Not necessarily in doing it, but in studying it. Over the past couple of years I’ve easily found a book... Read more

  Posted on 21 October 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• God’s Meteorologist

  

  “To understand the weather is somehow to glimpse the divine.“ I honestly don’t remember writing those words. A friend of my drew them out in a quote last year... Read more

  Posted on 20 October 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Life As We Knew It

  

  The government does funny things when your back is turned. Back in January, reading Scott W. Gustafson’s At the Altar of Wall Street, I learned that the... Read more

  Posted on 19 October 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Big Dreams

  

  The giants are back! Or at least they were here. According to the internet, and we know that that never lies. Every now and again a story breaks that some... Read more

  Posted on 18 October 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Silence Fright

  

  One of my first publications was a letter to the editor. The newspaper was The Scotsman, Edinburgh’s daily. We’d been hearing on the BBC that a new movie, The... Read more

  Posted on 17 October 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Grammar of Evil

  

  I stepped into a devil of a situation. Elevators are strange spaces. Given the choice, I’ll take the stairs any time. At work, however, as one of the many quirk... Read more

  Posted on 16 October 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Whole Truth

  

  In a thoughtful piece on NPR, Adam Frank discusses “Are Scientific Truths Better Than Other Truths?(.)” He describes a Ivy League conference called to discuss... Read more

  Posted on 15 October 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Twice Bitten

  

  I should be aware of what happens next. I’ve seen it in movies often enough. Man gets bitten by a wolf, and he turns into a werewolf at the full moon. That give... Read more

  Posted on 14 October 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Scary Thoughts

  

  Those who know me personally—and not just through the internet—sometimes are surprised to learn that I watch horror movies. After all, I’m a pacifist,... Read more

  Posted on 13 October 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Fictional Fact

  

  Do you remember that tragic sinking of a Staten Island ferry when a giant octopus pulled it under? Sounds vaguely familiar, but I wasn’t living near New York... Read more

  Posted on 12 October 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Only October

  

  Comfort may be a strange word to describe Halloween, but it is accurate. I’m no specialist on the holiday, although I’ve read a few books on it—most recently... Read more

  Posted on 11 October 2016 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY