Category Archives: Uncategorized

“…the goal is to keep religious people from making public arguments that have any force”

Daniel Larison thinks it unreasonable to ask religious conservatives to put theology to one side when prescribing to the rest of us on public policy. John Cole has one response.

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Uh-oh. Democrats pray, too.

Union leaders hope that a Detroit bail-out gets a divine nudge .

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The Ancients

When a secularist attempts to create a distinction between “ethics” and “morality” in order to argue that the public sphere should focus on the former, religious people often become sneaky and try to point out that ethics are informed by … Continue reading

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What’s Wrong with Falwell?

I just heard Kevin Phillips on CSPAN-2 denouncing the Religious Right on the ground, inter alia, that “Jerry Falwell interpreted a hurricane as proof of God’s wrath.”  “How ridiculous is that?” asked Phillips, or something to that effect.  To the … Continue reading

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And Is It True?

What Mr. Hume said. (And Heather, too.) Whether believers are healthier, better behaved, better citizens, less likely to establish totalitarian dictatorships, and all the rest, are shadow questions. I think the ground where all of us on this site stand is, … Continue reading

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Truth matters

In Heather’s post she mentioned that at the end of the day for her it is about truth, not consequence, in relation to supernatural claims.  This is a point that needs to be made because intellectuals such as Michael Novak … Continue reading

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How Much Religious Falsehood Is Acceptable?

 I am returning to the Ed Feser exchange because it relates to a question I have been pondering about sophisticated Catholics and other Christians.    I had asked Mr. Feser if he could suggest an experimental design to test the efficacy … Continue reading

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The Leprechaun Cure

This is mildly interesting. Researchers Stepping Up Study of Health And Religiosity Small Field Devoted To Exploring Possible Link Is Expanding Despite Criticism,  Lack of Funding To critics, the few dozen researchers who met this week for a Washington conference … Continue reading

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Religion & Culture

With all the Christmas posts, I thought readers might find this of interest: The Grinch Delusion: An Atheist Can Believe in Christmas.  The fact is that religious traditions are a part of human culture, and they interact with ostensibly non-religious … Continue reading

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P.J. O’Rourke, “We Blew It”

I don’t think anyone here has yet linked P.J. O’Rourke’s much-discussed post-election post-mortem from last month on the failures of the organized Right. O’Rourke doesn’t quite address the themes of this site directly, but keeps brushing up close by them, … Continue reading

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