Tag: religion
-
Scientology-ville (a.k.a. Clearwater, FL) Tour
Yesterday morning I was reading the local paper when I came upon this story about Scientology (part 1 of 3). Apparently 4 fairly prominent members of the religion have defected over the last few years and the St. Petersburg Times finally got them to agree to be interviewed. The Times is rolling out the interviews…
-
The Boston Globe calling…
I received an email from Michael Paulson, a religion reporter for The Boston Globe, yesterday asking me if I had time to talk about a new study coming out today. The study is the latest wave of the American Religious Identification Survey. Having worked with the principal investigators – Barry Kosmin and Ariela Keysar –…
-
new publication – Fighting Over “Mormon”
An article I co-authored with Michael Nielsen just came out in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. It takes a look at some claims made by the LDS Church concerning the coverage of the FLDS raid in Texas last year. If you’re interested in more details, let me know.
-
Tim Minchin, ladies and gentlemen
TimMinchin.com (courtesy of the SGU)
-
The True Meaning of Christmas…
I should really be doing other work, but after reading the news this morning, it dawned on me that what I really wanted to do was write a short blog post about “The True Meaning of Christmas.” (NOTE: For all the readers of my blog who are religious, this is your cue to stop reading…
-
update on Signing for Something website
Not that I’m excited to post on here about Mormonism again, but I do think this turn of events is interesting. One of the key people who set up the website “Signing for Something” opposing the LDS Church’s attempts to ban gay marriage in California is now being excommunicated for expressing his dissenting views. He…
-
Colorado City and Home
Our trip to Southern Utah was pretty short, just 3 days. My in-laws wanted to see the Shakespearean festival (though Cyrano de Bergerac is not by Shakespeare), Zion National Park, and Les Miserables. I suggested Mountain Meadows and one other stop: Colorado City. For those not familiar with Colorado City, Arizona, it’s a town literally…
-
the latest Steve…
In case you’ve never heard of “Project Steve” of the National Center for Science Education, here’s a quick recap: NCSE’s “Project Steve” is a tongue-in-cheek parody of a long-standing creationist tradition of amassing lists of “scientists who doubt evolution” or “scientists who dissent from Darwinism.” (For examples of such lists, see the FAQs.) Creationists draw…
-
Workers of the World Unite! (on Sunday… in Church?)
I’m adding this sentence from a paper to my list of memorable student quotes, The religious affiliations of the United States as a whole are that 77% of people are Christian (which includes Catholics, Baptists, Protestants, Methodists, Lutherans, Christians, Proletarians, Episcopalians, Mormons, and others), 1% are Jewish, 1% are Muslim, 1% are Buddhist, less than…
-
Fort de Soto; Expelled
We had our first familial visitor last weekend. My Dad was in Orlando for a carwash convention and made a side trip out to Tampa (about 1 1/2 hours away). He and a colleague of his spent the night then we took them out to Fort de Soto. Debi and I had never been but…