https://politicalresearch.org/ The latest research related to morality en https://religiondispatches.org/2020/01/08/trying-really-good-enough-good-place-has-c-word-problem On October 8 th, 2019, Jameela Jamil, one of the lead actresses on the surprising hit TV-show The Good Place was embroiled in a Twitter scandal. Liberal TV personality Ellen DeGeneres, who had developed a public friendship with former president… Wed, 08 Jan 2020 03:50:54 EST Daniel Albert Joslyn e0c43bb2-dd02-419a-8b97-dfdc31b80e9a https://religiondispatches.org/2017/12/20/youre-fcked-how-pouncing-mistakes-helps-right-escape-moral-accountability “If you make a mistake, another mistake, there is a very severe possibility that you’re both going to get shot,” says a cop to the man and the woman lying face down on the floor of a hotel hallway. It’s… Wed, 20 Dec 2017 12:16:41 EST Jonathan Malesic 13f717a0-c65e-4b84-a5d9-c20b690d9d69 https://religiondispatches.org/2016/05/20/captain-america-civil-religion-and-why-donald-trump-thinks-hes-batman As of this writing, Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War is 2016’s biggest movie worldwide. If pop culture is our public religion (as per scholar David Chidester, for example) this blockbuster, emerging from what’s been called a “ second golden age”… Fri, 20 May 2016 03:14:55 EDT Jeremy Biles 71b573ae-803e-4eda-ad62-f6f0d330927e https://religiondispatches.org/2016/01/07/must-you-oppose-public-funding-even-if-you-oppose-abortion Even if you’re morally opposed to abortion, are you morally obligated to support the Hyde Amendment and related laws that seek to limit abortion for poor women? That’s the question at the center of the current issue of Conscience magazine… Thu, 07 Jan 2016 02:06:48 EST Patricia Miller 5e5d7360-f5cf-4fca-8f5b-1e3a7919f211 https://religiondispatches.org/2015/12/15/moral-galaxy-war-and-suffering-star-wars-old-republic A new Star Wars film premieres this week, accompanied by the kind of social ferment usually reserved for presidential elections—or in the case of this year, papal visits. Beyond George Lucas’ classic trilogy, the Star Wars galaxy also includes books… Tue, 15 Dec 2015 03:28:21 EST Robert M. Geraci, Nat Recine 86a5348f-c0f2-4846-9312-188501f174fe https://religiondispatches.org/2015/08/03/millennials-put-rigid-judgmental-religion-offered-more-orthodoxy In a way, the Christian Post’s Kevin Shrum is quite right about why young people reject Christianity these days. He accurately summarizes research into the “Nones” by James E. White and George Barna, and we’ll even spot him the point… Mon, 03 Aug 2015 03:02:00 EDT Daniel Schultz 86849f26-37e7-4932-8674-b823278ec6cb https://religiondispatches.org/2015/03/09/i-dont-buy-it-gospel-according-frank-underwood With bonus: 12 Quotes from the Underwood Bible Mon, 09 Mar 2015 02:06:42 EDT Cathleen Falsani c674de85-4791-47ae-a907-8eb733c46f78 https://religiondispatches.org/2013/12/12/walking-dead-and-zombie-ethics-or-dont-fight-zombies-you-cant-win Zombie media makes clear distinctions between the human and the zombie—and killing them saves us. Yet, there are resonances of a more complicated vision of the zombie. What if remnants of humanity linger in those resurrected corpses? Or what if zombies represent something fundamental about humans that we need to examine? Thu, 12 Dec 2013 05:25:49 EST Kelly J. Baker 8eb5ebf5-db33-48c4-9d85-45833de093bf https://religiondispatches.org/2013/10/21/google-question-evil The slogan “Don’t be evil” prompts questions Google’s chairman seems ill-equipped to answer. Mon, 21 Oct 2013 02:02:06 EDT Michael Schulson e9af7bb4-6742-425f-9ed2-c31abfe711e9 https://religiondispatches.org/2013/08/01/does-god-know-if-i-cheat-test-sao-paulo Anatomy of a cross-cultural study. Thu, 01 Aug 2013 12:14:29 EDT Michael Schulson 67582b5e-b51f-4f4e-ad2d-052e49d6ee84 https://religiondispatches.org/2013/07/08/evangelical-intellectual-takes-same-sex-marriage-grasps-straw-men Though Craig is correct that his argument is “simple,” he is wrong to believe that simplicity makes it good. Indeed, the suggestion that terms and concepts are immune to redefinition is simply… false. It demands an unflattering comparison to Rick Santorum, who once stumped around the nation declaring that a “ napkin is a napkin.” Mon, 08 Jul 2013 02:39:57 EDT Eric C. Miller b7c27bc6-976e-4cdf-8201-bd472f53bb75 https://religiondispatches.org/2013/05/09/did-mormon-morality-teachings-really-make-it-harder-elizabeth-smart-run Elizabeth Smart’s remarks set off important debate about LDS sexuality doctrine and culture. Thu, 09 May 2013 07:09:02 EDT Joanna Brooks 516f09b7-2960-4e4b-affc-c6634693196a https://religiondispatches.org/2012/03/20/catholic-turnabout-abortion-or-more-sympathy-bishops In 2002, Catholic theologian Christine Gudorf predicted that “within a generation or two,” Catholic hierarchical teaching will change to encourage contraception in marriage and to allow some abortions. Tue, 20 Mar 2012 12:02:47 EDT Daniel C. Maguire 5c168854-13c4-4b6e-861b-b432b1163c8c https://religiondispatches.org/2011/05/23/tornado-hits-heartland-god-punishing-us Many of these weather events actually are a kind of “punishment”—not in the conservative-theological sense of tit-for-tat justice meted out by an Abusive Father on High, but in the more progressive-theological sense of unforeseen consequences of reckless human actions. Climate scientists have said for years that global climate change will lead to increased severe weather events, and now they appear to be here; along with droughts and poor harvests caused by shifting climatic belts. On a planetary basis, we are reaping what we have sown for two hundred years. Mon, 23 May 2011 02:41:24 EDT Jay Michaelson 234de05c-52dd-4779-a5f0-67df95149528 https://religiondispatches.org/2011/05/05/are-atheists-more-moral-religious Atheists aren’t perfect, just not forgiven. Thu, 05 May 2011 04:12:01 EDT Lauri Lebo 437a61cf-f680-4dfe-af9d-9b568e8ad41c https://religiondispatches.org/2011/05/05/were-you-born-selfish-interview-frans-de-waal Both the good and bad in our species come from our primate background, says primatologist Frans de Waal, author of The Age of Empathy. Thu, 05 May 2011 08:38:21 EDT Benjamin Hale 7e5b12ee-42bd-4633-bbdd-cac27f75fe80 https://religiondispatches.org/2011/04/22/noms-gallagher-dont-call-me-bigot Maggie Gallagher doesn’t hate gay people, she just loves marriage. Fri, 22 Apr 2011 05:13:19 EDT Candace Chellew-Hodge 256087d8-9f17-4fc9-92bc-8c9dc250da9e https://religiondispatches.org/2011/04/14/debating-god-atheist-and-evangelical-face-notre-dame The University of Notre Dame had cause for its anxiety leading up to last week’s big debate between the New Atheist polemicist Sam Harris and the evangelical philosopher William Lane Craig. It’s said that all publicity is good publicity, but one needn’t strain too hard to find an exception—least of all in the history of God debates. Thu, 14 Apr 2011 01:06:27 EDT Nathan Schneider 074ef7de-0314-4c24-a50a-9079f9191ff4 https://religiondispatches.org/2010/10/26/little-value-new-harris-book Sam Harris latest, The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values, is undermined by poor scholarship, ad hominem attacks and an obsession with religion. Tue, 26 Oct 2010 11:51:42 EDT Michael Ruse 485ebb9e-6a21-4d9a-96c2-4ae9cbbf3a3b https://religiondispatches.org/2010/09/16/religion-morality-and-death-american-soap-opera This week, the world will stop turning; or at least it will for the daytime soap opera “As The World Turns,” which officially ends after 53 years. But if we remember the soap opera solely as a torrid celebration of sexual transgression—or as a frivolous time-waster for bored housewives—we miss understanding something crucial about the relationship between popular culture and morality. Thu, 16 Sep 2010 07:08:02 EDT Katy E. Shrout ce9b3e9c-7613-472a-ac36-b8e719ee1b2c https://religiondispatches.org/2010/05/12/morality-not-necessarily-good Ten questions for philosopher Hans-Georg Moeller whose new book explains how the language of morality, or of ethical purity, distorts our ability to tackle the toughest social and political problems. Wed, 12 May 2010 04:36:51 EDT Hans-Georg Moeller 5a0e2f94-448b-477d-98c2-5eb31129ef4b https://religiondispatches.org/2010/03/26/does-evolution-favor-religion David Sloan Wilson is a biologist who claims that the so-called “selfish” gene is a myth. What if we have evolved to do what’s best not for ourselves, but for the groups we live in? The implications for religion, the ultimate social organism, are huge. Fri, 26 Mar 2010 07:46:30 EDT Mark Vernon a909f9d2-49a2-462d-aebf-b95ffc304919 https://religiondispatches.org/2010/01/17/king-dares-us-imagine-better-world For King, the challenges of a dawning age required a recognition that globalization had produced what he called a geographical togetherness and that this togetherness very much needed a spiritual grounding. Sun, 17 Jan 2010 07:25:56 EST Eddie S. Glaude Jr. 63a09dd4-19be-484a-83cb-08d8c7bb298c https://religiondispatches.org/2010/01/14/wallis-seeking-payback-obama-defense In the wake of James Dobson’s attacks on Obama’s Christianity, liberal evangelical Jim Wallis comes to the candidate’s aid. Is Wallis’ subsequent plea for a new Democratic position on abortion strategically timed? Thu, 14 Jan 2010 02:09:17 EST Kathryn Joyce 77edc16a-9e32-48c0-a76c-8edd22ff0e93 https://religiondispatches.org/2009/09/10/one-nation-many-bibles-obama-vs-dobson Americans wrestle with the biblical text, but there is no one correct way to read scripture. Thu, 10 Sep 2009 09:21:26 EDT Anthony B. Pinn f4cd3514-7ac8-41a4-bd20-693c745ca14c