If we accept a genuine religious pluralism, we can respect the distinctive character of the historic traditions and learn from one another as well as from nature. Ian G. Barbour, Religion and Science. Historical and Contemporary Issues. A Revised and Expanded Edition of Religion in an Age of Science, Londen, SCM Press Ltd, 1998, p…
Tag: religion
Book Review: Scientism, by John Cowburn SJ
– Tom Uytterhoeven – (An expanded version of this review will be published, together with many more reviews and reports on recent developments in the field of science and religion, in the next issue of ESSSAT-News. See here for more info on ESSSAT-membership) Is scientism a word we need, and if so: for what purposes…
Cooperation Against Racism
– Tom Uytterhoeven – Although I am not a scientist, I think this is a great experiment. It shows us what mechanisms lie beneath ugly features of human social living, like racism and gender discrimination. Moreover, it shows us how to decrease the prevalence of these features, at least in the case of racism. Let…
Cultural Evolution and a Rubber Band
– Tom Uytterhoeven – I disagree with two points in this article on biological, cultural, and technological evolution: (1) it suggests that biological, cultural and technological evolution are separate processes, while I see them as deeply connected; (2) it suggests cultural evolution/history must be read as the emergence of different 'stages', leading to ever greater…
Science and Religion: Has the Conflict Model Won the Popularity Vote?
– Tom Uytterhoeven – This morning my wife posted a picture on my Facebook wall. It shows two Post It notes on a wall in a community center in a Belgian town. The center had organized a cultural activity for kids: they were invited to write down who their hero was. So one kid posted:…
Do We Love God Because We Love Sex?
See on Scoop.it – Cultural evolution Penn Psychologists: Sexual Attitudes Can Predict Religiousness CBS Local The results are interesting, researchers say, because evolutionary psychologists studying the influence of religion in everyday life are typically split into two groups –… Tom Uytterhoeven’s insight: Research like this always fascinates me. But I tend to have two questions…
The Church of the Jedi
See on Scoop.it – Cultural evolution In the years after the first Star Wars trilogy, a group of dedicated followers built their own religion: Jediism. Tom Uytterhoeven’s insight: You can be dismissive about this, calling it a joke that went out of hand. But I see the dynamics of culture at work, going from old…
Keeping God real takes work – Guelph Mercury
See on Scoop.it – Cultural evolution Keeping God real takes work Guelph Mercury Scholars like the anthropologist Pascal Boyer, author of Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origin of Religious Thought, and the psychologist Justin L. Barrett, author of Why Would Anyone Believe in God? Tom Uytterhoeven’s insight: Interesting suggestion at the end of the article: prayer…
Returning to the centre: Reflections on the Hajj – Opinion – ABC Religion & Ethics (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
See on Scoop.it – Evolution and Religion The ritual of Hajj is about being realigned with what our inner selves ought to be orbiting: presence with Allah, a focussed consciousness that is often absent in the giddy spin of normal life. (What does your life revolve around? Tom Uytterhoeven’s insight: Walking must be one of…
The Mood of Secular Existence
– Tom Uytterhoeven – I just started reading Jerome A. Stone’s “The Minimalist Vision of Transcendence“, and he immediately raised a question I cannot answer myself. Stone describes the secular life, on p. 3: Given that the meaning of secularity is the loss of a transcendent source of meaning, secular existence will either find a…