Is the media fueling global conflict?
Journalists don’t make the news – they just report it, right? Not so fast. Anthropologist Scott Atran believes that radical Islamic terrorists use the Western […]
Muslim
Ominous moods may improve ritual performance
To the uninitiated, religious ritual seems like frivolous play-acting. Priests and acolytes follow obscure rules and manipulate symbolic objects, similar to team sports like soccer, […]
BREAKING NEWS: Religious children don’t share stickers
Many people believe that religion teaches children to be just and moral. Even if adherents dispense with the unscientific dogma, there’s a lingering sense that […]
Woe unto the weird: Majorities tend to be spiteful
Bill Moyers once quipped, “Civilization is a thin veneer of agreeable behavior stretched across the passions of the human heart.” Among the most persistent of […]
Book review: Science and the Spiritual Quest
Nearly a decade and a half ago, an elite group of scientists gathered in Berkeley, California, to participate in a groundbreaking project called Science and […]
Sufism and mindfulness
“Mind-body medicine,” or the integration of spiritual practices with techniques for healing, is a big topic these days. While many of the practices that go […]
Tales of the cuddle chemical
It’s a “love drug.” It’s a “cuddle chemical.” The hormone and neurotransmitter oxytocin has gotten a lot of good press in the recent past, as […]