Book review: Andrew Newberg’s Principles of Neurotheology
Until recently, the standard position in the perennial religion vs. science wars was one of truce. Stephen J. Gould, the late evolutionary biologist, coined the […]
religion
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 […]
Review: Principles of Neurotheology
One of the most fundamental quandaries in theology and philosophy is the pernicious difficulty of using the mind to examine itself. The trickiness of inverting […]
Review: The Empirical Stance
Renowned philosopher of science Bas C. van Fraassen (Princeton University) had long remained silent on issues of religion. So by his own admission he was […]
Predestined to be liberal?
Most people like to think they’ve carefully thought out their positions. They’ll say that they’ve fairly assessed both sides of an issue and have come […]
Religion affects decisions by shaping how we perceive
How do we make decisions? It may seem to be a question more suited for philosophical treatises or neuroscience journal articles than the study of […]
Born into religion
It is often taken for granted that children will just inherit the religion of their parents. Clearly, it seems, nurture trumps nature in terms of […]
Prominent skeptic: Religion may be adaptive after all
In the nine years since the radical Islamist terrorist attacks on the U.S. of September 11th, 2001, plenty of scholars and researchers have trained their […]
When being unfalsifiable is a good thing
Common knowledge says that you believe what you’re taught, or what your gut tells you is right, or – better yet – what the facts […]
V.V. Raman’s Truth and Tension in Science and Religion
Professor emeritus Raman deals with the title theme in 10 chapters: Introduction, On science and religion, Epistemological aspects, Explanatory dimensions, Belief systems and God, Spiritual […]