09.21.07
Well played
‘God’ responds to legislator’s lawsuit
Well played, God. But how will you handle discovery?
10.21.06
Conversions In India
In essence, growing numbers of India’s “untouchables” are figuring out that Hinduism isn’t really too hot for them. The most interesting part, though, comes in the last section, which talks about various states’ reactions to Dalit conversions:
The states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have all passed laws restricting conversions.
Gujarat has reclassified Buddhism and Jainism as branches of the Hindu religion, in an attempt to prevent conversions away from Hinduism eroding the BJP’s bedrock support.
This, of course, follows the time-honored political tradition of redefining defeat as victory.
09.11.06
Two Thoughts On Religion
Two interesting articles on religion in today’s WashPost:
* Religious Affliation Underestimated in U.S., Study Shows
* Evangelical Author Puts Progressive Spin On Traditional Faith
I don’t know what’s weirder - the people who put down “no religion” and yet have a “place of worship”, or the fact that demographers failed to notice this earlier.
Of course, let’s talk about the obvious:
“What is most associated with ‘no religion’ from a political point of view is independence,” said Barry Kosmin, principal investigator of a telephone survey that queried tens of thousands of Americans. His American Religious Identification Survey found that the number of “no religion” Americans jumped from 14.3 million in 1990 to 29.4 million in 2001. “If you don’t belong religiously, you don’t belong politically.”
Gee, I wonder why people who don’t subscribe to any religion tend to think of themselves as independent… Oh, right - maybe it’s that shaking off one of the most deeply established social norms frees you to think critically about other assumptions and “default” group memberships? Consider a common alternate term for people who question religion: “freethinkers”.
More on the “less-free-thinkers”, however:
The researchers separated God’s attributes into four categories: angry, judgmental, benevolent or distant. Researchers found that the largest category of people –31 percent — was made up of people who believe God both wrathful and highly involved in human affairs.
Seriously, folks? Not that this is news, but it’s telling nonetheless. I don’t know; I’m not a religious person, so I suppose I can’t speak with any sort of personal authority, but the idea of basing your faith, your basic worldview, on an onmipotent, angry, vengeful God seems so thoroughly depressing that I don’t really get how people who subscribe to that view make it through their daily lives.
At least the progressive evangelicals profiled in the second article seem more positive and less fire-and-brimstone than the 31 percent referenced above. I wonder if that helps going against the current…