No moral or lesson or controversial look into why people believe or some such hot topic. Teresa Nielsen Hayden just has a nice writeup on her site about being excommunicated from the Mormon church. It’s an interesting read, a nice kind of “case study” on leaving a restrictive religious group. Perhaps it can help any Mormons who happen across this site.
TIME magazine has a great writeup on how Americans perceive God: Authoritarian, Benevolent, Critical, and Distant. The Authoritarians were the most likely to believe abortion is always wrong, but least likely to believe that the government should do more to protect the environment. Interesting stuff.
Here’s a scary story from Newsweek about advertising and the brain.
For example, our brains tend to register frequently heard facts as true, even if they are patently false. As a result, our memories and beliefs are highly malleable and unreliable.
And since proselytizing is really just advertising, it’s no wonder it can be so effective.
For some more fun, check out the Sinfest comics. This and this have been my two favorites lately.
Wired magazine published a great article on the almost-evangelical athiests, Battle of the New Atheism, asking whether they are a good thing for the atheist/agnostic/freethinker cause. The militant atheists can be quite off-putting, and it’s nice to see this topic get some light outside of the typical religious and philosophical resources.
Also, Reason Magazine has some nice commentary and discussion of the article.
