It’s the Genes! It’s the Hair! It’s “Cooperativity”: An Evolutionary Account of Populism By Marcia Pally It’s a virus, a friend of mine said about the far-right wins in the May elections for the European Parliament. A 31 percent vote for Nigel Farage’s anti-EU party! The anti-EU rightist Marine Le Read more
Looking Back: A Report on the Paradoxical Plausibilities Symposium – Astrological Interpretation from Different Perspectives (13–14 April, Berlin) By Sophia Löwe The question of astrological plausibility seems to spur endless discussions. Most professional astrologers and their clients grant astrology a high level of plausibility, while public opinion paradoxically deems astrological Read more
Making a Mess By Alissa Jones Nelson My last blog post suggested that we need to think anew—personally and politically—about population growth and having children in the light of the current ecological crisis. I drew on Donna Haraway’s pithy directive to “make kin, not babies.” That post focused on the Read more
Point/Counterpoint: A Blogger Exchange Point: Ending the Taker Culture By Loriliai Biernacki In a May 15th Counterpoint posting, Kocku von Stuckrad made the case for an alternative to the “Taker culture,” that is destroying our planetary resources. I want to muddy the waters—pun intended—as much of our near-apocalyptic transformation of the Read more
Unholy Alliances and the End of Taker Culture By Kocku von Stuckrad When on 6 May 2019 the United Nations published the new Report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the news sent shockwaves around the globe. The independent report finds that around 1 million Read more
Progress for Whom and What? By Whitney A. Bauman Steven Pinker’s recent book Enlightenment Now argues that despite all recent, post-modern claims to the contrary, we can still be certain that reason and science are making the world a better place than it was before. One also hears echoes of Read more
How Not to Be the Easter Police: On the Resurrection of the Earth By John J. Thatamanil Photo by Marion Grau A certain kind of theologian—I was once one among them—scrupulously draws a sharp dichotomy between the “pagan” elements of Christian Easter festivities and Easter’s true meaning. On one hand, Read more
The Theology of Evangelista By Zairong Xiang And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.—1 Corinthians 13:13 On the widely claimed FX series POSE, Damon Richards, before moving to New York, was beaten by his biological father and kicked out of his suburban Read more
Memorializing in the Aftermath of Disaster By Sarah M. Pike Car keys dangled on the white chain link fence. A note next to them read “These keys made our lives so fabulous…Cars and a house—it’s time to say goodbye.” Nearby, other mementos included a singed cat collar; a photo of Read more
What Not to Say When You Pray By Anna Mercedes On March 25, 2019 Movita Johnson-Harrell took her seat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, the first female Muslim to do so there. But just before Johnson-Harrell was sworn in, another Representative, Stephanie Borowicz, led the opening prayer from the Read more