I’ve been hesitant to say anything about the recent protests and nationwide conversation about American racism and policing that erupted from the horrific murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. This is partly because my expertise, to the extent that I have any, is in religion and science. I don’t see how it helps the cause of racial justice for a religion-and-science “expert” to rush to express an opinion about such a massively complicated, painfully raw topic. At the same time,... Read more
It might not seem like it at this exact moment, but despite the coronavirus lockdowns and, well, riots, the United States and other Western countries are pretty decent places to live, as far as world standards go. Incomes are high, the air and water are generally clean, and governments have historically been comparatively effective and transparent. That’s not to say that these countries don’t suffer from gnarly problems – the U.S.’s painful ongoing struggles with racism are Exhibit A. It’s... Read more
The evolutionary developmental psychologist Michael Tomasello argues that, while other animals experience sympathy, the specific moral feeling of obligation emerged only in humans, and is based on "partner control" – or the internalized negotiations between members of a collective. Read more
Are we living through the end of the end of history – that is, the end of the era of liberal democracy as an inevitable endpoint for human development? If so, what will that mean for the future of science and religion? Read more
Why do some countries offer more fertile soil for democracy than others? A study in the American Political Science Review shows that Protestant missionaries laid the groundwork for democracy worldwide by spearheading literacy and challenging elites – even if democracy wasn't exactly what they were aiming for. Read more
As the coronavirus pandemic sweeps the world, shutting down entire countries and threatening the worst economic crisis since 2008, developed nations are asking their citizens for the kind of sacrifices that normally are restricted to wartime. A shelter-in-place order now covers millions residents in California and Illinois. Colleges and universities around the country are shuttered. Are these unprecedented efforts to “flatten the curve” really worth it? One renowned researcher – John Ioannidis, a specialist in scientific methodology at Stanford University... Read more
Globalization: it may be a 2000s buzzword, but it’s brought the world many benefits. Our consumer goods are cheaper than ever before. Surging industrialization has lifted billions worldwide out of grinding poverty. For a while, you could even get Starbucks in the very heart of Beijing’s Forbidden City (if that’s what you were into). But the last few years have also taught us that globalization isn’t an unalloyed good. One unique danger it poses is hypercoherence, or maladaptive syncing between... Read more
Psychologist Cecilia Heyes thinks that evolutionary psychology's main claim – that the mind is made of evolved cognitive modules – is false. Instead, we learn core capacities like language and imitation from social experience, making them more like "cognitive gadgets" than innate abilities. Read more
Life in 21st-century America – or any wealthy Western nation, really – is a nonstop celebration of individualism and nonconformity. To sell Sketchers, you dream up ads showing hip young people striking defiant poses, as if wearing a product manufactured by a S&P 400 stock index corporation were a courageous act of daring rebellion. College students and entrepreneurs learn to be “disruptors,”* defying established wisdom in favor of striking out boldly in new directions (and hopefully acquiring juicy seed funding).... Read more
With the possible exception of scrolling through Twitter, it’s hard to imagine an activity less conducive to mind-body health than shoving metal spikes through your cheeks before walking up a steep mountain path in shoes made of nails. Yet during the kavadi attam ritual – part of the annual Thaipusam festival of Tamil Hinduism – innumerable people eagerly do exactly this (and worse) as they process up a hillside to the local temple of the god Murugan. Some worshipers drag... Read more
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