Nov 23, 2015 08:09 AM
Buddhism Is Waning In Japan
EXCERPT: We turn now to Japan, a country that has over 77,000 Buddhist temples. For years, they have been a fixture in cultural life there. Yet many are expected to close - 40 percent of them in the next 25 years. To find out why, we've called up Ian Reader. He's a professor of religious studies at Lancaster University in the U.K.
[...] READER: It's the religion of death. [...] There is that kind of relationship traditionally between Buddhism and death that - it dates backed from the 17th century, really.
MARTIN: Because we should point out, Japanese people - as a whole, it is not a Buddhist country. I mean, there are Shinto shrines everywhere. And Japanese people identify with Shinto religion for much of their life.
READER: [...] You know, it's traditional to go to the Shinto shrine for a prayer or a blessing for the New Year. When you die, you go to the Buddhist temple...."
No, We Should Not Register Muslim-Americans in a Database
EXCERPT: [...] The news of the day is Donald Trump’s statement that we should create a national registry of Muslim-Americans. In fact, he argues we should “go beyond” a database, whatever that means. He is wrong. The idea of registering Americans based on their religion is abhorrent. It is un-American and dangerous to our democracy. Do we really need to have this conversation in the year 2015?
Religious profiling is already an especially insidious form of discrimination. It not only singles out adherents of one faith for unequal treatment, it also subjects them to tremendous scrutiny under the constant threat of loss of liberty. As the Baptist Joint Committee has said previously, the religious profiling of Muslim-Americans is based on a “false and unconstitutional premise . . . rooted in ignorance and bias.” Millions of Muslim-Americans live peacefully in this country as full and equal citizens under the law, as free as you or me. We should be reaching out to our Muslim neighbors in this time of heightened fear....
Is there an evolutionary advantage to religion?
EXCERPT: [...] for what purpose, exactly, did religion originate? Is religious belief just an accidental outcome of human civilization? Or does it affect people’s behavior in a way that is evolutionarily advantageous? We spoke with Dominic Johnson, author of "God is Watching You: How the Fear of God Makes Us Human", who suggests science and religion, two spheres thought to be in perpetual conflict, actually evolved together for mutual human benefit....
Dominic Johnson [...] received a D.Phil. from Oxford University in evolutionary biology, and a Ph.D. from Geneva University in political science. Drawing on both disciplines, he is interested in how new research on evolution and human nature is challenging traditional understandings of international relations, conflict, cooperation and religion. He is the author of numerous scientific journal articles, as well as "Overconfidence and War: The Havoc and Glory of Positive Illusions" (Harvard University Press, 2004) and, with Dominic Tierney, "Failing to Win: Perceptions of Victory and Defeat in International Politics" (Harvard University Press, 2006).
EXCERPT: We turn now to Japan, a country that has over 77,000 Buddhist temples. For years, they have been a fixture in cultural life there. Yet many are expected to close - 40 percent of them in the next 25 years. To find out why, we've called up Ian Reader. He's a professor of religious studies at Lancaster University in the U.K.
[...] READER: It's the religion of death. [...] There is that kind of relationship traditionally between Buddhism and death that - it dates backed from the 17th century, really.
MARTIN: Because we should point out, Japanese people - as a whole, it is not a Buddhist country. I mean, there are Shinto shrines everywhere. And Japanese people identify with Shinto religion for much of their life.
READER: [...] You know, it's traditional to go to the Shinto shrine for a prayer or a blessing for the New Year. When you die, you go to the Buddhist temple...."
No, We Should Not Register Muslim-Americans in a Database
EXCERPT: [...] The news of the day is Donald Trump’s statement that we should create a national registry of Muslim-Americans. In fact, he argues we should “go beyond” a database, whatever that means. He is wrong. The idea of registering Americans based on their religion is abhorrent. It is un-American and dangerous to our democracy. Do we really need to have this conversation in the year 2015?
Religious profiling is already an especially insidious form of discrimination. It not only singles out adherents of one faith for unequal treatment, it also subjects them to tremendous scrutiny under the constant threat of loss of liberty. As the Baptist Joint Committee has said previously, the religious profiling of Muslim-Americans is based on a “false and unconstitutional premise . . . rooted in ignorance and bias.” Millions of Muslim-Americans live peacefully in this country as full and equal citizens under the law, as free as you or me. We should be reaching out to our Muslim neighbors in this time of heightened fear....
Is there an evolutionary advantage to religion?
EXCERPT: [...] for what purpose, exactly, did religion originate? Is religious belief just an accidental outcome of human civilization? Or does it affect people’s behavior in a way that is evolutionarily advantageous? We spoke with Dominic Johnson, author of "God is Watching You: How the Fear of God Makes Us Human", who suggests science and religion, two spheres thought to be in perpetual conflict, actually evolved together for mutual human benefit....
Dominic Johnson [...] received a D.Phil. from Oxford University in evolutionary biology, and a Ph.D. from Geneva University in political science. Drawing on both disciplines, he is interested in how new research on evolution and human nature is challenging traditional understandings of international relations, conflict, cooperation and religion. He is the author of numerous scientific journal articles, as well as "Overconfidence and War: The Havoc and Glory of Positive Illusions" (Harvard University Press, 2004) and, with Dominic Tierney, "Failing to Win: Perceptions of Victory and Defeat in International Politics" (Harvard University Press, 2006).