Live from the Roasterie: MOAR AEI-Quality Research!
Memo for W. Bradford Wilcox: if you are going to try to argue that religion is good, don't use "high priests" as an insult. More generally, how could any religion that preaches that while we are saved people who live differently than we do are damned not be a significant net negative--both for this world and for any future one? How would that work exactly?
: The latest social science is wrong. Religion is good for families and kids: "It’s a message we hear more and more: Religion is bad...
...The assessment of social scientists--the high priests of our contemporary culture--the message, increasingly, is clear.... Psychologist Jean Decety... ‘how religion negatively influences children’s altruism... the secularization of moral discourse does not reduce human kindness. In fact, it does just the opposite’... a sweeping indictment of the role of religion in society based on a study of sticker-sharing and cartoon-watching among children aged 5-12 around the globe... a non-random and non-representative sample....
Religion is frequently seen by secular observers as an obstacle to social progress on issues like abortion and gay rights, or as an adjunct of conservative politics in general. Meanwhile, a growing number of young adults in America identify as religious ‘nones,’ often with little appreciation or understanding of religion. But is religion really as negative a force in our daily lives as its detractors and skeptics suggest? No.
Meanwhile, in my inbox:
a woman I was casually talking to about... climate change.... Her response to the subject was immediate and definitive: “Well, I’m a Christian.” As if that statement settled everything. I am a Christian: ergo, I cannot believe that climate change is happening without betraying my commitment to Jesus. God said it, I believe it, and that settles it--and convincing such people otherwise basically now involves re-writing their preacher’s reading of the Bible...
And:
Brand new ABC/Wash Post poll on banning Muslims. Note: only three demographics groups support such a ban--Republicans (59%), people who call themselves "very conservative" (59%) and white evangelical Christians (54%). It's pretty clear there is significant overlap between those three cohorts...
