Religious Themes in Star Wars

Read this article from the Washington Post about religious themes in Star Wars.  Written by a theology lecturer, the article identifies a number of religious images and concepts found in the popular sci-fi trilogy.  What are some of those religious themes?  To what extent did George Lucas intentionally insert religious themes into the trilogy?  Had you viewed them as religious before reading this article?  Does reading this article alter your appreciation of the films?

The Cost of Being Jewish in America

The latest Research on Religion Podcast is an interview with economist Carmel Chiswick.  She discusses her book that uses economics to understand patterns in Judaism.  The entire podcast  is about an hour and very worthwhile, but everyone should especially listen to the last half.  The part beginning around the 29:40 mark is particularly relevant given our recent class discussion on church attendance.

Surf Chapel

In some circles, religion has the reputation of being old, dusty, and creaky, but in the American religious marketplace, we see lots of innovation.  One way to innovate is to take a long-known message but repackage it in an appealing way.  We see this Surf Chapel at Pepperdine University.  Students meet early in the morning at Zuma Beach to first listen to Bible passages, then break up into small groups for discussion about life events, and then hit the waves in their wet suits.  Read this L.A. Times article.

Why is this packaging appealing?  Who are the intended "customers?"  Why does the university provide funds to pay for beach permits and a lifeguard?  Why does attendance vary based on the weather?

The Future of the Religiously Unaffiliated

The Pew Research Center just released some new projections of the growth of the religiously unaffiliated.  Read their summary here.  The first two paragraphs give the basic picture (italics added):

During the next few decades, the number of religiously unaffiliated people around the world is projected to grow modestly, rising from about 1.1 billion in 2010 to a peak of more than 1.2 billion in 2040 and then dropping back slightly.42 Over the same 40-year period, however, the overall global population is expected to increase at a much faster pace. As a result, the percentage of the world’s population that is unaffiliated is expected to drop, from 16% of the world’s total population in 2010 to 13% in 2050.

This decline is largely due to the advanced age and low fertility of religiously unaffiliated people globally relative to other religious groups. The three largest unaffiliated populations live in China, Japan and the United States; there also are significant numbers of religiously unaffiliated people in many European countries. All of these areas have older populations and lower fertility rates than the global population overall.

Some questions for you to consider:  Why is the Asia-Pacific region the region with the highest proportion of religiously unaffiliated population?  In which few countries are the religiously unaffiliated are heavily concentrated?  How do different fertility rates between the religiously affiliated and the religiously unaffiliated factor into the projections?  Does accounting for religious switching have a large impact on the projections?

Taking Notes by Hand

More reasons for you to take notes by hand
http://www.vox.com/2014/6/4/5776804/note-taking-by-hand-versus-laptop.

Pew Releases Latest Study of Religious Restrictions and Hostilities

According to a new study by the Pew Forum, social hostilities involving religion around the world declined during the past year, breaking a recent trend of increased hostilities.  The 86-page full report is found here.  But you can see a brief overview here.

Spending Habits of Religious Households

See this article from the Economist.  The author reports:

Households "with a strong commitment to faith"— demonstrated by higher spending on religious activities—are less likely to be weighed down by excessive mortgage outgoings or loan payments for cars. Compared with other households, they are more likely to be home owners but their property tax burden tends to be less—suggesting that "some moderation in [the] selection of home in terms of extravagance or location...."

Devout households seem keener on mitigating risk and therefore spend more on life insurance and health insurance; they lay out less on alcohol and tobacco and more on domestic appliances, including cooking utensils...

But religious families do allow themselves some earthly pleasures. Indeed, they are if anything a little more likely than other households to spend spare money on clothing or jewellery, although the amount each household splurges on jewellery is a bit less...

The picture that emerges is one of religious types engaging in sensible, but not self-denying, behaviour.

Political Orientations by Denominational Affiliation

Here's a nice figure from this blog post at RNS:

The post's author identifies some interesting lessons to take away from the figure, so I suggest you read to the post's bottom.  One note:  the title of the blog post is a bit misleading, as the figure is not about the political ideologies of churches but rather the ideologies of their members.