Religious Views on High School Athletic Uniforms

Religion appears in many places, including government and the courts.  Legislation in the state of Georgia provides an interesting example--see here.  High school athletes are typically not allowed to personalize their uniforms, however, should they be allowed to do so, a new bill under consideration by the state legislature would ensure that students would not be discriminated against for personalizing their uniforms in religious ways.  We see how religion and religious expression is not allowed without any type of constraint.  Religious persons and groups frequently use legal means to assert rights or deny the rights of others.  Much of this occurs without a lot of media attention, but it nonetheless is out there and impacts the way people live their religious lives.

The Pope's Twitter Account Revisited

Back in December 2012, Pope Benedict XVI was the first pope to open a Twitter account.  See my original post on this here.

Pope Francis, not to be outdone, also created a Twitter account.  Take a look at it here;  scroll down and look at his last posts of the last few months.  What do you notice?  Why would Pope Francis take the time out of his busy schedule to maintain an active Twitter account?  Can you use our economic approach to religion to think meaningfully about the pope's Twitter usage?  Does the notion of religious capital provide any insight?

(OK, it is possible that one of the pope's assistants does the actual posting with some input from the pope, but let us just assume that the pope is actually choosing the content).

Is Belief in the Supernatural Natural?

Evolutionary biologist/political scientist Dominic Johnson argues that the answer is yes, as explained in this article in the New Statesman.

Johnson believes that the need to find a more-than-natural meaning in natural events is universal – “a ubiquitous phenomenon of human nature” – and performs a vital role in maintaining order in society. Extending far beyond cultures shaped by monotheism, it “spans cultures across the globe and every historical period, from indigenous tribal societies . . . to modern world religions – and includes atheists, too”.

[S]ome kind of moral order beyond any human agency seems to be demanded by the human mind, and this sense that our actions are overseen and judged from beyond the natural world serves a definite evolutionary role. Belief in supernatural reward and punishment promotes social co-operation in a way nothing else can match. The belief that we live under some kind of supernatural guidance is not a relic of superstition that might some day be left behind but an evolutionary adaptation that goes with being human.

Johnson is not the first but rather just the latest to make this argument.  Read the article to understand how belief in the supernatural may provide evolutionary advantages.  The argument is interesting in its own right, but it is also relevant to our class discussion on secularization later in the quarter.  If belief in the supernatural is, well, natural, then perhaps there will be limits to the secularization that has been predicted for centuries.

Exorcising Computer Virus

That is one of the services offered by Wiccan witch Joey Talley.  Read this article at the Worldwide Religious News site to learn of her techniques.  Here is an excerpt from the article.

"When I go into the room where somebody’s computer is, I go in fresh, I step in like a fresh sheet, and I’m open to feel what’s going on with the computer."

Then I performed a vanishing ceremony. I used a black bowl with a magnet and water to draw [the virus] out. Then I saged the whole computer to chase the negativity back into the bowl, and then I flushed that down the toilet. After this I did a purification ceremony. Then I made a protection spell out of chloride, amethyst, and jet. I left these on the computer at the base where she works.

Did the virus clear out immediately once you were finished?

Yes, it cleared out immediately. They usually do.

Dowsing for Gold

Here is a scene from the reality show Bearing Sea Gold on the Discovery channel in which one of the characters in the show dowses to find gold.  Dowsing is done to find water, gold or other minerals, and more.  In this video the person use two metal rods.

A few things stand out.  First, deckhand Robbi Wade said, "People might think I'm crazy for doing this, but it don't bother me one way or another if they think I'm crazy or not as long as I get some gold."  He also said "I believe in it."  This is a rational chooser who is clearly results oriented.

Second, he also gave an explanation that it works via magnetism but did not provide much more details.  He does not believe it is working through the power of a supernatural being, so it is not religion according to Stark and Finke's definition in Acts of Faith.  Stark and Finke might call it magic, but his reference to magnetism suggests that he thinks dowsing works via natural rather than supernatural means.  It is not clear that the supernatural term applies very well here.

Third, that there is clear Christian imagery (a Christian cross at minute 3:03) on the ship suggests that they have no problem mixing religion with the practice of dowsing.  This may not be surprising given that they seem to view dowsing as working through natural means.  It is just a means of finding gold that they believe works for them.  It is also relatively inexpensive as you just need the two metal rods and some practice.  They do it themselves rather than hiring a professional dowser.  In their minds it is merely a cost-effect way to find the gold.

And in case you were wondering, yes, you can hire dowsers.  Maybe someone from the American Society of Dowsers.

Bible and Brew in Minneapolis

That's the title of one of the regular monthly events hosted at the home of Nicholas and Kristin Tangen, members of the Gustavus Adolphus Lutheran Church in northeast Minneapolis.  See this article or this new link.  The event brings together those that enjoy discussing the Bible while having a beer.  There are many such events around the Minneapolis-St.Paul area, each targeting a specific group.

Questions for you to consider:

• Why are these gatherings organized?
• What are the kinds of economic good that are produced at these gatherings?
• Who are the likely attendees at these gatherings?
• How integral is beer to these gatherings?
• Why might it be appropriate to call these "religious" gatherings?

Zuism and Tax Rebates in Iceland

During the last week there has been wide interest in the rise of Zuism in and its connection to church-state relations in Iceland.  From the Guardian here:

Icelanders opposed to the state funding of religion have flocked to register as Zuists, a movement that worships ancient Sumerian gods and – perhaps more importantly – promises its followers a tax rebate.

More than 3,100 people – almost 1% of Iceland’s population – have joined the Zuist movement in the past two weeks in protest at paying part of their taxes to the state church and other religious bodies. Followers of Zuism will be refunded the tax element earmarked for religion.

Icelanders are required by law to register their religious status with the state, and then some of their tax money is sent to their religious group by the state to be used to fund religious activities.  This is one way to get around the free-rider problem because members are essentially forced by the state to contribute to their religious group.

However, those who do not want to support religion do not have any of their tax money diverted to religious groups so that they are effectively paying a higher tax rate to the state.  As explained in the article, the Zuist group was at risk of being de-registered as an official religion in Iceland, and thus ineligible for money to be sent by the government, due to low numbers.  Then a group opposed to this role of the state in religion took control of the group and promised to refund money given to the group by the government back to the members.  The group has now grown to almost 1% of Iceland's population.  By comparison, in the U.S. the Seventh-day Adventist Church is about 1.4% of the population.

This development is controversial because the money is being refunded by the group to its members rather than providing religious services, clearly against the intent of the law.  However, there are tricky issues about what is a religious group and what it considers its legitimate operations.  If someone says that this group is violating the law, then someone else says, "Who are you to say what my religious group considers religion?"

Why Big Societies Need Big Gods

That is the title of a feature article in Science Magazine.  The key idea is belief in moralizing gods -- i.e., gods that encourage virtue and punish selfishness in the afterlife -- have helped to foster cooperation and the growth of large-scale civilization.

To crack the mystery of why and how people around the world came to believe in moralizing gods, researchers are using a novel tool in religious studies: the scientific method. By combining laboratory experiments, cross-cultural fieldwork, and analysis of the historical record, an interdisciplinary team has put forward a hypothesis that has the small community of researchers who study the evolution of religion abuzz. A culture like ancient Egypt didn’t just stumble on the idea of moralizing gods, says psychologist Ara Norenzayan of the University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, in Canada, who synthesized the new idea in his 2013 book Big Gods: How Religion Transformed Cooperation and Conflict. Instead, belief in those judgmental deities, or “big gods,” was key to the cooperation needed to build and sustain Egyptians’ large, complex society.

In this view, without supernatural enforcement of cooperative, “moral” behavior, ancient Egypt—as well as nearly every other large-scale society in history—wouldn’t have been able to get off the ground. All-knowing big gods are “crazily effective” at enforcing social norms, says Norenzayan’s collaborator Edward Slingerland, a historian at UBC Vancouver. “Not only can they see you everywhere you are, but they can actually look inside your mind.” And once big gods and big societies existed, the moralizing gods helped religions as dissimilar as Islam and Mormonism spread by making groups of the faithful more cooperative, and therefore more successful.