#religion

#religion

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Nonfiction books sometimes get a reputation for being hard to slog through. But the qualities that make good novels so enjoyable-the well-paced plot, the engaging characters-can also be found in many of their fact-based counterparts. The Atlantic 's writers and editors answer the question: What is a nonfiction book that reads like fiction?

He enlisted a whole bunch of Ideology-patriarchy; social conservatism; utterly fake upside-down Christianity-in service of those basic motivations, not only to justify his own appetite for and personal acts of sadism and domination but to cast punishment and predation as far out into the world as he could manage. He studied psychology and the Bible so that he could borrow their authority and instrumentalize them to do widespread cruelty more effectively.

One of the biggest gripes I have about my academic field of social science is that it explains a lot about human behavior but is very short on prescriptions for how to live day to day. Even when it does have something suggestive to offer, the research almost never supplies evidence of whether its widespread adoption would have a positive effect. The same deficiency is even truer for philosophy, a realm in which big thoughts about life usually remain abstract ideas.

This show has been a place where I have been able to work through a lot of my own questions about religion, faith, and spirituality.

The First Amendment's establishment clause forbids the government from establishing an official religion, from giving preference to a specific religion and from favoring or disfavoring religion in general.

Lev Skop paints images of saints and the Virgin Mary on wooden planks salvaged from used ammunition crates, delivering them to soldiers on the frontline.

Pashinyan accused the Church of harboring a 'criminal-oligarchic clergy' involved in terrorism and a coup attempt, claiming that the Church must be liberated from an anti-state group.

Even the White Sox's 'First Baseball Game' booth was shifted to a 'First Mass' booth, blending the rituals of baseball and Catholicism seamlessly.

The course 'Religion and Gameworlds' uniquely explores the intersection of video games and religious narratives, inviting students to analyze how gaming influences our understanding of faith.

It took an almost religious level of faith to believe that 'Dogma' would succeed; indeed, upon release, the film was plagued by delays and protests for its alleged blasphemy.

As with most 'how do I explain so-and-so to my kids' questions, what you think is a gap in the world's understanding is really a gap in your own.

Gabriel Wharton and his followers embody a vision of a vengeful God, which contrasts sharply with June's belief in love as a source of strength and safety.

It's the eyes that stay with you... As Sushma Jansari explains, it's not surprising that the eyes have it. Making direct eye contact, getting a glimpse (or darshan) of the divine, is the whole point.

People with steadfast religious beliefs not only identify strongly with a spiritual being, but also tend to socialize with others who share those beliefs.

Religion, too, may have evolved as a cultural innovation to address the problem of norm enforcement. Early religious systems invoked supernatural agents who monitored behavior.

Robert Prevost, the newly appointed pope, faces backlash from MAGA supporters after previous social media critiques of President Trump and JD Vance.

Although the Basilica de San José de Flores was mostly overlooked prior to 2013, it has gained significance as a site connected to Pope Francis's early life.