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Archive
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| Why We Lie About Going to Church, Satanists Fight for Secularism, and More |
| May 22, 2014 |
Summary: A new poll shows Americans stretch the truth about church attendance. Also, the early Jesuits who tried to ban calculus, and we go inside a denominational squabble in Satanism. |
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| Faith by the Numbers: Americans Inflate Church Attendance |
May 23, 2014 |
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It's natural to assume people to go church to pray. But sociology tells us many people go to be seen. After all, if you're not noticed at church, what might happen to your business? What would the neighbors think? It's the same impulse that leads people to lie and say they've gone to church, even if they haven't. In the first installment of our new series, Faith by the Numbers, we dig into the data that show how lying about church attendance is a common practice in America.
Robert P. Jones, CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute
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| Integrating Calculus and the Catholic Church |
May 23, 2014 |
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During the Protestant Reformation, Jesuit priests where so threatened by early calculus, they tried to get it banned. So what was so dangerous about math? For them, the concept of the infinitely small was messy, unorderly and paradoxical - a threat to the rigid and predictable world they saw in the Catholic Church.
Amir Alexander, author of Infinitesimal: How a Dangerous Mathematical Theory Shaped the Modern World |
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| A Monument to Satan in the Bible Belt |
May 23, 2014 |
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If a group called The Satanic Temple gets its way, visitors to the Oklahoma state house will soon be greeted by a 7-foot-tall monument that honors Satan. In December, the group applied for a spot right next to the other religious monument at the capital, a carving of the Ten Commandments added in 2012. It's caused an uproar and sparked a national debate about whether it’s okay to put privately-funded religious monuments on public property.
Lucien Greaves, spokesman for The Satanic Temple
The actual mold of the monument planned for the Oklahoma State Capitol. |
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| The Church of Satan: The Satan Statue is 'Kind of Pointless' |
May 23, 2014 |
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It turns out Satanism has some of the same squabbles that other religions have; in fact, this religious philosophy has what you might call “denominations.” And not all of them think it's a good idea to cast the devil in bronze. The high priest of an older group, the Church of Satan, says that as atheists they're against any religious statue on public grounds - including one that honors Satan himself.
Peter Gilmore, high priest of the Church of Satan
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