This is actually a study from the middle of last year that I never got round to covering (there was a run of studies from the same team, and this one ended up at the bottom of the pile!). But I’m glad I did. The study leads were Ara Norenzayan and Will Gervais at the Read more
The first week of April 2005 was dominated by images of Pope John Paul II’s dead body vested in red, mitred and laid out among his people with bells and books and candles, blessed with water and incense, borne from one station to the next in what began to take shape as a final journey. Read more
Many people know what it’s like to feel sad or down from time to time. We can experience negative emotions due to many things – a bad day at work, a relationship break-up, a sad film, or just getting out of bed on the “wrong side”. Sometimes we even say that we’re feeling a bit Read more
Some mainstream New Zealand churches are struggling to keep their heads above the communion wine but other religions are thriving, building new churches, mosques and temples and gathering devoted worshippers in their thousands. Banks of lights pulsate in waves of colour, and cameras project images on to three monstrous screens. And there is plenty of Read more
At 30, Claire Diaz-Ortiz already has a pretty impressive resume. She works as the Manager of Social Innovation at Twitter, founded a charity to help orphaned children in sub-Saharan Africa and literally wrote the book on how to use social networking for philanthropy. But last week she added something rather special to her curriculum vitae: Read more
The light shines in the darkness –and the darkness has never put it out. John 1:5 The family of Kula, the parrot, has flown around the Fiji coastland and bush for as long as anyone can remember. The ancestors of Mongoose travelled from India with people who came to work on the sugar plantations. Read more
We are halfway through the season of Advent, when Christians look forward to the return of Jesus Christ and also start celebrating Christmas, his first time on Earth. Unfortunately, according to the 2011 Census results just released, there are more than four million fewer Christians celebrating now than ten or so years ago. It seems somewhat Read more
American gay rights activist and radio host Michaelangelo Signorile recently wrote triumphantly of what lies around the corner for a country that just re-elected its “First Gay President” — as a Newsweek cover last year dubbed Obama. Claiming an early victory for his movement in the Huffington Post Signorile proclaimed that “[n]o longer will politicians — or Read more
Let’s just say that suddenly you are a social scientist and you want to study peace. That is, you want to understand what makes for a peaceful society. Let’s say that, for years in your work in various parts of the world, you’ve been surrounded by evidence of violence and war. From individual people, you’ve Read more
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI launched his own Twitter feed this week (Dec. 3) to worldwide media coverage — it’s hard to resist the story of an octogenarian pontiff mixing it up with the digerati — and to considerable acclaim from church insiders. The praise was understandable. After the spate of missteps that have Read more