The Science of Aesthetics: Rethinking Religion with the Five Percent Nation

The way a person perceives a sensory stimulus may result from that person’s cultural arrangements, suggesting that perception is trained or nurtured... If someone has been taught and surrounded by the belief that a certain sensory stimulus is powerful, then that person will continue to believe it.

Where’s the Beef? The (A)politics of Cow Vigilantism

From how I see it, the Dalit community is making a statement by wanting to renounce the Hindu religion in large numbers. It is a way of saying, if being Hindu means marginalizing people based on ancestral jobs and societal bounds one cannot break out of, then we don’t want to be Hindu.

Dan Brown’s “Origin” and the Art(ifcial) of Religion

In this series, "Sensations of Religion," students from Dr. Richard Newton introductory religion class explore the difference people make with "stuff" in discourses pertaining to religion.  The first piece in our series questions author Dan Brown's claim that artificial intelligence may supersede religion's facility for connecting individuals. Elizabethtown College student E. Rider Brandau suggests that … Continue reading Dan Brown’s “Origin” and the Art(ifcial) of Religion

Reading “The African American Bible” on Paper and in Class

The Journal of Biblical Literature recently published a series on ways that biblical scholars have engaged with #BlackLivesMatter in their work.