Research On Religion

Posts Tagged ‘nones’

Rodney Stark on How Religion Benefits Everyone, Including Atheists

Frequent guest and popular academic author Rodney Stark joins us to discuss his new book “America’s Blessings: How Religion Benefits Everyone, Including Atheists.” We discuss whether or not spiritual life in the United States is actually on the decline, and then review how the activities of religious Americans have positive spillover effects for society as a whole in a wide range of areas including health, voluntarism, pro-social behavior, the economy, and intellectual life. We even talk about “s-e-x.” This is a wonderful “starter” podcast for new listeners as it covers a number of different themes we have addressed over the past three years.

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Rod Stark on the Triumph of Christianity, Part III

Tags: Catholic Church, Council of Trent, Counter-Reformation, free cities, Martin Luther, New Atheists, nones, Notre Dame, Pope Pius IX, printing press, Reformation, Roman Catholicism, secularization, secularization theory, seminaries, Spanish Inquisition, state church, Steve Pfaff, witchcraft trials

Prof. Rodney Stark returns to discuss the final part of his monumental book, “The Triumph of Christianity.” We pick up the story of Christianity with the Protestant Reformation and take it up to the contemporary period. Along the way, we talk about the Catholic Counter-Reformation, the Spanish Inquisition, Christianity’s transfer to the Western Hemisphere and what is becoming of this faith tradition today.

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Jeremy Lott on Episcopalians, Ex-Atheists, Health Care, and German Circumcision

Research on Religion checks in with journalist/blogger extraordinaire Jeremy Lott to discuss a couple big stories in the world of religion. We examine what happened at the recent Episcopal Church General Convention and speculate as to why Episcopalians and other mainline churches are losing members. Then we turn our attention to other recent news events including the conversion of former atheists, and religious liberty issues concerning the US health care mandate and circumcision in Germany.

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Chris Bader on Ghosts, UFOs and the Paranormal

Tags: alien abduction, angels, astrology, Bigfoot, demon possession, ESP, ghosts, New Age, nones, paranormal, The ARDA, UFOs

Ghosts. UFOs. Bigfoot. Astrology. Who subscribes to these beliefs and why? Chris Bader of Baylor University discusses his research on the paranormal, revealing some surprising results gleaned from survey research and in-depth fieldwork. Find out what it is like to go on a Bigfoot hunt!

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