May 2017

The history of violence is distinct from the history of crime. This is partly because acts of violence are generally not categorized as crimes when committed by the state, and because many people categorized as criminals have not…

When Shoshana Johnson decided to join the military, his intention was not to make history. Originally from Panama, where her Catholic foundation was laid, she and her family moved to the United States as a child.…

Map anti-rights actors and their connections. Infographic: OURs Initiative.The trend is undeniable and deeply alarming: in international human rights spaces, religious fundamentalists are now operating with increased…

Editor's note: Meet Matthew, a new member of the Clergy Project who tells us how he finally left a ministry he was supposed to lead. I hope we hear a lot more from Matthew. ================== By Matthew Hullinger I was born and raised to…

It is no coincidence that The servant'stale, the original Hulu series based on Margaret Atwood's book of the same name, is out now, more than 30 years after the book was published. Capitalizing on the parallels between his fictional…

Scientists have found that damage to a certain part of the brain is linked to an increase in religious fundamentalism. In particular, lesions of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex reduced cognitive flexibility - the…

Hunting for God in our gray matter seems to be a popular topic for neurologists, with previous studies comparing religious effects with drug-induced ones, linking spiritual experiences with neurotransmitters like serotonin, and…

The late astronomer and science communication champion Carl Sagan once proposed a very simple experiment to test the claims of religious people and new age types who claim to have "floated" outside their bodies in a death experience.…