Even the most fervent believers acknowledge doubt as a virtue (in others)–if it takes you in the right direction.¬† From my own experience as a missionary, I was pretty happy when I encountered a potential convert to Mormonism who had profound doubts concerning their childhood belief system.
Every major religious founder had the impact they did […]

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Mind on Fire now has it’s very own podcast! I christened it An Atheist’s Prayer (the title is loosely taken from a talk I gave at Sunstone a couple of years ago called “A Skeptic’s Prayer” (Adobe PDF link)).
I decided to create the podcast when I had a difficult time finding ones that fit […]

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I just gave mind on fire a new set of insides–it’s now running on WordPress two point something. This is progress, because before it was running on hamsters feasting on my old tea leaves.
Seriously, though, I would never subject hamsters to running a blog or eating soggy bitter greens. And I don’t think […]

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This is an edited version of a response to an email query about feminism:
As a historian and as comparative social scientist, I had problems with three thoughts:
the nuclear family is “traditional.”
The nuclear family is in many ways a fairly modern construction. The extended family was the primary family unit in many pre-industrial/urban-era societies and […]

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I playfully tossed together this list of Top Ten Spiritual Left Exemplars :

Jesus.
Buddha.
Gandhi.
St. Francis.
Mohammed.
St. Paul.
Martin Luther.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dorothy Day.
The Dalai Lama.

I put Jesus on top, because within his historical context, he was a religious revolutionary. He advocated pacifism, feminism and radical egalitarianism (all relative to the norms of his day). He criticized […]

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In Restless Souls: The Making of American Spirituality I encountered the term “Spiritual Left.” It is presented by the author as the counterbalance to claims of moral superiority by the “Religious Right.” I have mixed feelings about language that encourages polemic polarization (instead of dialogue), but I think that it has some uses. […]

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If you didn’t think I was crazy before, this will leave you with little doubt:
*drum roll*
Introducing…my summer reading list!
Since my favorite variety of voyeurism is sneaking peeks at people’s bookshelves, I guess this is the online booklist equivalent of throwing my trenchcoat open to you. Please don’t pursue the metaphor any further.
American Religious History:
Most […]

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I’m a city boy. I like people, and I’m happier when there are a lot more of them around me. Tokyo’s one of my favorite cities, partly because there are so. many. people. I like Manhattan, too, because it can be pouring rain at 3 am and you still have to fight […]

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My passion for blogging kind of bottomed out a couple of months ago–I can trace it back to my “There but for the Grace of God… post and the emotional exhaustion I experienced dealing with the ironic violence that resulted. Sunstone West and end of semester projects depleted the rest of my energy.
The past […]

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