religiosity
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The Stans
X.T.M shares a chart from @DailyTurkic of Pew data on adults who pray five times a day in the “Stan” countries. He notes that Persianate Tajikistan and Afghanistan are more…
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Why Pakistan Won’t Go the Way of Iran
X.T.M argues that Pakistan will not follow Iran’s path of secularisation because Pakistani Islam is inherited bottom-up and fuelled by Partition’s trauma, whereas Iran’s was imposed in 1979 and so…
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A Brown Pundit Visits China
After five days in Shanghai and Beijing, the author reports on China’s imposing infrastructure and unobtrusive but ever-present state, the absence of religiosity and billboards, and high female workforce participation,…
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Religious books in Hotel rooms
Nachiketa recalls finding Bibles and Qurans in the rooms of Kenyan wildlife lodges, learns it is common in the United States, and wonders why scriptures are placed in hotels, contrasting…
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Getting beyond the nerd understanding of religion
Razib Khan, an atheist who says he does not intuitively get religion, argues technically minded ‘nerds’ misread it because belief in gods, spirits and ghosts is the universal raw material…
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To understand Islam one must understand religion
Writing for new readers, especially ‘internet Hindus’ and philosophical atheists, the author argues that understanding Islam first requires understanding religion as a natural phenomenon, drawing on cognitive anthropology, and criticises…
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On the rectification of names and religion
Drawing on Scott Atran’s naturalistic approach to religion, Razib Khan argues that interpretive anthropology, and postcolonial thought with it, holds too much power to settle factual questions, and weighs the…
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Understanding the power of religion
Quoting an interview in which the interviewee says Western diplomacy has underestimated the sincerity and galvanising power of religion, the poster adds a hope that tolerance may one day flourish…
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Atheists are really bad, horrible people
Reading a US poll that finds marrying an atheist seen as worse than marrying across race, the post suggests asking the same question in South Asia, perhaps with ‘communist’ for…
