U.S. Religious Landscape Survey
Based on interviews with more than 35,000 American adults, this extensive survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life details the religious makeup, religious beliefs and practices as well as social and political attitudes of the American public. This online section includes dynamic tools that complement the full report. For a video overview and related material, go to the resource page
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Obama and Biden: No Fundamental Change on Iraq Policy
Reidar Visser: US presidential candidates, Democrats and Republicans alike, continue to ignore the shifting political realities in Iraq. Obama and Biden consistently portray the principal dynamic of Iraqi politics as a struggle between Shiites and Sunnis, whereas the main front in Baghdad is between two essentially cross-sectarian coalitions.
US voters should be sensitive to world public opinion, too
As the US presidential election nears, the excitement of US voters is increasing. This excitement can be sensed even from a distant country like Turkey.
Sex appeal
Having condemned hyper-sexualized culture, the US religious Right is now wildly pro-sex, as long as it is marital sex. At the same time, the language of repression has returned via the secular notion of self-esteem — to the detriment of women in particular.
Presidential Elections Will Not Shape US Foreign Policy
David Neil Lebhar: While the race between Obama and McCain is too close to call, US voters and the world must realize that the two candidates’ foreign policy positions are not especially different. Furthermore, due to economic instability, domestic concerns, and a shifting geo-political balance, the next president will have to react to international issues through re-defined multilateralism.
Should Barack Obama have picked Hillary Clinton as VP to counter Sarah Palin effect?
Paul Owen: The suggestion is that by picking Hillary, Obama would either have dulled the impact of John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin, or made it less likely that he would have picked her at all. But I don’t buy it
Populism versus elitism in America
"How is it that this woman could have been selected to be the vice presidential candidate on a major party ticket? How is it that so much of the mainstream media has dropped all pretense of seriousness to hop aboard the bandwagon and go along for the giddy ride?" asks New York Times columnist Bob Herbert about Sarah Palin, McCain’s running mate, the inexperienced governor of Alaska.
The American election: what is not being said by CHARLES LARSON
As mean-spirited Sarah Palin continues her astronomical rise into the political stratosphere and the American presidential campaign moves away from serious issues and back to the culture wars of 30 years ago, am I the only American voter who cringes in horror at what may still transpire: the election of John McCain and his unqualified running mate?
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Phil Zukerman’s book on Societies without God – lots about the lack of religion in Denmark and Sweden. I do miss the outstanding bike paths.
Blurb from publishers:
Before he began his recent travels, it seemed to Phil Zuckerman as if humans all over the globe were “getting religion” – praising deities, performing holy rites, and soberly defending the world from sin. But most residents of Denmark and Sweden, he found, don’t worship any god at all, don’t pray, and don’t give much credence to religious dogma of any kind. Instead of being bastions of sin and corruption, however, as the Christian Right has suggested a godless society would be, these countries are filled with residents who score at the very top of the “happiness index” and enjoy their healthy societies, which boast some of the lowest rates of violent crime in the world (along with some of the lowest levels of corruption), excellent educational systems, strong economies, well-supported arts, free health care, egalitarian social policies, outstanding bike paths, and great beer.Zuckerman formally interviewed nearly 150 Danes and Swedes of all ages and educational backgrounds over the course of fourteen months, beginning in 2005. He was particularly interested in the worldviews of people who live their lives without religious orientation. How do they think about and cope with death? Are they worried about an afterlife? What he found is that nearly all of his interviewees live their lives without much fear of the Grim Reaper or worries about the hereafter. This led him to wonder how and why it is that certain societies are nonreligious in a world that seems to be marked by increasing religiosity. Drawing on prominent sociological theories and his own extensive research, Zuckerman ventures some interesting answers.This fascinating approach directly counters the claims of outspoken, conservative American Christians who argue that a society without God would be hell on earth. It is crucial, Zuckerman believes, for Americans to know that “society without God is not only possible, but it can be quite civil and pleasant.”
http://www.powells.com/biblio/62-9780814797143-2