Nathan Schneider
Nathan Schneider is an editor of Killing the Buddha and writes about religion, reason, and violence for a variety of publications. He is also a founding editor of Waging Nonviolence. His first two books, published by University of California Press in 2013, are God in Proof: The Story of a Search from the Ancients to the Internet and Thank You, Anarchy: Notes from the Occupy Apocalypse. Visit his website at The Row Boat.
Recent Posts by Nathan
A Conflict of Interest?
I’ve had a subscription to The Atlantic for about a year now and find it increasingly unreadable. They’ve entrusted advice on dealing with Iran to Jeffrey Goldberg (an attack is inevitable!) and Henry Kissinger (an arms race and “limited” wars!). To write a puff-piece on Google’s news apparatus, they dispatched James Fallows, who in the middle…
Hugo Chavez Prays on Twitter
The December issue of Harper’s includes some pretty intriguing translated tweets by Hugo Chavez, the socialist president of Venezuela. Chavez has always had a touchy relationship with religion; he’s gone from wanting to be a priest when he was a boy to getting a “fatwa” on his head from Pat Robertson. On the occasion of…
Give Thanks for Guy Fawkes
Philosopher of science Michael Ruse writes at the Chronicle: I grew up in England, so of course I knew nothing of Thanksgiving. Our fall celebration was November Fifth, Guy Fawkes Night, when we used to light bonfires and let off fireworks—no safety restrictions in those days—and celebrate the foiling of the Catholic plot to blow…
Two Big New God Debates
You may not be as big a fan of debates about the existence of God as I am (I’m writing a whole book about them), but maybe you care enough to appreciate that there was big news in that department this past week. First: Dawkins-Craig. William Lane Craig, if you don’t know him, is the…
Rude Awakening for Progressive Catholics
Here’s what was supposed to happen, according to Fr. Thomas Reese: At the end of their meeting in Baltimore on November 18, the USCCB presidency will transfer from Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago, one of the largest archdioceses in the U.S., to Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, one of the smaller dioceses. […]…
The God of This World
Isn’t it obvious that God, or at least our idea of God, needs saving as much as we do? He—forgive me if necessary for saying “He”—has been run through the mud by terrorists, televangelists, New Atheists, and grandmothers’ guilt. The rest of us are supposed to have a relationship with this guy? Or even just…
Blessed John Henry’s Religious Opinions
Saints are not literary men.
Liveblogging “God in America,” Day 2
Okay, day 2, hours 3 and 4, of PBS’s new special, “God in America.” See yesterday’s liveblogging here. Please join the conversation live in the comments! (Also, check out Patheos’ discussions with the directors each day.) Hour 3: “A Nation Reborn” :00. It just began. Our friend and expert-extraordinaire Stephen Prothero promised a green shirt…
Liveblogging “God in America” on PBS
I’m doing this because… why not? Never done it before, and thought it might be fun. Here’s the official website. Join in if you like in the comments! Also: Day 2. Hour 1: “A New Adam” :02. Our own beloved Stephen Prothero is in the first minute telling us that God thinks we’re special. Did…
Truth-ing Mythology
There’s this passage toward the end of the all-important book XII of Aristotle’s Metaphysics that I keep coming back to, one of those bits that reaches out of its antiquity and walks among us. Book XII is where Aristotle’s account of the world beyond physics reaches up from the chains of causes acting on causes…
Will Boycotting Mass Spur Reform?
What would happen if, one Sunday morning, the Catholic hordes stayed home from mass in protest? Would the priests listen to the people’s demands? Or would they carry on without us? Over the weekend I had an essay at Religion Dispatches about an elderly Irish woman who proposed just such a protest in order to…
Studying Religion Is Revolutionary in China
Like pretty much everything else over there right now, religion is a growth industry in China. After decades of official repression a whole bunch of new religious movements—and, even more, new forms of old religions—are gathering steam. Trying to get a handle on this from back here in New York, I did an interview with…
Stephen Hawking Decrees God Away
This afternoon on the New York subway I came across this little gem, this “train of thought” meant to inspire who-knows-what among riders in the course of their usual hum-drum existences. It’s a passage by the great wheelchair-bound British physicist Stephen Hawking from his bestselling 1988 book A Brief History of Time. Just below, for…
There Is No Abstention from Politics
Yesterday the folks over at The Guardian‘s Belief section asked me to weigh in on their question of the week, and for better or worse I sacrificed most of the day’s opportunity for book-writing on the altar of Welcome Distraction. The question is: “Can religion be apolitical?” What they have in mind, being British and…
Divine Simplity and OkCupid Complexity
If I’ve gotten my zero dollars’ worth from my OkCupid membership, it’s for the data more than the dates. (My scientist uncle suggests that five dates would be an adequate sample. I’ve been on two and am having trouble bringing myself to try a third.) The site seems aware of this bit of consolation; their…
Literary Men Are Not the Stuff of Sainthood
No less than Terry Eagleton (in the latest installment of his turn to religion) has a marvelous essay on John Henry Newman, the great English-Catholic convert, over at the London Review of Books. First, a bit on belief: Militant atheists today regard religious faith as a question of subscribing to certain propositions about the world….
Does Science Need Religion?
When one is out to study religion, or to cover the religion beat, it can be awfully tempting to see religion everywhere you look as the all-satisfying explanation for everything. It’s the whole if-you-have-a-hammer-everything-looks-like-a-nail effect, right? Today at Religion Dispatches I’ve got a review of the new book by Steve Fuller, a rather audacious and…
Feasting Foolishly
Anonymous, serious, busy modern society got you down? Well, the Middle Ages has just the remedy on hand. In the Notebook section of this month’s Harper’s, Alain de Botton has one of his quaint, pleasurable, and perhaps otherwise close to useless essays, this time on the subject of how we could learn a thing or…