How much difference does religion make?

From Thorne Coyle

Hearing Anwar Ibrahim and Pal Aluwalia – prominent Muslim and Sikh thinkers – state unequivocally and clearly that any inferior or unequal position of women was strictly cultural and not part of their religions, gives me hope for our world. (I have heard this stated by feminist Muslim thinkers, but hearing it from these two respected men was heartening confirmation).

It's not giving me huge amounts of hope-- the Koran's been a center of the religion for some 1300 years, and so far as the treatment of women is concerned, the prestige of the religion has been put behind misogyny rather than being used to moderate or eliminate misogyny.

There was a recent study which concluded that people tend to assume that God agrees with them, even if their opinions change. More discussion here.

On the one hand, the study was done on average American Christians, so it's not clear how far it generalizes to other religions. What's more, it hasn't been done on people with active prayer/meditation lives, nor on those who actively study their religion or who say that their religion has significantly affected their choices.*

Anyway, the question of how much difference religion makes wasn't intended as a snark. It's a real question. What do you think?

*Afaik, studies of religiousness ask about such things as attendance at religious services. I've never heard of a survey which asked people whether their religion had a significant impact on their choices about sex and/or money and/or how they treat people.

How much difference does religion make?

From Thorne Coyle

Hearing Anwar Ibrahim and Pal Aluwalia – prominent Muslim and Sikh thinkers – state unequivocally and clearly that any inferior or unequal position of women was strictly cultural and not part of their religions, gives me hope for our world. (I have heard this stated by feminist Muslim thinkers, but hearing it from these two respected men was heartening confirmation).

It's not giving me huge amounts of hope-- the Koran's been a center of the religion for some 1300 years, and so far as the treatment of women is concerned, the prestige of the religion has been put behind misogyny rather than being used to moderate or eliminate misogyny.

There was a recent study which concluded that people tend to assume that God agrees with them, even if their opinions change. More discussion here.

On the one hand, the study was done on average American Christians, so it's not clear how far it generalizes to other religions. What's more, it hasn't been done on people with active prayer/meditation lives, nor on those who actively study their religion or who say that their religion has significantly affected their choices.*

Anyway, the question of how much difference religion makes wasn't intended as a snark. It's a real question. What do you think?

*Afaik, studies of religiousness ask about such things as attendance at religious services. I've never heard of a survey which asked people whether their religion had a significant impact on their choices about sex and/or money and/or how they treat people.

Fodder for horror movies

A video of deep sea scavengers, speeded up 500 times (because they move very slowly at that temperature) to get vaguely unnatural looking movement.

I'm a little surprised that there doesn't seem to be anything which shoves starfish off the spots they've softened up so as to take advantage of someone else's stomach acid.

Link thanks to Marginal Revolution.

Fodder for horror movies

A video of deep sea scavengers, speeded up 500 times (because they move very slowly at that temperature) to get vaguely unnatural looking movement.

I'm a little surprised that there doesn't seem to be anything which shoves starfish off the spots they've softened up so as to take advantage of someone else's stomach acid.

Link thanks to Marginal Revolution.

If you're tired of Mandelbrot sets

Pretty graphs of the roots of polynomials.

I wish I knew enough math to get the logic of the patterns.

Link thanks to en_ki.

If you're tired of Mandelbrot sets

Pretty graphs of the roots of polynomials.

I wish I knew enough math to get the logic of the patterns.

Link thanks to en_ki.