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It turns out that atheist parents don't attempt to raise their children in an "atheist tradition" the way religious parents do with religious traditions. Rice University sociologist Elaine Ecklund surveyed over 2,000 scientists and found that half expressed "no religious identity." She pulled 275 of these atheists, and found that at least 17% had brought their children to a religious service in the past year. More »
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In the exorcism thriller The Rite, Anthony Hopkins plays an unconventional priest locked in mortal combat with Satan. But Hopkins, an agnostic, was uncomfortable with his character - he told us how he slipped a doubter's message into the film. More »
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People who are interested in seeing science fiction handle religion in a non-kludgey way should check out B.J. Keeton's essay on the subject. Inspired by Eric James Stone's "alien Mormons" story in the September Analog, Keeton derives some no-nonsense rules. More »
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Did The Imaginarium Of Dr. Parnassus not satisfy your Terry Gilliam cravings? Good thing Franklyn is out on DVD, featuring some absurd dystopian world-building that feels like a series of outtakes from Brazil or Time Bandits. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5446648&view=rss&microfeed=true The debate over religion's place in science fiction still rages on the Internet, and two new blog posts take very different stances on the matter. Over at Tor.com, Teresa Jusino posts that good science fiction acknowledges the place of religion in our lives, and even accepts that people of faith could have valid opinions about unexplained phenomena: More »
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Atheist activist Richard Dawkins has retired from his post at Oxford, but is hard at work on a children's book about the "abusive" nature of both religion and fantasy stories like the Harry Potter series. He told the Telegraph this fall that he's never read Harry Potter, but wants to investigate whether it has a "pernicious" effect on children to read stories that are "anti-scientific." More »
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Much has been written in advance of the April 18th release of Expelled. Some might say too much. Even Fox News panned the film, which claims that an Athiest/Darwinist conspiracy has hijacked academia and is kicking out anyone that finds scientific evidence supporting Intelligent Design. The commentary's been highly predictable, though — a little too predictable. Is there another conspiracy at work here, one that no one saw coming? More »
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