Posts tagged The Conversation
Making AI Dead Facsimiles Raises Ethical Quandaries

The use of artificial intelligence to “reanimate” the dead for a variety of purposes is quickly gaining traction. Over the past few years, we’ve been studying the moral implications of AI at the Center for Applied Ethics at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and we find these AI reanimations to be morally problematic.

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Christian Nationalists Push Vision For America — With Pete Hegseth’s Backing

(ANALYSIS) Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s affiliation with the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches drew attention again with a Pentagon prayer led by Hegseth and his pastor, Brooks Potteiger, in which they praised President Donald Trump, who they said was divinely appointed.

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Video Games Teach Students In This Class How Religion Works

(ANALYSIS) Most of my research is in Chinese religions, and I find it fascinating that popular video games — like many popular films before them — draw from the mythologies, cosmologies, unseen powers and heroic narratives found across the world’s religious traditions. Recent examples such as “Black Myth: Wukong” and “Raji: an Ancient Epic” draw explicitly from mythologies and religious narratives of China and India, respectively.

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‘Loyal To The Oil’: How Religion And Striking It Rich Shaped Canada’s Hockey Fandom

(ANALYSIS) Déjà vu is a common occurrence in sports and the Edmonton Oilers are no strangers to repeat matchups. The team faced off against the New York Islanders in both 1983 and ’84 for hockey’s biggest prize. In this year’s Stanley Cup finals, the Oilers will try to avenge their 2024 loss to the Florida Panthers.

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‘The Pope Is Peruvian’: How 2 Decades In South America Shaped The Vision Of Pope Leo XIV

(ANALYSIS) During his time in the South American nation, Pope Leo XIV lived alongside his parishioners through a bloody civil war, a decade-long dictatorship and an unstable post-dictatorship period that has so far led to three former presidents being handed prison sentences.

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How Baseball-Loving Pope Leo XIV Could Use Sports To Spread His Message

The link between the papacy and the sporting world looks set to continue under Pope Leo XIV. With a new pope installed as Francis’ successor, that sporting theme could continue in the Vatican, though the center of gravity may migrate from soccer to baseball. As befitting a U.S. pope, Leo is known to be a fan of the national pastime, in particular the Chicago White Sox.

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Even With Pope Leo XIV In Place, US Catholics Stand ‘At A Crossroads’

The Conversation U.S. asked Maureen Day, a researcher at the University of Southern California who has written several books about the contemporary church, to explain what Catholicism looks like in the U.S. at this high-stakes moment.

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What Will Happen At The Funeral Of Pope Francis

(EXPLAINER) The funeral rites take place in three parts, called stations. The first takes place in the pope’s private chapel, after medical professionals have certified his death. Until recently, this stage had taken place at the pope’s bedside. After the body lies in rest in the chapel, the cardinal serving as the pope’s camerlengo — the pope’s chief of staff — will make the arrangements for the funeral.

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Christian Zionism Hasn’t Always Been A Conservative Evangelical Creed

President Trump’s nominee for ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, is one of the GOP’s most prominentChristian Zionists” — a phrase often associated with conservative evangelicals’ support for Israel. But Christian Zionism is much older than the 1980s alliance between the Republican Party and the religious right.

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What ‘The White Lotus’ Gets Wrong About Common Buddhist Practices

(ANALYSIS) While the Thai Buddhism depicted in “The White Lotus” is not completely realistic, there are several authentic ways to engage deeply with Buddhism, ranging from offering donations to short meditation retreats to ordination as a monastic. The series depicts an American woman who is interested in joining a yearlong meditation program at a temple, even though they do not offer such programs.

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From Censorship To Curiosity: Pope Francis’ Appreciation For History

(ANALYSIS) As a medievalist, I appreciate Francis’ contrasting approach: A religious leader who embraces history and scholarship, and encourages others to do the same — even as book bans and threats to academic freedom mount.

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How Japanese Anime Draws On Buddhist, Shinto And Samurai Traditions

(ANALYSIS) Many have spent years studying and teaching Japanese anime, exploring how its narratives intertwine with cultural, philosophical and religious traditions. One of the most compelling aspects of Japanese anime is its ability to merge thrilling action with deep spiritual and ethical questions. It’s this mix of Buddhist and Shinto traditions that have helped make anime the very popular storytelling form it is today.

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A Religious Origin Story: Superhero Comics Tell The Story Of Jewish America

(ANALYSIS) The American comics industry was largely started by the children of Jewish immigrants. Like most publishing in the early 20th century, it was centered in New York, home to the country’s largest Jewish population. Though they were still a very small minority, immigration had swelled the United States’ Jewish population more than a thousandfold: from roughly 3,000 in 1820 to roughly 3,500,000 in 1920.

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Remembering China’s Buddhist Empress Who Paved The Way For Future Female Rulers

(ANALYSIS) Even though the Empress Dowager Ling’s rule was problematic and short — resulting in her assassination — she laid the foundation for other, more successful female rulers across medieval East Asia. Empress Dowager Ling was not a warrior, but she embraced martial symbols of her own power that were available to women in Taghbach culture, not in Chinese culture.

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Peasants Revolted 500 Years Ago, But Martin Luther Shattered Their Hopes for Freedom

(ANALYSIS) Five hundred years ago, in the winter of 1524-1525, bands of peasants roamed the German countryside seeking recruits. It was the start of the German Peasants’ War, the largest uprising in Europe before the French Revolution. The peasants’ goal was to overturn serfdom and create a fairer society grounded on the Christian Bible.

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How Do The Beliefs Of Shia Nizari Isma’ili Muslims Relate To The Aga Khan’s Work?

(ANALYSIS) Prince Karim Aga Khan, who died on Feb. 4, served as the religious leader of Ismaili Muslims around the world since being appointed as the 49th hereditary imam in 1957. He came to be known around the world for his enormous work on global development issues and other philanthropic work.

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Bob Dylan’s Faith Doesn’t Fit In A Box, But He’s Long Had A Connection To Israel

(ANALYSIS) James Mangold’s film “A Complete Unknown,” nominated for eight Oscars, captures the elusive, enigmatic quality of Bob Dylan in the early 1960s: The years he emerged as a major musical and cultural phenomenon. A scant few years after he came to New York from Minnesota, and legally changed his name from Robert Allen Zimmerman, Dylan transformed American music. Especially “unknown” and baffling is Dylan’s religious and spiritual identity.

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Religious Freedom Is Routinely Curbed In Central Asia: Why Does The Mainstream Media Ignore It?

(ANALYSIS) Freedom of worship is tenuous around the globe. The Pew Research Center’s latest annual report found “high” or “very high” levels of government constraints on religion in 59 of the 198 countries and territories it analyzed – a new record. When Pew began releasing reports on the issue in 2007, just 40 countries’ restrictions on religion were classified that way.

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This Valentine’s Day, Connect With Others By Trying Loving-Kindness Meditation

(ANALYSIS) Love is one of the richest and most diverse human emotions. There are many ways to experience love — so this holiday, as a scholar of mindfulness and communication, I encourage you to try out a practice of “metta,” or loving-kindness.

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Can A Charter School Really Be Considered Religious?

(ANALYSIS) The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether Oklahoma can open St. Isidore: an online Roman Catholic charter school named after the patron saint of the internet. If affirmed, the school would be the nation’s first faith-based charter — a sea change in education law, expanding the boundaries of government aid to faith-based schools.

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