Blogs

Gallup polling shows for the first time in 40 years of asking this question that the number of Americans who say the Bible is a book of stories recorded by humans has surpassed the number who believe it is the "word of God to be taken literally".

What the headline doesn't reveal is that a clear plurality still believe the Bible is inspired by God but is not all meant to be taken literally—as has been the case every time Gallup has polled this subject.

What I Learned from Arguing with a Pig Farmer

It seems one of the members of the congregation, who happened to be a pig farmer, was enraged by my message and the pastor thought he was in need of a follow-up–so I gave him a call.

What happened next was perhaps the most formative experience I’ve had to date about how to have a difficult or emotionally-charged conversation with someone you disagree with.

Last month, former Vermont Governor and former presidential candidate Howard Dean tweeted an astonishing assertion.

Hate speech is not protected by the first amendment. https://t.co/DOct3xcLoY

— Howard Dean (@GovHowardDean) April 21, 2017

Fundamentalists say Jesus will come to take them away, to spare them from tribulation. The New Testament says something different.

Today, even US water is overly medicated—these scientists want to change that

It was my third week in Spain, and I still felt hopelessly out of place. I had studied Spanish for three years in school, but when I stepped off the plane in Madrid I was in a completely different world. No amount of classroom work could have prepared me for this.

I struggled even in asking directions. The first person I asked spoke with an accent that left me baffled. I could pick out a few words, but not enough to help me get where I needed to go. When it was clear to him that I wasn't following, he tried his second language—French.

The American Health Care Act's Prosperity Gospel

Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was myself. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.

- Zhuangzi 

One thing that is certain, however, is this: the quote is always attributed to Zhaungzi and not to the butterfly.

Across the water from the prison island, next to yet another sewage plant and trash-deposit station in Hunts Point in the South Bronx, there's a multistory prison barge that has been used in recent years for children in detention. Several thousand juveniles thirteen years old or older have been held there at one point or other in a given year – about one hundred at a time – while they awaited transfer to more permanent facilities. It's a tremendous structure, with six floating floors of prison cells, one of them under water. From the sky, however, it looks decorative.

The New Rules of Hydration

“Thirst is a very poor indicator of dehydration, especially if you’re up at altitude or training somewhere dry,” says Eric Sternlicht, an associate professor of kinesiology at Chapman State University. A 2016 study published in the International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism found that, when allowed to drink freely, 32 percent of collegiate athletes started exercise in a dehydrated state and more than 40 percent finished dehydrated.