Geoffrey W. Sutton PhD, Psychology and Culture

Afterlife What do  people  believe? Surveys of religious beliefs are common in the USA.  Christians are the largest group of religious people in the US so, it makes sense to consider the context  of beliefs about life after life. The primary story is from the Gospels, which can be found in the New Testament section of Bibles. Easter events begin with MaundyThursday or Good Friday (Some protestant groups skip Maundy Thursday). Jesus celebrated the Jewish Passover with his followers. He was betrayed and accused of wrongdoing. He was sentenced to die by crucifixion and buried. On Easter Sunday, his followers found his tomb empty, encountered Jesus in different situations, and spread the word of the resurrection. The Gospel of Luke reports the events beginning in  Chapter 22 . A Harris Poll (16 December 2013) has some findings relevant to the Easter story. The survey of 2,250 adults was conducted between 13 and 18 November, 2013. Belie...

UNBELIEVING  CLERGY The clergyproject.org People convert to faith and people lose faith. But what happens when clergy lose their faith? Last year (2014) I posted an article about conversions, deconversions, and transformations . In December, Philosopher Daniel Dennett and Clinical Social Worker, Linda LaScola reported the results of their qualitative study of 35 clergy and seminary students who lost their faith. The title of the book, Caught in the Pulpit , captures the dilemma. Who did they study? All of the participants were Caucasian Americans.  Most were clergy with pulpit ministries (27) but some were in seminary (5 students, 3 professors). There were Jewish Rabbis but the rest were Catholic or Protestant Christian clergy. There were men (30) and women (5) from theologically conservative and liberal denominations. The authors use the word literal to refer to fundamentalist groups. By literal they mean religious groups that view the Biblical text as in...