Religion

cbayer

(146,218 posts) Sun Mar 30, 2014, 10:34 AM Mar 2014

The Christian Penumbra - Ross Douthat

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/opinion/sunday/douthat-the-christian-penumbra.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0

MARCH 29, 2014

Ross Douthat

HERE is a seeming paradox of American life. One the one hand, there is a broad social-science correlation between religious faith and various social goods — health and happiness, upward mobility, social trust, charitable work and civic participation.

Yet at the same time, some of the most religious areas of the country — the Bible Belt, the deepest South — struggle mightily with poverty, poor health, political corruption and social disarray.

Part of this paradox can be resolved by looking at nonreligious variables like race. But part of it reflects an important fact about religion in America: The social goods associated with faith flow almost exclusively from religious participation, not from affiliation or nominal belief. And where practice ceases or diminishes, in what you might call America’s “Christian penumbra,” the remaining residue of religion can be socially damaging instead.

Consider, as a case study, the data on divorce. Earlier this year, a pair of demographers released a study showing that regions with heavy populations of conservative Protestants had higher-than-average divorce rates, even when controlling for poverty and race.

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The Christian Penumbra - Ross Douthat (Original Post) cbayer Mar 2014 OP

There are a lot of these soc. sci. and psych studies vs religion. longship Mar 2014 #1

Too many variables for good studies, imo. cbayer Mar 2014 #2

Not partial eclipse, it's the partial shadow in an eclipse. longship Mar 2014 #3

Ah! I went for the simple answer and didn't really understand what it really meant. cbayer Mar 2014 #4

Traditional Christianity casts a long, dark shadow Brettongarcia Mar 2014 #5

longship

(40,416 posts)

1. There are a lot of these soc. sci. and psych studies vs religion.

Reply to cbayer (Original post)

Sun Mar 30, 2014, 12:13 PM

Mar 2014

Especially recently.

I find them interesting, but I imagine that there is a lot of slack in their conclusions. Much of the data is necessarily self-report info, which is always subject to question if there are cultural reasons to respond one way or another. So the literature on these issues usually have caveats.

That does not make them necessarily invalid, but the error bars might be wide.

And I love the penumbra metaphor. It's perfect.

cbayer

(146,218 posts)

2. Too many variables for good studies, imo.

Reply to longship (Reply #1)

Sun Mar 30, 2014, 01:19 PM

Mar 2014

It's really hard to control for anything and surveys are notoriously unreliable, but sometimes data does look repeatable.

Penumbra - partial eclipse. It is perfect.

longship

(40,416 posts)

3. Not partial eclipse, it's the partial shadow in an eclipse.

Reply to cbayer (Reply #2)

Sun Mar 30, 2014, 04:31 PM

Mar 2014

The penumbra surrounds and is concentric to the full shadow, which is called the umbra.

It is a perfect, if obscure, metaphor.

cbayer

(146,218 posts)

4. Ah! I went for the simple answer and didn't really understand what it really meant.

Reply to longship (Reply #3)

Sun Mar 30, 2014, 04:38 PM

Mar 2014

I've seen it many times, both literally and figuratively, but never knew it had a name.

Lovely metaphor.

Brettongarcia

(2,262 posts)

5. Traditional Christianity casts a long, dark shadow

Reply to cbayer (Original post)

Mon Mar 31, 2014, 08:54 AM

Mar 2014

Last edited Thu Apr 3, 2014, 08:56 AM - Edit history (1)

Over all of us, black and white and brown.

Liberalism believes that if African Americans are religious, and poorer, that is because they were never properly respected, and educated.

Some might blame traditional religion in part. Which patronizes people, and does not bother to teach them to think critically; telling them to just blindly believe and "have faith" in things. Rather than learning to think things through, to find the rational reasons for things.

People trained by religion not to think of course, will suffer confusion and poverty.

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