The ISHV Cyber Think Tank is a digest of articles, interviews, and other musings compiled by Robert B. Tapp.

• Peter Morales on different roles of science and religion. “The scientific truths of life are amazing, beautiful, and awesome. But only we can decide how to react to them, how to apply those wondrous insights to our own lives.” read
• Onora O’Neill’s new book on Kant’s ethics, reviewed by Michael Rosen.read
• Massimo Pigliucci describes himself as a skeptic and then discusses the development of skepticism in the history of philosophy. read
• Boston philosopher Matthew Stewart sees the founding religion of the US as deism, and describes its roots in Epicurus, Lucretius, and Spinoza. These are the roots of humanism as well. Wendy Smith’s review: read
• Sarah Jones’ movement away from fundamentalism is described by Mark Oppenheimer. read
• Danielle Allen’s book on the Declaration of Independence should be read and discussed by humanists. read
• Alex Beam’s new book on Mormon beginnings reviewed by Benjamin Mosier. “After all, it may be easy to make fun of Mormon theology, but it is surely no more absurd to believe that the resurrected Christ visited America in A.D. 34 than it is to believe that Moses parted the Red Sea, or that Muhammad ascended to heaven on a winged horse, or that Jesus was born of a virgin. To see Mormonism in this broader context is to be constantly confronted with questions of belief, of how much nonsense humans will suffer for the sake of making sense of their lives.” read
• Good marketing? Bishop Gene Robinson sees “fear” at the center of a megachurch’s message. read
• New study shows most people are uncomfortable being alone with their own thoughts (a preface to any kind of meditation?) read
• Terry Eagleton’s “Culture and the Death of God” reviewed by Michael Fitzpatrick. ” Eagleton traces the enduring drive to use culture to fill the gap between the elite and the masses resulting from the demise of common religious convictions back to Edmund Burke and the conservative response to the French Revolution.” read