November/December 2008

by Stephen Prothero

Stalking the Dao of one of America's best-loved poets. "Each spring I teach a course called 'Death and Immortality' ... I give the last words over to Mary Oliver."
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Reading the Wounds

by Jina Moore

The doctors who treat torture victims find that stories of survival run deeper than scars. "Mr A., I need you to take off your shirt ... "
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The Science of Persuasion
Political speech can frame elections, but how does it work in the brain?
by Jonathan Hemmerdinger
Give Me Liberty & Give Me Death
When a humorist receives a dire prognosis, there's nothing left to do but make God laugh.
by P.J. O'Rourke
Why the Buddha Lied
Getting beyond the literal, the metaphorical, and the rift between religion and science.
by Francisca Cho
Evolving Rhythm
New books about the musical brain and the spirit of Springsteen.
by Barbara J. King
Eclipsing the Odyssey
Scientists pinpoint the day Homer's Ulysses returned home.
by Sam Kean
Appetite for Destruction
Why locust plagues are even worse than you thought.
by Sam Kean
The Joy of No Sex
Hearty bugs rewrite biologists' views on procreation.
by Sam Kean
God in the Garden
A megachurch goes green.
by Holly Lebowitz Rossi
On God
Hospital or Holy Ground?
by Julie Salamon
Einstein and the Middle Path
What can physics learn from Buddhism?
by Vic Mansfield
Walking a Fine Line to the White House
On science and religion, the candidates try to keep everyone happy.
statements by Barack Obama and John McCain
Time Flies
A review of Nature's Clocks: How Scientists Measure the Age of Almost Everything
by Sam Kean
Heavenly Bodies and the People of the Earth
Naming moons can be tricky business, especially when the gods get involved
by Nick Street
Letters
Readers weigh in on proof, freedom, and divine loaded dice.
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Inconstant Flux
What happens when the fixed laws of the universe change? (Plus, read about the quirky history of "inconstants".)
by Sam Kean
Changing Our Minds
Can meditation clear the fog of war? Doctors and veterans find out.
by Nick Street
"On God": Unheavenly Bodie s
The more coherent the cosmos becomes, the less imperiously whimsical.
by Natalie Angier
Plasticize Me
Will advances in human tissue preservation change how we think about bodies, death, god ... and China?
by Peter Manseau
Down in the Valley
The "uncanny valley" may dictate how humans evolve in the future.
by Sam Kean
Praying for Ice
Global warming and terrorism threaten a 900-year-old Hindu pilgramage.
Photos by Javeed Shah, Text by Peter Manseau
Towering Silence
The vultures that Zoroastrians use to dispose of their dead are disappearing.
by Meera Subramanian
Pleistocene Dreams
A radical conservation idea intrigues -- and frightens -- an un-wild world.
by J.C. Hallman
On God
The Language of Dreams
by Chris Hedges
Is I.D. Ready for its Close-up?
A new documentary brings "intellegent design" to a theater near you.
by Peter Manseau
What Happens to Religion when it is Biologized?
Scientific approaches to describing spiritual life are changing the face of faith.
by Nathan Schneider
There is no Perfect Meal
A review of Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma
by Scott Korb