God, Sex, and Family

Posted a while ago about the Moral Compass produced by some of our recently graduated students as part of the News 21 Initiative on the Future of Journalism (News21 is a collaborative effort between four J-Schools). This year’s theme is “Faces of Faith in America,” and the Berkeley piece of that is called “God, Sex, and Family.” Most of the content from all four schools is in now, and the project has shaped up as an extremely well-rounded snapshot of the myriad ways religion plays out in American life.

So much at the site I’m not sure what to point to (and I haven’t begun to read it all). The tent city multi-religion conference inside Second Life was incredibly ambitious (catch a full video snapshot of the event here), and the Data Road Trip provides some fascinating perspectives into everything from Bronx abortions to Arkansas divorce rates. I appreciated this brief interview with atheist Sam Harris, who (to my surprise) says he prefers not to be called an atheist: “atheism is not a good term because it requires defining oneself in opposition to an arbitrary group.” I really appreciated that he made the point that atheism does not imply not having a spiritual life.

Anyway, there’s tons there – dig in. And leave comments if you got ’em – the fellows would love to hear your feedback.

Music: Black Heat :: Wanaoh

5 Replies to “God, Sex, and Family”

  1. so do i. atheism is not good. because to know existing God makes man happy and relaxed. when a bad guy makes you something you know God will punish him.sorry for poor english

  2. Good stuff. Del.icio.us.ed for lunch break…

    What part did you have in these projects, Scot?

  3. Gilbert – I’m not deeply involved with the News21 project anymore – that’s in the hands of mandric. But he and I built the original version of the CMS the site runs on two summers ago (since modified by him without me). The content produced by the project is so good, I wouldn’t mind being more involved, but you can’t do it all….

  4. What exactly are you agreeing with? That “knowing God makes you happy and relaxed?” That’s a pretty absurd statement. On what basis can you say that religion causes relaxation where atheism does not?

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