Scholar Reza Aslan outlines how Jesus’ crucifixion and his Judaism reflect on who he was and how the Gospels were not meant to be read as a biography. The author of Zealot also says many people misinterpret the phrase “Son of God” as a description instead of a title.

Reza Aslan is a religious scholar, a professor of creative writing and a journalist. In another age, he would have been called a renaissance man.

In fact Aslan’s range of knowledge and his self-confidence have been used by some of his detractors to challenge his account of the historical Jesus in Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. However, his critics generally target Aslan’s credentials on the basis of his background (he is an interdisciplinary academic with multiple degrees and a Muslim) rather than taking issue with the contents of Zealot.

Zealot infuses Jerusalem and Palestine at the time of Christ’s life with a vividness and detail that reveals a historical cauldron in which radical Jews challenged both the authority of the Roman Empire and established Jewish leaders who cooperated with Rome. Aslan’s account of the historical Jesus moves back and forth between what was his likely life versus how he is […]

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Racing into a new century in which many of the old rules don’t seem to apply anymore, Americans are overwhelmingly pessimistic about their chances of achieving and sustaining the American dream, according to a new Marist-McClatchy Poll.

Eight out of 10 Americans think it’s harder now than before, taking more effort to get ahead than it did for previous generations. Just 15 percent think it takes the same work as it did before, and a scant 5 percent think it’s easier now.

And Americans don’t think it will get better soon, with 78 percent thinking it also will be harder for the next generation to get ahead.

The findings underscore the landscape at a time when the economy and the country are being fundamentally changed by waves of globalization and new technology, and as Americans struggle to see a better path forward and their politicians grapple over how to help.

President Barack Obama speaks frequently about the growing gap […]

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Religious conservatives are pushing an obscure legal maneuver to rewrite the U.S. Constitution to better reflect their views, a secular watchdog group warned Wednesday.

The Constitution has been revised throughout the nation’s history by gaining support for amendments by two-thirds of the House of Representatives and then the approval of three-fourths of the states.

But it can also be changed if two-thirds of the states apply for a constitutional convention, and a conservative activist is pushing Bible Belt lawmakers to call for this never-attempted mechanism.

Michael Farris, founder and president of the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, is behind the Convention of the States campaign that seeks to limit the federal government through the obscure procedure.

The group’s website lists fairly mundane goals – a balanced budget amendment, clarified definitions of the general welfare and commerce clauses, and limits on federal taxation – but most constitutional experts agree that a constitutional convention would open any topic for discussion and possible change.

COS does not specifically mention religion in its goals, but the movement is closely tied to conservative activists who promote the unhistorical idea that the U.S. was founded as a ‘Christian nation.”

Those supporters include the pseudo-historian David Barton, religious broadcaster Rick Green and right-wing talk […]

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Two surveillance blimps with monitoring capabilities that extend from Raleigh, N.C. to the shores of Lake Erie are set to go airborne in October, The Washington Post reports, sparking concerns among privacy activists over a growing domestic surveillance apparatus.

The blimp-like aircraft will float at 10,000 feet while being anchored to the ground at a U.S. Army site about 45 miles northeast of Washington D.C. The system over Maryland, known as JLENS-short for Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System-will be in place first for a three-year trial period. Its role will be to detect potential cruise missile attacks and enemy vehicles approaching the eastern seaboard, the Army says.

Similar systems, sometimes including sophisticated cameras, have been used at military outposts in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as on the U.S.-Mexico border. The Army says it has ‘no current plans” to outfit JLENS with high-powered cameras or to share data with law enforcement but declined to rule out the possibility, according to the Post.

‘Once a surveillance technology is put up, it’s very tempting for law enforcement or the military to use it for reasons they did not originally disclose,” said Jennifer Lynch of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

According to […]

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On January 29, 2014, the World Wildlife Fund reported that the ‘number of monarch butterflies hibernating in Mexico reached an all-time low in 2013.” Since recording of overwintering areas began, the butterflies reached a peak in 1995, covering 44.5 acres in the pine and fir forests west of Mexico City. Now they cover only 1.65 acres. Their decline can no longer be explained away by seasonal aberration. The monarchs are literally disappearing.
Monarch Butterfly

Is Monsanto’s Roundup killing butterflies?

The steady and now statistically significant disappearance of the monarch butterfly coincides with habitat loss that began with the introduction of hideous agribusiness giant Monsanto’s product Roundup (glyphosate), the expansion of Roundup-ready corn and soybean crops and the wiping out of milkweed, the food source for the caterpillars. World Wildlife fund (WWF) explains:

A number of factors have contributed to a sharp decline in monarch populations in recent years, including loss of reproductive habitat caused by land-use changes and reduction of milkweed (primary food source for monarch larvae ) from herbicide use; extreme climate conditions in Canada, the United States and Mexico; and deforestation and forest degradation in hibernation sites in Mexico.

“The combination of these threats […]

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