When Congressman Robert Garcia was sworn into office in January 2023 on the US Constitution he didn’t have the Bible or any other sacred text with him. Not that it was required to have one. As per Article VI, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution, there is no official requirement to be sworn in on a religious text for the Oath of Office: “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” But, in a sense, he did have a sacred text with him: a copy of Superman (vol. 1) #1 (published by National Comics/Dc Comics, cover date June 1939) borrowed from the Library of Congress.
Read moreReligion 101: How I Would Design a Kick-ass Course
Exchange Building, University of Nottingham. Source: Wikipedia; author: mattbuck.
Introduction to the Critical and Interdisciplinary Study of Religion 101: A work in progress.
Read moreNarrator, mendax, sciens: creating meaning in a world of stories
We are made of stories - and these are some of stories I am made of. An amazing project over one year in the making, by Italian artist Emiliano Troco. Oil on canvas, © 2020 Emiliano Troco
Human cultures are neural environments extended throughout time and space. Cultures reach out to the ancestors. They explain the origins of everything. Thunders, earthquakes, life, death. They connect the most remote past with the future. And in the process, they provide meaning. Cultures make sense of all that happens. In the skies up above, on earth down below. Within us, between us, among us. Our similarities, our differences, our emotions, our thoughts. Everything is culture, and culture is everything.
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