Authority Legitimacy

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Authority Legitimacy

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A group of cult members dressed in white participating in an outdoor gathering or ceremony under a partly cloudy sky.
Thinking
Are religions simply cults that have gone mainstream?
Or are cults the religions we find distasteful?
Jonny Thomson
a black and white drawing of a group of people.
The Past
The strange case of the woman who gave birth to rabbits
Mary Toft staged an elaborate hoax, but the pain was real.
Sabrina Imbler
The Past
Islam has become less rational since its medieval Golden Age. What went wrong?
Once a cosmopolitan faith, Islam valued intellectualism and modernity. It was derailed by various geopolitical and religious forces.
James Hannam
a woman is putting a voting paper in a folder.
The Present
Why don’t dictators use realistic fake numbers when rigging election results?
In a time when we dislike and distrust our politicians, why can't we get more popular leaders like Kim Jong Un and Bashar al-Assad?
Jonny Thomson
a painting of a group of people in a room.
The Past
The real reason Socrates was given the death sentence
Humiliating powerful people was not a key to success.
Daniel Lehewych
The Present
What is a fatwa? Explaining the attack on Salman Rushdie
The Arabic word fatwa can mean “explanation” or “clarification.”
Myriam Renaud
High Culture
How Bernini sculpted the Roman Catholic Church during the Counter-Reformation
Bernini created art for 8 different popes. In the process, he helped reinforce and redefine Christianity’s visual culture.
Tim Brinkhof
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