Top Stories
Wave III: Baylor Religion Survey[9/20/2011]
Wave III of the Baylor Religion Survey Explores Links Between Religion and Mental Health, Religion's Role in Work and Differing Views of Liberals and Conservatives about Life's Meaning
(FULL STORY)
Huffington Post: The Complicated Connection Between Religion and the Paranormal
[2/10/2011]
Huffington Post, February 10, 2001 (article about Americans' belief in the paranormal quotes from a book by sociologists Christopher Bader and F. Carson Mencken of Baylor University and Joseph Baker of East Tennessee State University, which was based on research from the Baylor Religion Survey)
Don't expect Hollywood to give up the ghosts. The parade of paranormal entertainment filling American screens -- from the movie Paranormal Activity 2 to television shows such as Ghost Hunters, Psychic Investigators and Paranormal State -- is meeting an intense interest in otherworldly experiences, new research shows.
(FULL STORY)
Baylor's Sociology Program Debuts Strongly in Rankings by National Research Council
[11/23/2010]
When the National Research Council (NRC) last ranked doctoral programs in 1995, Baylor University's sociology program had just been approved by the Board of Regents. Much has happened in a relatively short amount of time.
(FULL STORY)
The Huffington Post: American's Images of God: Love May Keep Us Together
[11/11/2010]
The Huffington Post, November 10, 2010 (America's Four Gods: What We Say About God & What That Says About Us, a new book written by Baylor sociologists Paul Froese and Christopher Bader using data from the Baylor Religion Survey, is discussed.) Forget about Glenn Beck and Richard Dawkins.
(FULL STORY)
Yahoo! News India: Superstitious beliefs more common than thought
[10/30/2010]
Yahoo! News India, Oct. 30, 2010 (article about research and new book by Baylor sociologists Chris Bader and Carson Mencken about the diversity and motivation of people who believe in and explore the paranormal) It seems ghosts, goblins and other spooky characters have more believers than ever before-as superstitions are becoming more common than you might think.
(FULL STORY)
Baylor profs study Americans' belief in the paranormal
[10/29/2010]
Halloween is the one day a year where Americans are neither surprised nor scared to find ghosts, goblins and boogeymen on the front porch. But a surprising number of people believe in those and other curiosities — UFOs, Bigfoot, and the like — not just at Halloween, but yearround. Baylor professors Dr. Carson Mencken and [...]
(FULL STORY)
Natioanl Catholic Register: How to Ask the Wrong Question About God
[10/22/2010]
National Catholic Register, October 21, 2010 ("America's Four Gods: What We Say About God -- And What That Says About Us" is an ambitious new book by Baylor University sociology professors Paul Froese and Christopher Bader.) Its premise is simple and its promise is ample, so it has unsurprisingly garnered increasing attention since its Oct. 7 release by Oxford University Press.
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(FULL STORY)
Three books on UFOs
[10/18/2010]
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
1 UFOs exist -- about that we all must agree. As long as humans have gazed heavenward, we have seen inexplicable objects. In the early 1800s, scientists debated the nature of what we now call meteors. In 1947, Kenneth Arnold saw nine objects darting about Mount Rainier, the report that gave birth to modern stories of flying saucers. In Paranormal America: Ghost Encounters, UFO Sightings, Bigfoot Hunts, and Other Curiosities in Religion and Culture (New York Univ.; paperback, $20), we learn that almost one in five Americans claims to have seen something in the sky that they could not identify.
(FULL STORY)
CNN: Why Sunday morning remains America's most segregated hour
[10/8/2010]
CNN, October 7, 2010 (Dr. Kevin Dougherty, a sociology professor at Baylor University, is quoted about his findings that congregations have trouble getting -- and keeping -- racially diverse members) "Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of Christian America." That declaration, which has been attributed to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., used to startle listeners. Now it's virtually become a cliche. For years, various academic studies and news articles have reported what many churchgoers already know: most American congregations are segregated.
(FULL STORY)
USA Today, ABC News highlight Baylor profs' research on 'America's Four Gods'
[10/8/2010]
Yesterday, the main story on the front page of USA Today -- the most widely circulated print newspaper in the U.S. -- was about the work of two Baylor professors and their new book, America's Four Gods. Sociology professors Dr. Christopher Bader and Dr. Paul Froese based their work on results from the biennial Baylor [...]
(FULL STORY)
