Sister Anne Flanagan, Daughter of St. Paul and author of Nun Blog

Are you an Apple devotee? By now you've probably seen reports about the study that shows Apple products lighting up the part of the brain that's usually involved in religious devotion. I had read about similar studies done a few years ago. Martin Lindstrom wrote about them in “Buy-ology,” a whole book on the way our brains process and respond to advertising, logos, brands, subliminal advertising (you thought they didn't do that?), and so on.

James Kirk Wall, Author of Agnosticism: The Battle Against Shameless Ignorance

Apparently the Cult of Mac has extreme devotion to the latest brand name technology. We’re talking tattoos, tee-shirts, bumper stickers, shrines, social networks and similar neurological stimulus in their devotion to Apple in comparison to those of religious people’s attachment to God.

The Rev. Robert Barron, priest and theology professor, University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein and author of the blog Word on Fire

What could possibly tie together the following scenes: a flock of birds cavorting in breathtakingly harmonious patterns, the meeting of flowing lava and crashing waves, a larger dinosaur dominating a smaller one, a young boy throwing a baseball through a window just because he is forbidden to do so, a depressed middle-aged man sitting in a coldly modernistic office building, and a meteor crashing into the primordial earth?

If I am at all correct in my reading of Terrence Malick’s meditative film, “The Tree of Life,” in which those and many other seemingly disparate scenes occur, what ties them together is that they are all ingredient in the plan and purpose of God. I realize how pretentious that can sound, but this is a filmmaker (and a film) with very grand ambitions indeed.

Rabbi Adam Chalom, Dean - North America of the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism

Religion can be used to support either political party. And smart secular people would do well to remember that rather than burn bridges with liberal religion with intemperate “modest proposals” like the one presented by David Barash in last month's Chronicle of Higher Education.

James Kirk Wall, Author of Agnosticism: The Battle Against Shameless Ignorance

Despite my belief that agnostics should rule the world as we are smarter than everyone else, at least according to us, I would never ban religious people from running for office. This country is a republic with a constitution that is by the people. The people must decide who gets elected.

Samantha Kirby, manager of public affairs, Interfaith Youth Core

When writer David Barash proposed last month that religiously devout candidates ought to be disqualified from running for higher office in America, he conceded it was "a bit of tongue-in-check, but simultaneously serious."

Joking or not, Barash crossed a line when he wrote, "America's problem isn't too much prejudice against overtly religious presidential candidates, but not enough."

If there's one thing we don't need on the internet, it's more religious intolerance.

Rabbi Adam Chalom, Dean - North America of the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism

The “earthbound pets” story got a lot of play lately in online news along with the “end of the world” that never came. Did I laugh at “post-rapture pet care”? Sure. Is it ethical? No.

James Kirk Wall, Author of Agnosticism: The Battle Against Shameless Ignorance

The key to success in predicting the end of the world is consistency. If it keeps getting predicted from generation to generation, eventually someone will get it right.

Kevin Barney, Mormon blogger for By Common Consent

As reported in today's Chicago Tribune, Harold Camping, an 89-year old Christian radio host in California, has popularized the idea that the Rapture will occur on May 21, 2011. Camping's idea has gone viral; a Google search of the date turns up page after page of websites dedicated to this notion. My impression is that previous failures have pretty much cured Mormons from wanting to play this game.

Should the teachings of the Church of Scientology shape the integrity and moral rectitude of children in Illinois’ public schools? A resolution before the state’s House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee this week poses that very question.