The Chronicle of Higher Education reports: Students majoring in the social sciences and humanities tend to become less religious, while those majoring in education and business become more religious, according to a paper published this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The paper, "Empirics on the Origins of Preferences: The Case of College Major and Religiosity," examines how students' religious behavior affects their choice of major, and vice versa.

At the Chronicle of Higher Education, K. L. Noll draws a sharp distinction between the "religion researcher" and the "theologian." Rejecting "the trendy postmodern notion" that humans cannot achieve "an understanding of how things are in the real world," Noll insists that scholars of religion actively "advance knowledge" about the world while theologians do not.

At Slate, Robert Wright dissects the myth of the selfless shaman.

At Religion Dispatches, Robert P. Jones and Daniel Cox explain the results of the Clergy Voice Survey.

At Religion Dispatches, Susan Henking writes about the benefits and drawbacks of interfaith organizations that address HIV/AIDS.

Tinaz Nooshian interviews Parvez Shama, an openly gay Muslim who directed the movie A Jihad for Love, which explores homosexuality in Islam. Among other topics, Shama discusses homosexuality in the Qur'an.

Less than three weeks after the Episcopal Church's repeal of its ban on the consecration of homosexual bishops, Reuters reports that an openly gay and an openly lesbian priest have been nominated to the diocese by Los Angeles church leaders.

In Saturday's New York Times, Peter Steinfels discusses a new report, issued by the Roundtable on Religion & Social Welfare Policy, on the successes, failures, and future of the "Faith-Based Initiative."

This year's Faith Angle Conference, convened in May by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, featured a lively discussion of the commensurability of naturalistic and theological interpretations of the physical world, featuring Francis Collins.

President Obama has repeatedly attempted to reach out to America's godless, but non-believers say they are growing tired of his "lip service."  David Gibson reports.