In the Los Angeles Times, Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum discuss the value of the New-Atheist attack on the compatibility between science and faith.

At the American Prospect, Michelle Goldberg explores the potential consequences of the pro-Israel lobby in the United States heading toward obsolescence.

At the Beliefnet Buddhist blog, Vince Horn worries that secularizing Buddhism will strip the tradition from its roots.

American Prospect correspondent Gershom Gorenberg offers a trenchant, personal look at the difficulties facing religious Jews who take a critical stance toward Israeli policies, and at the dangers that fundamentalist Zionism poses not only to Israel, but to Judaism itself.

Drawing on two recently released surveys, Nick Spencer compares the increasingly prevalent perception of organized religion as a "negative influence on the world" with data showing religion to be a potent force for good on the local level.

Marjorie Backman at Transitions Online discusses Virtual Shtetl, a new collaborative project dedicated to the preservation and study of the history of Polish Jewry.

Guardian correspondent Riazat Butt ponders whether the much-heralded---and debated---appointment of a Muslim, Aaqil Ahmed, will revitalize the BBC's religion programming.

At Religion Dispatches, religious studies professor Ivan Petrella argues that the United States would be best served by re-imagining itself as "a nation of multi-religious individuals," rather than "a multi-religious nation."

"On Faith" saloniers Sally Quinn and Jon Meacham ask whether health-care reform is a moral imperative---one, moreover, with deep religious resonance.