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Author Archives: Rayan Zehn
A New Religion That’ll Bring You to Your Knees: My Father’s God Has Orange Hair
Being a political scientist is not what many think. We are not politicians drafting legislation. We are not activists trying to make the world a better place, according to our own preferences. And we certainly aren’t trying to get people … Continue reading
Posted in Atheism, Uncategorized
Tagged God, political science, politics, populism, Religion, Trump, Trumpism
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Time’s Arrow Rounded a Bend: Trump, Putin, and the Reduction of Certainty
Reducing uncertainty is the only thing politics strives to achieve. While legislation might be written to address precise economic, political, or social grievances, the process is an exercise in uncertainty reduction, making sense of highly complex phenomena. The more certain … Continue reading
Posted in Political Science, Uncategorized
Tagged Atheism, political science, politics, Trump
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Security and Religiosity: The Jacksonian Values that Wed American Society to Faith
There is a set of academic literature that suggests there is a negative relationship between existential security and religiosity. As security increases, we become less religious as a society. This is demonstrated across societies. More secure societies in Europe are distinctly less religious … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
Tagged America, Christianity, God, Philosophy, political science, politics, Religion
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The Alt-Right and Atheism: Overlap and Divide
A small but growing conservative movement is popping up in the US, fueled in part by well-known atheist Youtubers and bloggers. The movement is referred to as the Alt-Right—or alternative right—movement by some. And some atheist are quick to endorse Alt-Right … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Uncategorized
Tagged Alt-Right, Atheism, Feminism, free speech, Immigration, politics, racism, Religion
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St. Peter and St. Petersburg Paradox: Faith as a Gamble
This post uses the general idea of the St. Petersburg Paradox to explain faith. The paradox can be summed up like this: How much should a person be willing to wager in a lottery with a potential payout of infinity … Continue reading
Posted in Atheism, Uncategorized
Tagged Atheism, Christianity, God, Paradox, Philosophy, Religion
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The Rise of Secularism and the Fall of Christianity: Google Books N-Gram Analysis
Google Books’ Ngram allows users to search for the frequency of terms appearing in books in Google’s database of printed material. The results show how often those terms have appeared in print over the years. Today I was messing around … Continue reading
Posted in Political Science, Uncategorized
Tagged Atheism, Christianity, God, political science, Religion, Secularism
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Official Non-Secular Songs in the Military
As a veteran of the US Navy, I’ve always respected the secular nature of the branches of the American armed forces. Maintaining a secular position about religious matters is not only compelled by law, it’s also necessary for logistics purposes. … Continue reading
Boulding’s “Skeleton of Science”: And What Complexity and God Mean to Knowledge
This post is a quick introduction to a field in engineering management and modeling and simulation called systemic science. The author of this field, a Quaker, captures beautifully how god plays into the way we think about complex problems. In … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Atheism, Christianity, Complexity, God, Religion, Science
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The Question of Atheist Charity: Less Diffusion of Responsibility?
Checking out the Friendly Atheist’s blog, I’ve come across an absolutely fascinating story. To summarize, an atheist organization wanted to give a charitable donation of $100 to a non-profit with religious ties that helps children. The non-profit refused the money … Continue reading
No Christianity, Many Hospitals: A response to Catholic News Service article
Today I read an article titled “No Christianity, No Hospitals: Don’t Take Christian Contributions for Granted,” on the Catholic News Service’s website. In the article author John Stonestreet praises the Catholic contribution of hospitals to society. Without the invention of Christianity, … Continue reading
