Tag Archives: God
Simple Logic for Religion and Politics
Syllogisms are not what many people think they are, and the American political landscape is a testament to this fact. Too often I hear people construct logical arguments with sound sounding propositions but, taken together, are deeply flawed. Take this … Continue reading
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
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
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
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
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
