Tag Archives: political science

Secular Health in US Probably on the Rise, Despite Evangelical Revival

Posted on January 7, 2018 by Rayan Zehn

When we examine the US’s sociopolitical climate it is very tempting to believe reactionary evangelicalism is a growing trend. Once thought critically endangered, evangelical politics appears to be gaining support. More importantly, it appears to be a driving force. When … Continue reading →

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Donald Trump and the Terrorism Loop

Posted on June 5, 2017 by Rayan Zehn

In my most recent post I discussed several explanations of religious terrorism in international relations scholarship. The list is by no means exhaustive, but it is thorough. Bottom line: Terrorism is more common in the Muslim world for a host of … Continue reading →

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Causes of Radical Jihadist Terrorism

Posted on April 17, 2017 by Rayan Zehn

In international relations the concept of terrorism usually always boils down to Islamic radical terror. Few other categories of terrorists operate internationally; therefore, most of the literature centers on violent Islamic Jihad. So what are the causes? How can we … Continue reading →

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Expanded Probability of Falling Victim to Jihadist Terror in the US

Posted on February 10, 2017 by Rayan Zehn

My last post laid out data collection and methodology to determine the probability that an American will be injured or killed by an Islamic terrorist. The answer was, based on the most previous seven years of data, you would have … Continue reading →

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Probability of Falling Victim to Jihadist Terror in the US: A Correction and Update

Posted on February 1, 2017 by Rayan Zehn

The other day I made a blog post pointing out the extraordinary unlikelihood of a person becoming victim to a Jihadist terrorist attack in the United States. I regret to write that I got the math wrong somewhat. The intuition was … Continue reading →

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Shocking Consciences: Things Aren’t as Bad as They Appear

Posted on January 23, 2017 by Rayan Zehn

For the last couple days—well, since Friday, anyway—my social circle, which is comprised mostly of college students, military members, and academics, has been shocked by the direction this country is going. When I say shocked, I mean their consciences have … Continue reading →

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A New Religion That’ll Bring You to Your Knees: My Father’s God Has Orange Hair

Posted on December 24, 2016 by Rayan Zehn

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 →

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Time’s Arrow Rounded a Bend: Trump, Putin, and the Reduction of Certainty

Posted on November 12, 2016 by Rayan Zehn

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 →

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Security and Religiosity: The Jacksonian Values that Wed American Society to Faith

Posted on October 19, 2016 by Rayan Zehn

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 →

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The Rise of Secularism and the Fall of Christianity: Google Books N-Gram Analysis

Posted on September 13, 2016 by Rayan Zehn

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 →

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