tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28755195.post510017730283858204..comments2023-09-25T04:26:51.568-06:00Comments on The Barefoot Bum: Three challenges to secularismLarry Hamelinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08788697573946266404noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28755195.post-76203669979744652082009-06-02T04:50:02.080-06:002009-06-02T04:50:02.080-06:00But they usually focus on the notion that most mod...<I>But they usually focus on the notion that most modern nations in the west provide their citizens with a sufficient safety net that people don't feel a need to cultivate ties with a church for that purpose</I>.<br /><br />That sounds quite plausible, Dan. <br /><br />In complicated situations, it's easy to toss in a confounding factor and "falsify" any attempt to describe one of the factors at work, to dishonestly take a simplification of one factor as a complete theory. In just the same sense, one can observe that a leaf or a feather does not actually accelerate towards the Earth at 10 m/s^2 and declare gravity "falsified".<br /><br />Micklethwait and Wooldridge show no evidence at all that they have avoided Cargo Cult Science; no evidence that they have bent over backwards to avoid fooling themselves, investigated alternative hypotheses and disconfirmatory data.Larry Hamelinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08788697573946266404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28755195.post-40579778119851472882009-06-02T02:41:21.308-06:002009-06-02T02:41:21.308-06:00I have seen articles that advance something like "...I have seen articles that advance something like "the argument that religion simply fades away as a natural consequence of modernization." But they usually focus on the notion that most modern nations in the west provide their citizens with a sufficient safety net that people don't feel a need to cultivate ties with a church for that purpose.<br /><br />They then explain how the US is an outlier, being poor on welfare, and having more stratification than most modern democracies. So (according to the thesis), the US's religiosity is a symptom of the government's doing a poor job serving its citizens, and certainly not an example to be implemented elsewhere.<br /><br />Oddly enough (or perhaps it's not odd at all), the hardcore religious folk has a lot of overlap with the political group that wants to keep the government from providing the services that might result in religious decline (assuming one believes the above argument). I doubt it's conscious for most of them, but one can't help but wonder when it comes from the mouths of authority figures (I caught a bit of a Catholic priest on a television show the other day going on about how they're instructed to give to the needy, but supporting governmental initiatives to do so was bad because it forces people to help the needy, or something; my head about exploded).Dan Doelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16761291400347369301noreply@blogger.com