May 2015 – Page 3 – William M. Briggs

Encyclical Delayed, Possibly Downgraded To Lesser Form?

The encyclical might be downgraded to some lesser form of "statement." This is the rumor as reported to me from "sources." Given the excitement the encyclical generated on the left,…

Culture Statistics

The New Pew Religion Survey Isn’t What You Think (Probably)

Lot of chatter over the new Pew survey of religiosity, "Christians Decline Sharply as Share of Population; Unaffiliated and Other Faiths Continue to Grow". Main result: Christianity down, "nones" up.…

Culture Podcast Statistics

The Pontifical Academy’s Sustainablity Conference Podcast

CLICK HERE TO GET TO THE PODCAST Arrgh. I'm trying out a new podcasting plugin. It puts the podcasts into something-which-isn't-a-post and which is impossible to find. So here is…

Culture Philosophy Statistics

What Does “Sustainability” Really Mean?

I had originally titled today's article as "The Theology of Sustainability", which has a certain ring to it. But I admit the title chosen by the Crisis editors probably results…

Statistics

Hypothesis Testing Relies On The Fallacy Of False Dichotomy

Classical hypothesis testing is founded on the fallacy of the false dichotomy. The false dichotomy says of two hypotheses that if one hypothesis is false, the other must be true.…

Philosophy SAMT

Summary Against Modern Thought: More On God’s Omniscience

See the first post in this series for an explanation and guide of our tour of Summa Contra Gentiles. All posts are under the category SAMT. Previous post. The reading…

Culture

Arguing About Climate Is Largely Pointless

Regular readers will already know that arguing with climate-of-doom True Believers is pointless. Don't bother. A for instance. When my piece appeared at Crisis on the Pontifical Academy for Science's…

Culture

British Elections Open Thread. The Return of Nationalism?

We haven't discussed much the elections of our English-speaking cousins, but it's worth doing because of how this one played out. Particularly in its nationalistic aspects. Ed Miliband, Labour, a…

hudbwu on Confirmation Bias In The Minneapolis ShootingJanuary 13, 2026
So we're just not going to talk about the three shots?
Cary D Cotterman on Confirmation Bias In The Minneapolis ShootingJanuary 13, 2026
No news source is perfect. Fox openly owns their conservative point of view. NPR lies about being unbiased. Even with…
Randy Middleton on Confirmation Bias In The Minneapolis ShootingJanuary 13, 2026
I saw this exact quote posted in a blog post from someone else. Captain: What we've got here is... failure…
Tars Tarkas on Confirmation Bias In The Minneapolis ShootingJanuary 13, 2026
"(I have in the queue a story on confirmation bias of academic Experts that confirms my bias that academic Experts…
Stan on Confirmation Bias In The Minneapolis ShootingJanuary 13, 2026
Around 2013, I obtained all death certificate data from the state of California for the years 2000-2012. I posted on…