Author Archives: David Hume

Who is smart: Secular, religious, Right or Left?

Posted on November 29, 2008 by David Hume

A friend emailed me and suggested I look into the GSS and figure out which groups are smarter in terms of political & religious combinations.  So again, my methodology is simple. I took the WORDSUM variable, which is the # … Continue reading →

Posted in data | Tagged | 23 Comments

On religion & morality

Posted on November 28, 2008 by David Hume

Heather’s post, Religion and Moral Behavior, allows me to make a point which I think is important.  Some conservatives who argue for the powerful utility of religion in promoting the social order ignore the confounds with other parameters, and look … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, data | Tagged , | 21 Comments

On social science data

Posted on November 28, 2008 by David Hume

Since some have asked, let me stipulate unless otherwise noted my survey based charts are all drawn from the General Social Survey.  UC Berkeley has a very user-friendly interface which one can use to replicate my findings.  As they say, … Continue reading →

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Skepticism of science, necessary & needless

Posted on November 28, 2008 by David Hume

Just a quick addendum to my previous post where I advised caution about skepticism of science.  A biomedical scientist recently told me that the journal Virology had a statistician audit all their papers within a 1 year interval with statistics to … Continue reading →

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Yes, I am a fundamentalist….

Posted on November 28, 2008 by David Hume

…about certain things.  Someone named Floyd quotes my post where I explain why I won’t talk much about Creationism and observes: That sounds pretty fundamentalist to me. Jerry Falwell couldn’t have said it any better. There will be no debate. … Continue reading →

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The varieties of conservatism

Posted on November 27, 2008 by David Hume

Jerry Muller, the author of Conservatism, has given me permission to reprint an article of his that might be of interest to readers of this website, “Dilemmas of Conservatism,” The Public Interest Number 139, Spring, 2000.

Posted in culture | Tagged | 11 Comments

The Secular Right on controversial issues

Posted on November 27, 2008 by David Hume

In my previous post, Who are the Secular Right?, I focused on demographic differences between the Secular Right, Secular Left and Religious Right.  Using the same methodology in that post, I will now shift a bit more to controversial issues, … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, data | Tagged | 5 Comments

On debates to have….

Posted on November 26, 2008 by David Hume

In response to comments, I will state beforehand that I won’t be discussing the existence of God or Creationism much.  Evolution is true.  I would just as rather discuss the validity of Newtonianism, Astrology, the molecule or phlogistan.  In other … Continue reading →

Posted in Administration, debate, Science & Faith, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 16 Comments

I Am Who I Am

Posted on November 26, 2008 by David Hume

As a follow up to John’s post clarifying his identity, it’s no secret to anyone who has noted my unartful charts that I am Razib Khan. I chose “David Hume” as my identity because I think with the religious grounding … Continue reading →

Posted in Administration | Tagged , | 15 Comments

A broad church, god willing!

Posted on November 25, 2008 by David Hume

A follow up on John’s comment, speaking for myself only I see this as being a place which is both very latitudinarian in religious and political opinion (within reasonable bounds of course!).  One reason I saw a need for this sort … Continue reading →

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