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How the Internet Is Taking Away America’s Religion

technologyreview.com

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Re: How the Internet Is Taking Away America’s Religion

#11

Post by dang »

raldi wrote: post #10
dang wrote: post #9

I changed the url from [1] to the article it cites, which is more substantive. But should we link to the actual paper [2] instead? 1. http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/04/21/303375... 2. http://arxiv.org/abs/1403.5534

No, it's confusing enough already that this post is filled with obsolete NPR and NPR-quoting comments. (Though I appreciate that your change wasn't done invisibly!) I think it would be better to let someone submit the paper separately, or for us all to just upvote your comment.

People say this a lot, but it isn't clear to me how this would work. Would you like to discuss it? Email to hn@ycombinator.com is probably best so we don't disrupt the thread.

Edit: Oops, version conflict. I was talking about a bit you edited out (about multiple links).

Re: How the Internet Is Taking Away America’s Religion

#12

Post by icpmacdo »

dang wrote: post #9

I changed the url from [1] to the article it cites, which is more substantive. But should we link to the actual paper [2] instead? 1. http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/04/21/303375... 2. http://arxiv.org/abs/1403.5534

Thank you :) . I think linking to the paper would be best.

Re: How the Internet Is Taking Away America’s Religion

#13

Post by danbruc »

But what of the other 50 percent? In the data, the only factor that correlates with this is date of birth—people born later are less likely to have a religious affiliation. But as Downey points out, year of birth cannot be a causal factor. “So about half of the observed change remains unexplained,” he says.

Increasing year of birth means increasing human knowledge. While it was convincing a long time ago to have a god for thunder, for fire, for love and a thousand other things, we learned that thunder works without any god. And now people learn that the universe works without any god at all, i.e. monotheistic religions are no longer as convincing as they used to be.

Re: How the Internet Is Taking Away America’s Religion

#15

Post by raldi »

dang wrote: post #11
raldi wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's confusing enough already that this post is filled with obsolete NPR and NPR-quoting comments. (Though I appreciate that your change wasn't done invisibly!) I think it would be better to let someone submit the paper separately, or for us all to just upvote your comment.

People say this a lot, but it isn't clear to me how this would work. Would you like to discuss it? Email to hn@ycombinator.com is probably best so we don't disrupt the thread. Edit: Oops, version conflict. I was talking about a bit you edited out (about multiple links).

Annoying, isn't it? :)

Re: How the Internet Is Taking Away America’s Religion

#16

Post by dang »

raldi wrote: post #15
dang wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People say this a lot, but it isn't clear to me how this would work. Would you like to discuss it? Email to hn@ycombinator.com is probably best so we don't disrupt the thread. Edit: Oops, version conflict. I was talking about a bit you edited out (about multiple links).

Annoying, isn't it? :)

I know much better than to play Reddit with you.

Re: How the Internet Is Taking Away America’s Religion

#17

Post by aaron695 »

dang wrote: post #9

I changed the url from [1] to the article it cites, which is more substantive. But should we link to the actual paper [2] instead? 1. http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/04/21/303375... 2. http://arxiv.org/abs/1403.5534

I'd say most people definitely don't have time for the extra effort of reading original papers.

Whenever this is important to me I'll get the link from the comments.

Also given NPR also interviewed Downey so 'value added' I wouldn't have necessarily given Technology Review preference.

Re: How the Internet Is Taking Away America’s Religion

#18

Post by pradocchia »

danbruc wrote: post #13

But what of the other 50 percent? In the data, the only factor that correlates with this is date of birth—people born later are less likely to have a religious affiliation. But as Downey points out, year of birth cannot be a causal factor. “So about half of the observed change remains unexplained,” he says. Increasing year of birth means increasing human knowledge. While it was convincing a long time ago to have a go…

Increasing year of birth means increasing human knowledge.

What, since the 1990s? No, don't be silly. There may have been a bump due to improved access to basic human knowledge. Is this what you mean?

Re: How the Internet Is Taking Away America’s Religion

#19

Post by Alex3917 »

gwern wrote: post #8

Really weak result. One factor over a short time period in a single country without throwing in the dozens of other variables? This is exactly the sort of result you expect to go away in subsequent time periods. (Also, the OP's confusion about correlation/causation in the hilarious bit about logistic regression certainly doesn't increase my confidence in this result.)

I agree, though I wouldn't be surprised if it were true right now. The Internet is undoubtedly the greatest tool that has ever been created for spreading religion, but in the short term it probably just magnifies whatever the larger social/religious fads are, e.g. new atheism.

Re: How the Internet Is Taking Away America’s Religion

#20

Post by [deleted] »

gwern wrote: post #8

Really weak result. One factor over a short time period in a single country without throwing in the dozens of other variables? This is exactly the sort of result you expect to go away in subsequent time periods. (Also, the OP's confusion about correlation/causation in the hilarious bit about logistic regression certainly doesn't increase my confidence in this result.)

[deleted]
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