All posts filed under: SOSc

Artificial Intelligence Shows Why Atheism Is Unpopular – The Atlantic

July 27, 2018
by Nicholas Knisely
SOSc

Fascinating article in the Atlantic that shows the key factors that control the rate of societal secularization: Using a separate model, Future of Religion and Secular Transitions (forest), the team found that people tend to secularize when four factors are present: existential security (you have enough money and food), personal freedom (you’re free to choose whether to believe or not), pluralism (you have a welcoming attitude to diversity), and education (you’ve got some training in […]

The Faustian bargain of a cyber connected world

July 24, 2018
by Nicholas Knisely
SOSc / Web/Tech

Our hyper-networked world has given us super-human powers. Sometimes this has been beneficial. But of late, there is a dangerous side to being able to communicate quickly and without the need to reflect. At least two dozen people have been killed in mob lynchings in India since the start of the year, their deaths fueled by rumors that spread on WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messaging service. In Brazil, messages on WhatsApp falsely claimed a government-mandated yellow-fever […]

If Jesus comes back now, what should we expect?

May 15, 2018
by Nicholas Knisely
SOSc

Cara Rockhill, a priest here in Rhode Island (and a member of my staff) just posted a wonderful piece on her blog that’s an extended reflection on the easy to foresee violence that has erupted in the Holy Land. Her piece centers on what it would mean for all us right now if Jesus were to return to the Earth – a thing greatly to be desired, and my regular fervent prayer… If Jesus comes […]

The deeper we go, the less we understand.

March 30, 2018
by Nicholas Knisely
SOSc

This: The modern-day theoretical physicist faces a taxing uphill climb. “As we learn more, reality becomes ever more subtle; the absolute becomes relative, the fixed becomes dynamical, the definite is laden with uncertainty,” writes physicist Yasha Neiman. via New math bridges holography and twistor theory

Turning moral decisions into computer code

February 13, 2018
by Nicholas Knisely
Current Affairs / SOSc

Nicholas Evans, a philosophy professor in Massachusetts, is part of a group tackling the classic moral dilemma called the “Trolley Problem” as part of the development of autonomous cars. Evans is not currently taking a stand on which moral theory is right. Instead, he hopes the results from his algorithms will allow others to make an informed decision, whether that’s by car consumers or manufacturers. Evans isn’t currently collaborating with any of the companies working […]

Grace for Creation: free!

April 2, 2016
by Nicholas Knisely
Climate Change / Religion / Science / SOSc / Uncategorized

We have a great tradition of holding classes for parishioners in Lent, but once Easter comes, and Spring springs, we tend to focus on other things. But, what would happen if we tried an Easter class – like a Lent class, but later? Have I got a deal for you: In 2011, the Episcopal Church House of Bishops issued a pastoral letter on the environment. In response, a five-week study course titled A Life of Grace […]

Rainment, glistening and white.

February 7, 2016
by Nicholas Knisely
Sermons and audio / SOSc / Uncategorized

It snowed on Friday. A tropical system, full of moisture and relatively warm air, slid north along the Southern New England coast and collided with cold arctic air flowing down out of Canada. The result was a fast developing, very wet snow fall that started at dawn and continued until an hour before twilight. The wet snow and the relatively gentle wind off the ocean allowed the thick white heavy flakes to stick to every […]

The Creation Museum: More about the founder’s fears than their faith

October 26, 2015
by Nicholas Knisely
SOSc

  Savannah Cox, writing in Salon about the Creation Museum Petersburg KY: A closer look at the Petersburg attraction reveals that the questions raised in the museum are deeply existential, and ones which are steeped in — and troubled by — an atheistic logic: If it is indeed true that Adam and Eve did not literally exist, as science says, then there is no original sin. If there is no original sin, then Jesus did […]

Pew: Non-religious people see conflict between science and religion. Religious people don’t.

October 23, 2015
by Nicholas Knisely
Religion / SOSc

New Pew study on the perceived levels of conflict between science and religion in American culture: While 59 percent of U.S. adults say they saw science and religion in conflict, that drops to 30 percent when people are asked about their own religious beliefs. It turns out that the most highly religious were least likely to see conflict. And those who said they saw the most conflict between the two worldviews in society are people who personally claimed […]

How quantum theory helps us understand intercession

October 22, 2015
by Nicholas Knisely
SOSc

Christianity Today on whether prayers make an external difference: This means that at the macro level as well as the micro, the idea that the world is fixed and predictable is just wrong, and that arguments against an interventionist God don’t work. So, Wilkinson says, chaos might give “space for God to work in unusual and specific ways within the scientific description of the world”. Again, he quotes John Polkinghorne, who says that chaos means […]