Nick Byrd, Ph.D.Apr 2, 2025

πŸ”” In Religious Studies: Analytic #Atheism & Analytic Apostasy...

Steve Stich, Justin Sytsma, and I studied >70k people across the globe.

Apostates were more reflective thinkers.

That explained links between reflection and #religion.

#Preprint + audio: https://byrdnick.com/archives/28471/upon-reflection-ep-14-analytic-atheism-analytic-apostasy-across-cultures

The final typeset version is also freely available (#openAccess) via #CambridgeUP; https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034412525000198

#religion #psychology #psychometrics #cogSci #xPhi

Why do atheists tend to do better on critical thinking tests?

Apostates seem to score better than others. And they tend to be atheists. So "analytic atheism" seems to be explained by analytic APOSTASY.

Nick Byrd, Ph.D.
Anna SzalaJan 9, 2025

🚨 Fresh off the press today! πŸ“° Our new article in #Language and #Cognition shows that in #casual #conversations, humans #talk about #social #topics a lot β€” even more than we thought before, with 85% of conversation being about social stuff! πŸ—£οΈ Huge thanks to my co-authors and the amazing student helpers who patiently coded the texts.

If you're discussing how much humans chat about social topics (tl;dr: they talk a lot), please cite us! πŸ™Œ

Read it here: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/language-and-cognition/article/how-much-conversation-content-is-actually-social-human-conversational-behaviour-revisited/61BF5C91583F04053BE9471ED96FAE1D #CambridgeCore #CambridgeUP #OpenAccess #Dunbar #CLARIN #Spokes

(((Cindy Weinstein)))Jul 27, 2023
Great suggestions in this essay about "temporal displacement, time loops, time skips, time slips or parallel timelines." https://www.salon.com/2023/07/25/gotta-get-back-in-time-the-current-explosion-of-time-travel-novels-goes-beyond-sci-fi-and-fantasy/
If #time is of interest, you can check out a volume of essays I edited, published by #CambridgeUP, that takes up this issue in #US #literature from its #indigenous roots to #DonDeLillo, from the #SalemWitchTrials to the #graphic novel, #RichardMcGuire's #Here. I also wrote a book on #tempo(e)rality with, you guessed it, #Poe as the (wobbly) center.
Gotta get back in time: The current explosion of time travel novels goes beyond sci-fi and fantasy

If something about how we've been experiencing time feels messed up to you, you're not alone

Salon