Secularization in Europe: religious change between and within birth cohorts

There is ample evidence of religious decline in Western Europe but no general consensus on the situation in the East. Analysis of three waves of the European Values Study (from 1990, 1999 and 2008) adds to the evidence base on secularization across the continent. As expected, older people in most countries, even in Central and Eastern Europe (though not in parts of the former Yugoslavia), seem to be more religious than the rest of the population. More surprisingly, the data suggest that religiosity increased in Northern and Southern as well as Eastern Europe during the 1990s. It is far from clear that these apparent rises are genuine. It still seems fair to say that society is changing religiously not because individuals are changing, but rather because old people are gradually replaced by younger people with different characteristics. Much remains to be understood, though, about why recent generations are different. Parents may be partly responsible, by giving children more control over their own lives. The composition of society has changed, but so has the context in which people are raised. Young people acquire different values and face new conditions. Which factors are most important remains to be determined

The relationship between religion and racism: the evidence

Religion and racism are topics often discussed together. Newspapers regularly make headlines based on misrepresented data, most recently regarding British Muslims – a religious group that is often the target of both blatant racism and of more subtle forms of racial profiling. But Stefanie Doebler explains that rigorous use of surveys shows that religion does not facilitate racist attitudes; poverty and low education are some of the factors that do

Stationary set preserving L-forcings and the extender algebra

Wir konstruieren das Jensensche L-Forcing und nutzen dieses um die Pi_2 Konsequenzen der Theorie ZFC+BMM+"das nichtstationäre Ideal auf omega_1 ist abschüssig" zu studieren. Viele natürliche Konsequenzen der Theorie ZFC+MM folgen schon aus dieser schwächeren Theorie. Wir geben eine neue Charakterisierung des Axioms Dagger ("Alle Forcings welche stationäre Teilmengen von omega_1 bewahren sind semiproper") in dem wir eine Klasse von L-Forcings isolieren deren Semiproperness äquivalent zu Dagger ist. Wir verallgemeinern ein Resultat von Todorcevic: wir zeigen, dass Rado's Conjecture Dagger impliziert. Des weiteren studieren wir Generizitätsiterationen im Kontext einer messbaren Woodinzahl. Mit diesem Werkzeug erhalten wir eine Verallgemeinerung des Woodinschen Sigma^2_1 Absolutheitstheorems. We review the construction of Jensen's L-forcing which we apply to study the Pi_2 consequences of the theory ZFC + BMM + "the nonstationary ideal on omega_1 is precipitous". Many natural consequences ZFC + MM follow from this weaker theory. We give a new characterization of the axiom dagger ("All stationary set preserving forcings are semiproper") by isolating a class of stationary set preserving L-forcings whose semiproperness is equivalent to dagger. This characterization is used to generalize work of Todorcevic: we show that Rado's Conjecture implies dagger. Furthermore we study genericity iterations beginning with a measurable Woodin cardinal. We obtain a generalization of Woodin's Sigma^2_1 absoluteness theorem

Imaginative Intersections: Engaging Aesthetic Experience at the Shofuso Japanese House

This essay explores how the imagination creates dynamic aesthetic experiences by negotiating the intersection of opposites. The goal is to enrich our thinking about the relation of nature and art within a more comprehensive environmental aesthetics. I focus on a single example, the intersections created by the particular experience of space and time in the paintings of Hiroshi Senju, at the Shofuso Japanese House in Philadelphia. First, I provide a brief introduction to Senju and the work at Shofuso. Next, building on perspectives from within environmental aesthetics and Senju’s own writings, I sketch out a framework for thinking about the imagination. Finally, I examine how this creates meaningful intersections in the experience of space and time at Shofuso, drawing on the work of the philosopher Watsuji Tetsurō