The people of no religion: the demographics of secularisation in the English-speaking world since c.1900

This article argues for study of the decline of religion in western countries, not merely in terms of loss and negative consequences for (predominantly) Christianity, but in positive terms for the individuals who have taken the decision to forsake organised religion. It puts forward the need to consider ways of examining secularisation which grant respect to categories of secularity selected by respondents. After contextualising an examination of the category of ›no religion‹ (also known as ›none‹) from state censuses and surveys, the article compares the growth in the numbers of people adopting these labels in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, the United States and the four countries of the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland). This shows ultra-low levels prior to 1960, followed by a common pattern of rapid change in the late 1960s; however the rates of change, and the destiny of the change, differ thereafter. The article concludes by examining demographic information as to who ›no-religionists‹ were in terms of age, gender and race, and explores some economic and religious-heritage determinants of growth. It posits a key linkage between feminism and ›no-religionism‹, but acknowledges the need for a vast increase in research

The utility of knowledge

Recent epistemology has introduced a new criterion of adequacy for analyses of knowledge: such an analysis, to be adequate, must be compatible with the common view that knowledge is better than true belief. One account which is widely thought to fail this test is reliabilism, according to which, roughly, knowledge is true belief formed by reliable process. Reliabilism fails, so the argument goes, because of the "swamping problem". In brief, provided a belief is true, we do not care whether or not it was formed by a reliable process. The value of reliability is "swamped" by the value of truth: truth combined with reliability is no better than truth alone. This paper approaches these issues from the perspective of decision theory. It argues that the "swamping effect" involves a sort of information-sensitivity that is well modelled decision-theoretically. It then employs this modelling to investigate a strategy, proposed by Goldman and Olsson, for saving reliabilism from the swamp, the so-called "conditional probability solution". It concludes that the strategy is only partially successful

Creating an online presence for a high school newspaper

Today's journalists are expected to be fluent in much more than print media. Professional journalists are expected to provide immediate posts and frequent updates to online media, as well as full-blown stories for print publications. Providing secondary publications students the opportunity to work in both media allows them to participate in these real-world experiences and gives them valuable skills that appeal to college journalism programs. As a publications adviser at Fishers High School, the researcher is expected to provide students the reality of journalism. This can be accomplished by offering print and online experiences on the school newspaper. Research to begin a school website included a review of literature on developing online news sites, including the Poynter Institutes Eyetracker survey. A review of several high school newspaper online sites provided practical examples in what high school journalism programs are capable of. In addition, a three-day workshop on moving publications to the Web at Ball State provided the technical information necessary to create the site. A mock site was created and FHS newspaper student staff members began publishing to the website in September 2011.Department of JournalismThesis (M.A.

Eurycea nana

Number of Pages: 2Integrative BiologyGeological Science

Eurycea latitans

Number of Pages: 2Integrative BiologyGeological Science

Beam Loss Control for the Fermilab Main Injector

From 2005 through 2012, the Fermilab Main Injector provided intense beams of 120 GeV protons to produce neutrino beams and antiprotons. Hardware improvements in conjunction with improved diagnostics allowed the system to reach sustained operation at 400 kW beam power. Losses were at or near the 8 GeV injection energy where 95% beam transmission results in about 1.5 kW of beam loss. By minimizing and localizing loss, residual radiation levels fell while beam power was doubled. Lost beam was directed to either the collimation system or to the beam abort. Critical apertures were increased while improved instrumentation allowed optimal use of available apertures. We will summarize the impact of various loss control tools and the status and trends in residual radiation in the Main Injector.Comment: 5 p