When governments set out to design long-term projects and plans, they need to know how many people those future projects must accommodate. Many turn to demographic projections to provide data on future population sizes and make-up. The cohort-component method (CCM) is commonly used by the government and academia to create these demographic projections. In a CCM projection, the target …

Understanding changing populations with the cohort-component method Read More »

Research Article Authors: Ryan Cragun, Kevin McCaffree, Ivan Puga-Gonzalez, Wesley Wildman, F. LeRon Shults Abstract Statistical models attempting to predict who will disaffiliate from religions have typically accounted for less than 15% of the variation in religious affiliations, suggesting that we have only a partial understanding of this vital social process. Using agent-based simulations in …

Religious Exiting and Social Networks: Computer Simulations of Religious/Secular Pluralism Read More »

Research Article Authors: Wesley J. Wildman, F. LeRon Shults , Saikou Y. Diallo, Ross Gore, Justin Lane Abstract The abandonment of supernatural religious beliefs and rituals seems to occur quite easily in some contexts, but post-supernaturalist cultures require a specific set of conditions that are difficult to produce and sustain on a large scale and thus …

Post-Supernatural Cultures: There and Back Again Read More »