Susanne C Monahan

Religion Matters: How Sociology Helps Us Understand Religion in Our World focuses on religion’s interplay with broader society, introducing students to the basic questions, ideas, and methods with which sociologists have analyzed the relationship between religion and society.Since the first edition, religion as a social force has changed dramatically in its content and consequences for the world. In this new edition, the authors update the foundational lenses used to understand religion’s multiple roles in society, assess the impact of technology and social media on religion and faith, draw further reflection from contemporary studies of religion and gender, and add a new chapter examining the increasing amount of religious polarization in the United States and throughout the world.With new illustrations and connections that make this readable textbook more accessible and relevant for today’s student, the second edition of Religion Matters remains a perfect counterpart for introductory courses concerned with the sociological study of religion.

Religion Matters: How Sociology Helps Us Understand Religion in Our World focuses on religion’s interplay with broader society, introducing students to the basic questions, ideas, and methods with which sociologists have analyzed the relationship between religion and society.Since the first edition, religion as a social force has changed dramatically in its content and consequences for the world. In this new edition, the authors update the foundational lenses used to understand religion’s multiple roles in society, assess the impact of technology and social media on religion and faith, draw further reflection from contemporary studies of religion and gender, and add a new chapter examining the increasing amount of religious polarization in the United States and throughout the world.With new illustrations and connections that make this readable textbook more accessible and relevant for today’s student, the second edition of Religion Matters remains a perfect counterpart for introductory courses concerned with the sociological study of religion.

Statisticians have met the need to test hundreds or thousands of genomics hypotheses simultaneously with novel empirical Bayes methods that combine advantages of traditional Bayesian and frequentist statistics. Techniques for estimating the local false discovery rate assign probabilities of differential gene expression, genetic association, etc. without requiring subjective prior distributions. This book brings these methods to scientists while keeping the mathematics at an elementary level. Readers will learn the fundamental concepts behind local false discovery rates, preparing them to analyze their own genomics data and to critically evaluate published genomics research.Key Features:* dice games and exercises, including one using interactive software, for teaching the concepts in the classroom* examples focusing on gene expression and on genetic association data and briefly covering metabolomics data and proteomics data* gradual introduction to the mathematical equations needed* how to choose between different methods of multiple hypothesis testing* how to convert the output of genomics hypothesis testing software to estimates of local false discovery rates* guidance through the minefield of current criticisms of p values* material on non-Bayesian prior p values and posterior p values not previously published