On Dec 3, 2007 1:41 AM, William T Goodall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > http://uk.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=UKN2922875820071129 > > > > The poll of 2,455 U.S. adults from Nov 7 to 13 found that 82 percent > of those surveyed believed in God, a figure unchanged since the > question was asked in 2005.
And how many of them believe that they are, in some sense, God? ;-) > > > It further found that 79 percent believed in miracles, 75 percent in > heaven, "Is there anything else?" replied some American writer when asked if he believed in miracles. My favorite answer. > > Darwin's theory of evolution met a far more skeptical audience which > might surprise some outsiders as the United States is renowned for its > excellence in scientific research. This demonstrates that skepticism leads to better science, right? I say that only because anti-religious people constantly confuse correlation with causality. It's only fair if I do, too, even though it is terribly unscientific. But hey, I'm an American. Stimulated by being surrounded by those who are skeptical of science, I strive to excel. Seriously, though, confusing correlation and causality has become my main problem with your anti-religious postings, William. If you're going to argue that religion is anti-scientific and causes all sorts of social ills, it seems that you have no freedom do simply cite all sorts of correlations. You have to show causality -- that religion *causes* evil, no just that they co-occur. It is basic to statistics that when things correlate, the cause often is a third factor. The coexistence of religion and evil isn't exactly news, now is it? Let me suggest the sort of third factor that could cause the correlation between fundamentalist religion and creationism: greed and fear -- leaders' greed for money and political power; followers' fear of what might happen if they misbehave. Keeping people ignorant has been a tool of greedy people, religious or not, for all of history. It is demagoguery and religion has no corner on it. It's bad science use correlations to say that religion is to blame for evil. It's like saying that hospitals obviously are the cause of disease because a survey showed that a high percentage of people who go to hospitals are sick. Correlation does not imply causality. > > The survey, which has a sampling error of plus or minus two percent, > found that 35 percent of the respondents believed in UFOs and 31 > percent in witches. How many of the UFO believers imagine that dolphins could fly spaceships? Now that's truly bizarre. Nick -- Nick Arnett [EMAIL PROTECTED] Messages: 408-904-7198 _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
