>Gee, Humberto, I guess I don't understand why departing from 50:50 is
>evidence for the existence of God. I'd think the argument would go the
>other way. God, being neat and compulsive like the rest of us, would show
>His perfection by approximating a 50/50 ratio? Or was Arbuthnott
>conflating God with evolution?
>
>Mike
Arbuthnott's argument goes like this:
"But it is very improbable (if mere Chance govern'd) that they would never
reach as far as the Extremities: But this Event [50/50 ratio] is wisely
prevented by the wise Oeconomy of Nature and to judge of the Wisdom of the
Contrivance, we must observe that the external Accidents to which are Males
subject (who must seek their Food with danger) do make a great havock of
them, and that this loss exceeds far that of the other Sex, occasioned by
Diseases incident to it, as Experience convinces us. To repair that Loss,
provident Nature, by the Disposal of its wise Creator, brings forth more
Males than Females; and that in almost constant proportion. This appears
from the annexed Tables which contain Observations for 82 Years of the
Births in London."
In modern language, he uses the 82 observations to reject the null 50/50
and concludes, "From whence it follows that it is Art not Chance, that
governs."
So, God exists, argues Arbuthnott, because 50/50 would leave an imbalance
of adult M and F. Someone is responsible for altering the mere Chance ratio
and that would be God. QED. :-))
To me, it starts to get *really* interesting when you hear claims like:
1) The Prob(M) is different across race
2) The Prob(M) is different across different regions of Europe
3) The Prob(M) varies within a family over time
***********************
Humberto Barreto
Department of Economics
Wabash College
Crawfordsville, IN 47933
Phone: 765-361-6315
FAX: 765-361-6277
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
WWW: http://www.wabash.edu/depart/economic/barretoh/barretoh.html
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