Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!rutgers!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: kilroy@gboro.glassboro.edu (Dr Nancy's Sweetie) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: American Lifestyle Message-ID: Date: 19 May 91 03:08:39 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 29 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu Jennifer Irani posted a large set of statistics; she did not provide the source, the data collection method, or the anticipated error. There are *lots* of statistical fallacies, and I get suspicious whenever I read things like this: > By the age of 70, the average American will have spent: > -5.5 years washing and dressing That ".5" sure looks authoritative, but I doubt that these numbers are good for better than +- a full year -- which means that the ".5" is just fluff. Additionally, your chart mentions only one religious activity, going to church. It does not list time spent in prayer, reading religiously-oriented material, doing volunteer work, or any of the other ways that people live out their religious beliefs. What I am trying to get at is that I don't think we can learn *anything* useful from the chart you provided. In particular, some of the statistics look questionable (if not completely unknowable), and the implied conclusion (that many Americans waste their lives) seems a bit hasty. Statistics are just numbers, and numbers can be used to count anything. But that doesn't mean that what you're counting is what's important. kilroy@gboro.glassboro.edu Darren F. Provine ...njin!gboro!kilroy "Statistics is the science of inferring the obvious and the false." -- David M. Tate