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Statistics in science: I don't quite understand the difference between statistically significant and practical importance, or rather, how does one make a study that accounts for this problem.
Statistics was one of my two worst courses in college. In both cases, I went to the professor during office hours when I didn't have a shot of completing the homework and said, "I'm really not getting it," and the professor, assuming I couldn't really mean that asked what parts I wasn't getting. I pulled out lecture number 1 and said, let's start here...) I did manage to pull off a B in both courses, which convinced me that grading on a curve is horrible, particularly when I could have pulled off an A in the statistics class had a worked a little harder on the final, but I hadn't realized how far the course was going to be curved, so didn't think it mattered, and I wouldn't have remembered anything after the final anyway, so I wasn't studying for learning, but just a grade. If anyone got lower than a B in my statistics course, you must now know less about statistics than when you entered the course.
And lastly, an interesting disparity between what members of churches want (or at least say they want in a poll) and what pastors think is a good idea to preach about.
"In mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them." - John van Neumann
I used a lot of statistics in my thesis, and they *work*. But I'm still not really sure what they *mean*.
An understanding of statistics is certainly something we have in common, Jon. I managed a B, also -- and don't understand a bit of it.
Those pastors are missing a bet -- the most powerful part of the church services Porter went to in Thailand was the testimonies of persecuted Christians (from many parts of the world).