At 12:41 AM 3/23/04, Richard Baker wrote:
Ronn! said:

> This calculation seems to include some unstated assumptions about the
> distribution of intelligence in believers . . .

Does it? I said very clearly "let's assume..."



Do we really need to remind everyone of what happens when you "ass-u-me"? ;-)


I suspect that my reaction illustrates the fact that while I indeed have a masters degree in math and in fact would probably have no trouble qualifying as ABD in math with about 40 hours of graduate courses taken after getting my masters, I guess I am really a scientist rather than a pure mathematician, in that whenever a practical problem starts off with "Let us assume . . . " I want to know how closely the assumptions made match the real-world situation the problem is attempting to model. In this particular case, while I find no fundamental fault with the mathematical reasoning used, istm that said reasoning and the calculations which follow are essentially meaningless in determining the solution to the question being posed, because the assumption made at the beginning essentially makes the result that we are interested in determining the truth of a given.



-- Ronn! :)


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