You want me to believe sorting algorithms work?

Statistics is the wrong math to use concerning evolution. Rather algorithmics is correct. Allow an analogy.

If I used a bubble sort to sort 1000 items in a list, the odds of getting the correct answer is going to be 1000! (1000 factorial). That's 1000*999*998*997...*3*2*1. It's absolutely astronomical! It would like having a tornado hit a beach of sand and just happen to build the Empire State Building and the rest of New York.

402,387,260,077,093,773,543,702,433,923,003,985,719,374,864,210,714,632,543,799,910,429,938,512,398,629,020,592,044,208,486,969,404,800,479,988,610,197,196,058,631,666,872,994,808,558,901,323,829,669,944,590,997,424,504,087,073,759,918,823,627,727,188,732,519,779,505,950,995,276,120,874,975,462,497,043,601,418,278,094,646,496,291,056,393,887,437,886,487,337,119,181,045,825,783,647,849,977,012,476,632,889,835,955,735,432,513,185,323,958,463,075,557,409,114,262,417,474,349,347,553,428,646,576,611,667,797,396,668,820,291,207,379,143,853,719,588,249,808,126,867,838,374,559,731,746,136,085,379,534,524,221,586,593,201,928,090,878,297,308,431,392,844,403,281,231,558,611,036,976,801,357,304,216,168,747,609,675,871,348,312,025,478,589,320,767,169,132,448,426,236,131,412,508,780,208,000,261,683,151,027,341,827,977,704,784,635,868,170,164,365,024,153,691,398,281,264,810,213,092,761,244,896,359,928,705,114,964,975,419,909,342,221,566,832,572,080,821,333,186,116,811,553,615,836,546,984,046,708,975,602,900,950,537,616,475,847,728,421,889,679,646,244,945,160,765,353,408,198,901,385,442,487,984,959,953,319,101,723,355,556,602,139,450,399,736,280,750,137,837,615,307,127,761,926,849,034,352,625,200,015,888,535,147,331,611,702,103,968,175,921,510,907,788,019,393,178,114,194,545,257,223,865,541,461,062,892,187,960,223,838,971,476,088,506,276,862,967,146,674,697,562,911,234,082,439,208,160,153,780,889,893,964,518,263,243,671,616,762,179,168,909,779,911,903,754,031,274,622,289,988,005,195,444,414,282,012,187,361,745,992,642,956,581,746,628,302,955,570,299,024,324,153,181,617,210,465,832,036,786,906,117,260,158,783,520,751,516,284,225,540,265,170,483,304,226,143,974,286,933,061,690,897,968,482,590,125,458,327,168,226,458,066,526,769,958,652,682,272,807,075,781,391,858,178,889,652,208,164,348,344,825,993,266,043,367,660,176,999,612,831,860,788,386,150,279,465,955,131,156,552,036,093,988,180,612,138,558,600,301,435,694,527,224,206,344,631,797,460,594,682,573,103,790,084,024,432,438,465,657,245,014,402,821,885,252,470,935,190,620,929,023,136,493,273,497,565,513,958,720,559,654,228,749,774,011,413,346,962,715,422,845,862,377,387,538,230,483,865,688,976,461,927,383,814,900,140,767,310,446,640,259,899,490,222,221,765,904,339,901,886,018,566,526,485,061,799,702,356,193,897,017,860,040,811,889,729,918,311,021,171,229,845,901,641,921,068,884,387,121,855,646,124,960,798,722,908,519,296,819,372,388,642,614,839,657,382,291,123,125,024,186,649,353,143,970,137,428,531,926,649,875,337,218,940,694,281,434,118,520,158,014,123,344,828,015,051,399,694,290,153,483,077,644,569,099,073,152,433,278,288,269,864,602,789,864,321,139,083,506,217,095,002,597,389,863,554,277,196,742,822,248,757,586,765,752,344,220,207,573,630,569,498,825,087,968,928,162,753,848,863,396,909,959,826,280,956,121,450,994,871,701,244,516,461,260,379,029,309,120,889,086,942,028,510,640,182,154,399,457,156,805,941,872,748,998,094,254,742,173,582,401,063,677,404,595,741,785,160,829,230,135,358,081,840,096,996,372,524,230,560,855,903,700,624,271,243,416,909,004,153,690,105,933,983,835,777,939,410,970,027,753,472,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000

That's roughly 4 * 10^2568 it's more than 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 googols all multiplied together! And you're going to tell me that the sorting algorithm just happens to get the correct answer? Any statistician would laugh at you!

You want me to believe sorting algorithms work? You have more faith than religion. THAT'S INSANE!!!

6% of scientists are Republicans.

They had better be batshit insane or complete RINOs.

New ARIS report, no religion is #1 contender.

New ARIS report on religion.

So many Americans claim no religion at all (15%, up from 8% in 1990), that this category now outranks every other major U.S. religious group except Catholics and Baptists. In a nation that has long been mostly Christian, "the challenge to Christianity … does not come from other religions but from a rejection of all forms of organized religion," the report concludes

No religion is steadily gaining ground all religions are losing ground to the non-religious. Non-religious has a massive retention rate and good inflow. Religions like the Jehovah Witnesses have pretty consistent inflow rate and outflow rate and thus lose barely break even even with the hard selling. Wicca to her credit actually gains a lot and keeps them pretty well. All in all it seems we're getting progressively less stupid as time goes on. But, I'm sure when the hard times hit people will flock to religions.

Religion	# in million	1990 percent	2008 percent	Change
Catholic	57.2	26.2%	25.1%	-1.1%
Baptist	36.1	19.3%	15.8%	-3.5%
No religion	34.2	8.2%	15.0%	6.8%
Christian, generic	32.4	14.8%	14.2%	-0.6%
Mainline Protestant	29.4	18.7%	12.9%	-5.8%
Don't Know/Refused	11.8	2.3%	5.2%	2.9%
Pentecostal/Charismatic	8.0	3.2%	3.5%	0.3%
Protestant denominations	7.1	2.6%	3.1%	0.5%
Mormon/latter-day Saints	3.2	1.4%	1.4%	0.0%
New movements (such as Wiccan), other religions	2.8	0.8%	1.2%	0.4%
Jewish	2.7	1.8%	1.2%	-0.6%
Eastern religions	2.0	0.4%	0.9%	0.5%
Muslim	1.4	0.3%	0.6%	0.3%

Barack Obama... he's bigger than Jesus.

We know from bare statistics and clear proclamations that John Lennon (and the Beatles) were bigger than Jesus. Now, we're starting to get evidence that Barack Obama is bigger than Lennon. We can tell this because Julia Sweeney replaced her "Imagine No Religion" bumper sticker with a Barack Obama sticker, as she noted on her blog on April 15th.

Clearly by the transitive property if John Lennon > Jesus and Barack Obama > John Lennon therefore Barack Obama > Jesus.

In other news, Julia Sweeney has a blog... and it's remarkably good.

Atheism and Bad Statistics

You know, it's wrong when any group makes crap up... or at the very least smudges the numbers.



Okay, the numbers are actually there but there are strong objections on two points, prisons and marriage.

The prison statistic is a self-declared note. Atheists make up 8-16% of US population and only 0.209% of the prison population. Well, those stats aren't completely wrong. In fact, a 2006 Harris poll could be read to clock atheist at 27% of the population. If 73% of the population believes in God, then the remaining 27% don't and are thusly atheist (even if only 11% say they don't believe in God). Now, this is how the study screws up, and how many studies screw up. Taking a look at the recent Pew study. We see that those unaffiliated people claiming atheism was 1.6% with agnosticism at 2.4% and nothing in particular at 12.1%. Largely almost everybody in that unaffiliated grouping is an atheist, in the true meaning of the word... however, about 10% of atheists actually admit to atheism. There is a massive gap between declared atheists and atheists. One of the side effects of being simply a lack of belief is that a person can be an atheist even if they don't know what it is or want to be one.

Now look at the prison stats again and consider for a moment that parole boards like religion, your fellow inmates are largely religious, religions provide protections in prison, and atheists are the most hated minority in the US. Now, take into account that many atheists are better educated and your average criminal is more poorly educated. Further, consider that blacks make up a larger percent of the prison population than the general population (and crime rate) and that blacks are largely more religious. On top of this, realize the entire fucking thing is asking you to assume that correlation implies causality! Maybe atheists are just better criminals and don't get caught? There are too many problems with this stat to give it a second thought. I would be very interested in a real set of statistics on this point. In the mean time, this stat should be disregarded with prejudice.

Marriage is another stat I wish people would stop tossing around. That stat is fully explained by the age of atheists. It turns out that the 18-24 range of population is quite atheistic. Looking at the statistics over time they aren't getting any more religious.

As the atheist population ages they don't seem to be finding religion (in fact, no religion is one of the largest religious groups and has some of the best retention of any of the groups). The 18 year old atheists of today will be the 25 year old atheists of 7 years from now (while padding the numbers as previous believers who fall away). This provides a rather bottom heavy group of atheists. So, when you ask a bunch of people their religion and whether or not they are divorced you find that the atheists haven't been divorced nearly as much as the other religious groups... because they haven't been married as long or lived as much. They are a bunch of kids! Adjusting for such seems to make that stat go away. Further, consider the increased educational attainment and income. Not to say it isn't true, just that the statistics don't seem bear this out.

It turns out that people who care to learn what is and isn't true do better in life in a plethora of ways and end up finding out that religion is bunk. Pretty much all the stats flow from this. There's nothing about atheism that makes people more moral (or less moral).

If I had to venture a guess, I daresay that there something about good moral people and the truth.