Accuracy and understanding Statistics.

[Isaiah 6:8]

I have found this to be an important thing, as some people try to use stats as a means of attacking our faith. I recently had someone send me a message on F.B. talking bout how sad it was that Christian divorce rate was at 50% and how sad it was.

I responded while it is sad when people divorce ever, the truth is that its not as high as 50%

You see she had heard someone say something that people often repeat with out really looking into the real truth. The world then tries to use this against us.

I saw this on a face book comment about the marriage age is going up

this was posted

Adults between 25-34 who have never been married exceeded those who are married for the first time in more than a century.

For Many Adults, Marriage Can Wait, Census Shows - http://online.wsj.co...e2tw#printMode.

After many people said it was due to people living together outside of Marriage one person responded,

Bradlee Clark FACT" -- Divorce rates among Christians is significantly higher than Atheists or Agnostics. If you're waiting for God to find you a spouse for life, he's hitting the mark about 73% of the time."

Now this would be very shocking, if true. In actuality. it was only based on one study with many major flaws and has never been corroborated by any other findings.

The Barna Research Group's national study showed that members of nondenominational churches divorce 34 percent of the time in contrast to 25 percent for the general population. Nondenominational churches would include large numbers of Bible churches and other conservative evangelicals. Baptists had the highest rate of the major denominations: 29 percent. Born-again Christians' rate was 27 percent. To make matters even more distressing for believers, atheists/agnostics had the lowest rate of divorce 21 percent.

http://www.adherents...ist_divorce.html

But wait....

Some have suggested that the Barna group surveyed a small group of strange people. Not so, the researchers reply. Barna surveys went to a randomly picked group of 3,854 people, enough for conclusions to be valid. Surveyors used regional quotas and did multiple callbacks. Their statistics have an error rate of plus or minus 2 percent with a confidence level of 95 percent. But sociological studies have one more hurdle to jump before serious researchers quote them. They must be backed by other studies. And this study isn't bolstered by others conducted in the 1980s, said Dr. Popenoe, a sociologist. "In general, studies show people who are religious tend to have lower divorce rates, especially if both husband and wife are religious," he said.

http://www.adherents.com/largecom/baptist_divorce.html

Also you can skew a poll by who you do and do not talk to, you can skew it by the wording of the questions, and they can be skewed by people lying on their answers!

So here is my question, how much faith are we to put in polls? How do we let these things effect us, and should we take them seriously or with a grain of salt? What is to be our response when someone comes out firing numbers our way to prove their point, even if it has no merit?

[wyguy]

That "50% of Christians divorce" stat has always been skewed.

First off, lots of people claim to be Christian when they actually are not. Lots of folks believe that just because they were baptised as a baby, or they go to Church, or they come from a Christian family, or they simply believe in God, it makes them a Christian.

Also, it doesn't take into account when a Christian is divorced by a non-Christian.

[Isaiah 6:8]

That "50% of Christians divorce" stat has always been skewed.

First off, lots of people claim to be Christian when they actually are not. Lots of folks believe that just because they were baptised as a baby, or they go to Church, or the come from a Christian family, or they simply believe in God, it makes them a Christian.

Also, it doesn't take into account when a Christian is divorced by a non-Christian.

Or if they got divorced before they were a Christian!

[~candice~]

Ahh I saw the title and thought this would be interesting... just checking in .

Apples and oranges

[LeonaS]

In college I took a Statistics course. The only thing I learned that I remember to this day is that statistics can be skewed to back up any point of view you want. That was the point when I stopped paying attention to statistics.

[~candice~]

In college I took a Statistics course. The only thing I learned that I remember to this day is that statistics can be skewed to back up any point of view you want. That was the point when I stopped paying attention to statistics.

That isn't true at all

[OneLight]

Another thing to look at is how random is their sampling, what sample size are they taking and out of what population do they draw from. I use to do statistics for a job in the manufacturing industry and I can tell you that there are different formulas you can use to come up with the number that will favor your point. Honesty in statistical analysis is utmost.

[nebula]

In my Psych 101 class we saw a video called: "Numbers Can Lie" all about stuff like this.

[Guest man]

In college I took a Statistics course. The only thing I learned that I remember to this day is that statistics can be skewed to back up any point of view you want. That was the point when I stopped paying attention to statistics.

That isn't true at all

If you did alittle research you would see that what she said is true.

[~candice~]

In college I took a Statistics course. The only thing I learned that I remember to this day is that statistics can be skewed to back up any point of view you want. That was the point when I stopped paying attention to statistics.

That isn't true at all

If you did alittle research you would see that what she said is true.

I have a phd in statistics... just exactly what research are you talking about?