Do the experiment. If the yea-sayers win it they get a million $
FWP
On Mon, 9 Jul 2001, Lee Corbin wrote:
> Michael Wiik wrote:
> > Researchers have found, for example, that religious people live, on
> > average, about seven years longer than other Americans. Levin cites a
> > study done by California's respected Human Population Laboratory that
> > tracked 5,000 people for 28 years and found that those who frequently
> > attended church were 23 percent less likely to die during the study
> > period than people who didn't regularly go to church. "This holds true
> > even controlling for the fact that religious folks tend to avoid such
> > behaviors as smoking and drinking that increase the risk of disease and
> > death," Levin reported.
>
> The maxim "unless you use a double-blind, you really can't
> draw valid conclusions" holds, I think. Other factors are
> just too hard to control for. I'm frankly amazed at how
> researchers almost never properly qualify their results.
>
> Take one criticism of the above statistic: the really sick, the
> generally unhealthy, the depressed---all will have a tendency to
> both skip church and die early. Duh!
>
> Lee Corbin
>
>
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