Comments on: Correlation is Not Causation

By: Matt W.

Matt W. — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 17:59:36 +0000

Tom, if you are interested, send me a write up and I’ll put it up as a guest post. Everyone here would be very interested.

l m w i t t e n @ p r o d i g y . n e t

By: Jacob J

Jacob J — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 05:10:14 +0000

Tom,

Yes we would definitely be interested to know how, when, and by whom these statistics are compiled. Can you fill us in on some details?

By: Tom Rod

Tom Rod — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 04:59:01 +0000

Dave

You would be very interested to know how, when, and by whom many of those “church statistics” are compiled. I’ve been fortunate enough to assist in one project analyzing “Preach My Gospel”‘s effectiveness. Trust me–everything is there, none of the bad things are left out.

By: Ray

Ray — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 06:17:43 +0000

Matt, your conclusion is striking, as I’m sure you intended it to be. Sometimes, I wish we just accepted what the Prophet and apostles lay out for us and spend our efforts doing those things. I don’t mean to suggest blind obedience; I’m talking more directly about not trying to create our own programs and extrapolations – since those generally result in twists like those you highlight here.

Thanks for this post. I am trying to figure out how to work it into the next training I do in my calling.

By: Matt W.

Matt W. — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 21:52:41 +0000

If I could do it from texas without having to quit my current job, I’d do it for free, Just to know.

By: Jacob J

Jacob J — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:49:04 +0000

AND I would take half pay to work on church data, For the record.

If only the church weren’t so used to offering NO pay, that might seem like a better offer. {g}

By: Matt W.

Matt W. — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:47:08 +0000

My wife and I discussed this a bit and I wanted to state that if controls were put in place, it may very well be that temple worship and members having investigators in the home do produce these exact activities, but my assumption was these controls were not in place. If anyone with access to church data wants to correct me, I am all for it. AND I would take half pay to work on church data, For the record.

By: Geoff J

Geoff J — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:41:28 +0000

Sorry about that BHodges. I deleted the spam and left you hanging.

By: BHodges

BHodges — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:34:59 +0000

Well now my comment just looks silly.

By: rd

rd — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:22:01 +0000

Here’s another correlation/causation issue that bothered me back when I was in YM: “99% of eagle scouts go on missions, so get those merit badges if you want to be a good missionary” (BSA is great and all, but c’mon)