Re: [Pen-l] Jared Diamond and the New Yorker, part 2

[raghu <mraghu01@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, May 9, 2009 at 1:22 PM, Shane Mage <shmage@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>  That's why a statistical test of the sort I outlined ("Take fifty matched
> pairs--one a lottery winner, one a victim of a fatal automobile accident.
>  Give birthday/time/place and event day/time place for each to 200
> professional astrologers [sample size=10,000].  Tell them to identify which
> was which in each case.  Test the percentage of correct identifications for
> statistical significance") is the only way in which a complex model--like
> one that claims for the "stars" (the electromagnetic balance of the solar
> system) a degree of influence over the course of an individual life--can be
> "confirmed" or "disconfirmed."
> Shane Mage


This is all well but please get back to us when you have actually done
such a study and have something to report. When you make such
extraordinary claims, the burden of proof is on you.

Until then, I am sorry, but astrology does not even merit being in any
grey area. It is pseudo-science and belongs alongside creationism and
alchemy.
-raghu.



--
I like to leave messages *before* the beep.
_______________________________________________
pen-l mailing list
pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l