My favorite statistics joke: Student talking to his friend:  I used to think correlation implied causation. Then I took a statistics class.  Now I don’t. Friend:  Sounds like the class helped you understand that field. Student:  Well, maybe. I was reminded of that joke last night while watching the game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Philadelphia Eagles.  The network posted this statistic:  When two teams both of which have birds as a mascot play, the home team’s record is 10-0.  A stunning statistical proof (well beyond two standard deviations) that home bird teams are far superior to visiting bird teams?  Needless to say that statistic predicted with near perfect accuracy the outcome of the game (not). 

by Emily Morales January 5th, 2020 Some months back, Norwegian ship-owner and engineer Einar Johan Rasmussen stirred up some controversy with a 1.6 million dollar contribution to the intelligent design organization BioCosmos.  BioCosmos is calling for a more open debate on the power of materialistic processes in generating a highly ordered and fine-tuned universe, and life itself. As expected, the usual cast of characters expressed their discontent: Martin Jacobsen, theologian at Ansgar Theological College remarked that naturalists are best suited to tell us about nature; and theologians, about God. I think most would concur. Might we further this brilliant line of thinking, acknowledging that engineers (such as Mr. Rasmussen) are supremely qualified to tell us about designed and engineered systems? For more on this story Read More ›