Musings about games, religion, politics, and other forms of entertainment.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
A reply from Chuck Colson
In case you haven't been following, I received a book from Chuck Colson (of Christian apologetics and Watergate fame) a couple of months ago. I posted a critique of the book on the AE blog. He has just now written a response, which I acknowledged.
I love the way CC totally avoids your main point about the bias in his "study", the neccessity for stable employment to be counted asa graduate of the program. mmm selection bias much? I would be extremely surprised if the rate of recidivism was any lower for CCs gradutaes in employment against non-gradutes also in employment.
The second point of course which he doesnt address is the utility of religious faith does not = it's truth. This is a major D'Souza argument as well and totally off point. For just one reason, it may be interchanged with any other thing that has a similar impact eg: religious faith in monkeys stops people eating endangered monkeys - outcome more monkeys survive; building and protecting monkey habitats stops people eating endangered monkeys - outcome more monkeys survive. It can make no comment of itself as why you would pick one approach over the other.
Well, he promised more to come, and the "faith is knowledge" point was a major aspect of my letter. I am suspecting he'll get to that next, but we'll see.
You're right, the response to the study wasn't very good IMHO.
I love the way CC totally avoids your main point about the bias in his "study", the neccessity for stable employment to be counted asa graduate of the program. mmm selection bias much? I would be extremely surprised if the rate of recidivism was any lower for CCs gradutaes in employment against non-gradutes also in employment.
ReplyDeleteThe second point of course which he doesnt address is the utility of religious faith does not = it's truth. This is a major D'Souza argument as well and totally off point. For just one reason, it may be interchanged with any other thing that has a similar impact eg: religious faith in monkeys stops people eating endangered monkeys - outcome more monkeys survive; building and protecting monkey habitats stops people eating endangered monkeys - outcome more monkeys survive. It can make no comment of itself as why you would pick one approach over the other.
Well, he promised more to come, and the "faith is knowledge" point was a major aspect of my letter. I am suspecting he'll get to that next, but we'll see.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, the response to the study wasn't very good IMHO.