So, what you're saying is, millions of religious people need to be beaten with a dictionary? Typical. I know a bunch of secular academics who have the same problem.

(Sloppiness of meaning-transfer via language is really a problem, in the humanities; that's why random people can pull a Punk'd on a literary journal every now and hten, and publish a whole essay about nonsense.)

Also when Dawn returns to the party, kisses Tim, and leads him out by the hand. So effin sweet!

Yeah, that's a pretty much perfect moment.

I wonder if they heard how Lou Reed got kids to cry on his recording of Berlin.

That was Bob Ezrin, wasn't it? Who would let Lou Reed around children?

That's why the poll results are more sensationalistic than representive of trends in religion.

Well, except that this charge can be levelled at just about any poll, but polls are still (when done properly) useful and indicative of general trends.

I get what you're saying Cindy, but just because the poll answers don't quite apply to you specifically, that doesn't nullify the poll data.

I'm not a fan of meatloaf, but meatcake is certainly prettier.

I get what you're saying Cindy, but just because the poll answers don't quite apply to you specifically, that doesn't nullify the poll data.

I thought she was saying that the poll questions aren't useful--not that they're not useful to her, but that they mean too different things to everyone.

I thought she was saying that the poll questions aren't useful--not that they're not useful to her, but that they mean too different things to everyone.

What I'm saying is that charge can be levelled at any poll. All poll questions are like that, for pretty much any poll on any subject. And yet? Polls still produce useful data, when interpreted correctly.

What I'm saying is that charge can be levelled at any poll.

Sure. Any charge can be levelled at anything. However wrt to that claim and polls, the charge can be levelled with varying applicability. How ambiguous are the terms? How granular the definitions? Cindy considers the threshold for those questions, it seems, to be exceeded, and therefore she doesn't regard the results with confidence.

I have actually had someone say to me, "Well, I know I wasn't descended from some ape!"

That's odd. Both of my parents are apes. My grandparents were too. I wonder what his parentage was.

Hey Matt, any improvement with your dad?

Some in terms of mood, offset by greater physical weakness/shakiness and the frustration that goes with it as of last night and this morning. Still, we're now on more familiar ground. And as I said to Mom, I'll take frustrating problems over scary ones any day.

I can never decide if I'm more offended by Creationism and ID because it renders my entire profession and related fields useless, or if it amuses me more because of that...

Cindy considers the threshold for those questions, it seems, to be exceeded, and therefore she doesn't regard the results with confidence.

So then, how do we tell if the poll is giving bad data, because of bad questions, or if it's just one person taking issue with the results, but the poll and the data is still good?